Proof: South Florida Printmakers

“Proof”

29 January to March 7, 2010

Opening Reception: Friday, 29 January, 2010 – 7:30 p.m.-to-10 p.m.

Gallery Walk Reception: Saturday, 13 February, 2010 – 7:30 p.m.-to-10:30 p.m.

Artists:

Kari Synder
Kathleen Hudspeth
Tom Virgin
Diane Arrieta
Jonathan Thomas
John Cutrone
Seth Thompson
Andrew Binder
Brian Reedy

“Proof”

“Proof” teams writers and artists to create editions of literary broadsides and artist’s prints. In some cases the artist responded to words provided by the writer; some writers produced new work after conversations with the artist; and still other pairs worked closely together to produce new collaborative works. This intersection of word, image and the process of creative dialogue are at the heart of “Proof.”

[Below: Preview Opening, 29 January, 2009]

Tom Virgin

Tom Virgin

Making and teaching art occupy most of the time that I am awake. Process is very important to my work; the nature of making woodcut prints (my primary images) is time consuming. Because it is a traditional process that is not widely used, I also teach relief printmaking, so that it will be around in the future. The multifaceted aspect of my creative practice that includes public art and residencies (National Parks, Historical Buildings, small towns, etc.), also embraces the authenticity of American traditions, craftsmanship and skills that are handed down.

Tom Virgin
“Burn” © 2009
letterpress/broadsheet
18 x 12 in.

Tom Virgin
“INDU: Commensalists and Hand Me Downs: Vulture” © 2009
woodcut
20 x 16 in.

Tom Virgin
“INDU: Commensalists and Hand Me Downs: HQ”  © 2008
woodcut
20 x 16 in.

Tom Virgin
“INDU: Commensalists and Hand Me Downs: Creek (Kintzele Ditch)” © 2008
woodcut
20 x 16 in.

John Cutrone and Seth Thompson

John Cutrone and Seth Thompson

Since 2001, [John Cutrone and Seth Thompson] have been driving forces at Florida Atlantic University’s Jaffe Center for Book Arts . . . with the sole regret that that work, as satisfying as it is, leaves little time for their own presswork. Patience is a good thing to cultivate. For better or for worse, this team is perhaps best known for its own stories of Lake Worth and its quirky inhabitants, sent out into the world electronically via The Convivio Dispatch, an occasional e-newsletter from the press.

John Cutrone and Seth Thompson
“Occident to Orient by Zaid Shlah
(Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project)”
12 x 18 in.

John Cutrone and Seth Thompson
“Occident to Orient by Zaid Shlah
(Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project)”

12 x 18 in.

John Cutrone
“Dad’s Apple”
letterpress/monoprint
9.5 x 12 in.

John Cutrone
“A Bailey White Broadside”
letterpress, hand colored
9.5 x 12 in.

Kari Synder

Kari Synder

Miami is a tropical landscape as well as a bustling city.  Exotic plants and amazing animals coexist and clash with our everyday existence.  This daily duality of city and jungle goes unnoticed by the city’s human inhabitants, distracted by our own thoughts and tasks. Although we may not make note of these inconsequential observations, the visual and sensorial imprints of this underlying natural world linger in our subconscious minds. This series of “city animals” highlights some of the everyday dismissed disdained and disregarded co inhabitants of our living environments.

Kari Synder
“Grackle (2 on white paper)” © 2009
Engravings
12 x 12 in. (unframed)

Kari Synder
“Pigeon” © 2009
Engraving and Gouache
15 x 23 in.

Kari Synder
“Squirrel” © 2009
Engraving and Vintage Dress Pattern
16 x 15 in. (unframed)

Kari Synder
“Rough Green Tree Snake” © 2009
Engraving and Gouache
18 x 30 in.

Brian Reedy

Brian Reedy

Brian Reedy
“Minotaur” © 2009
woodcut
40 x 60 in.

Brian Reedy
“Sky Palace” © 2009
woodcut
40 x 60 in.

Diane Arrieta

Diane Arrieta

My preferred medium is illustration. I work mostly with illustration digitally colored. For me this references the genre of comic book art, which I have been a fan since I was little. Utilizing this style draws people in because they are bright and inviting. By the time the viewer is committed to looking at the work, the unexpected subject matter taps into human emotion.

Kathleen Hudspeth

Kathleen Hudspeth

The culture of printmaking is an important influence on the works in this exhibition. Though many of the works are prints, none is part of an identical edition; Hudspeth exploits the possibilities of the multiple in such a way as to rephrase and reframe visual statements in order to better build an internal language of meaning. Engraving, lithography, mezzotint, etching and silkscreen are used together with collage to both evoke and undermine art-historical traditions. Methods are combined, artifacts from the printmaking process, such as pin and registration holes, remain in the works, the contemporary photo-litho technique is used to reproduce hand-drawn imagery—intentionally without the assistance of digital processes, and media which are static and sticky are used to depict fluid, painterly marks.

Kathleen Hudspeth?“You Subvert Me” @ 2008
Silkscreen, litho and monotype.
Framed, with UV plexi
22 x 30 in.

Kathleen Hudspeth
“Swarm Mélange” @ 2008
Silkscreen and monotype
Framed, with UV plexi
10.5 x 15 in.

Andrew Binder

Andrew Binder

The origin of my art is derived with a fascination with drawing, drawing mediums and the human form. Over time this fascination led me to explorations about the stuff of humanity in the still life genre, and finally the integration of figures, still life, and landscape, using pastels and other colored media.

As an artist I am primarily interested in books and book forms, because I am fascinated with the byplay between the complexity of the information that can be packed into a book’s contents, and the shear simplicity of traditional book forms. I am also fascinated by the interaction of image and text, and the movement between pages that force the viewer to be gently manipulated into an artist’s vision.

In my imagery I am moving away from the traditional collage techniques of appropriation and attempting to expand my artistic vision by taking my own original source material like Robert Rauschenberg did in his international series. In other words, I am making a world spanning archive of personal images that reference the collective gestalt of humanity, to use in my original art making. Rather than just appropriating photographic images.

Andrew Binder
“War and Health” © 2009
Etching with Collage and hand Coloring
Print size 11 X 15 in.
Frame size 16 X 20 in.

Andrew Binder
“Lady Colle’” © 2009
Etching printed on Inkjet print, with the Chine Colle’ method
Print size 11 X 15 in.
Frame size 16 X 20 in.

Andrew Binder
“Jump” © 2009
Lithograph, Stencil Color, Xerograph, ?Rubber Stamps, and Hand Coloring
Print size 11 X 15 in.
Frame size 16 X 20 in.

Jonathan Thomas

Jonathan Thomas

From the material I collect, I perform various strategies of image manipulation defined by collage, dissection, re-contextualization, free-association, and ultimately transformation. Through this process I am able to address my interest in the contradictions and ambiguity of visual culture. The majority of this activity is cast through the prism of printmaking, and as a result, is heavily invested in concepts inherent to print media; repetition, multiplicity, layering, sequence, misdirection, ghosting, binary systems of thought and reversals. Prints are residue, traces of information, tracks in the snow.  A print is never an isolated object. There is an innate reference to the source of its creation and the ability for that source to recreate at a different time. This issue addresses the manner in which afterthought and forethought convolute to create our immediate reality. This concept is the structure through which I explore the fragility of memory, the cracked logic of dreams and the gap between perception and actuality.