Printmaking can befuddle non-artists, because it is largely an indirect process that produces a series of multiple prints. All are called originals, not copies. And to add to the confusion, there are numerous ways to create a print: etching, lithography, engraving, woodcut and screenprinting, just to name a few.
Want to know more?
You are in luck. The Mid America Print Council (MAPC) has arrived here for its 2016 conference, “Print Matters, Printing Matters,” hosted by Indiana University Southeast and the University of Louisville. Many local galleries will have print exhibitions as part of the conference.
IU Southeast fine-arts lecturer and printmaker Donna Stallard is the person to thank for the conference coming here, working with printmakers Susanna Crum and Rachel Singel.
“This is a great chance for people to see what a print is and what a print can be,” said Singel, printmaker professor at UofL’s Hite Art Institute, “and not only learn about the history of printmaking, but also what is happening with printmaking today.”
There will be panel discussions, demonstrations and exhibitions as well as visits to local studios, including Brad Vetter Design, Hound Dog Press and Crum’s Calliope Arts Printmaking Studio & Gallery.
The keynote speaker at “Print Matters, Printing Matters” is Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Deborah Matis Lader will receive the Outstanding Printmaker award.
One-day and four-day passes are available in person during the conference at IU Southeast, as well as online. Exhibitions are free and open to the public, as are the vendor and publisher fairs.
The three conference organizers are also involved in exhibitions, either by coordinating, curating or showing work. Stallard’s solo exhibition “Journey” is at the Arts Council of Southern Indiana. Crum and her husband, printmaker Rodolfo Salgado Jr., partnered with Flame Run on its “Crystal Editions: An Intersection of Glass and Printmaking” show. Singel was involved in the “Making Matter” exhibition at Galerie Hertz.
“As head of the printmaking department at IU Southeast,” said Crum, “I’m especially excited for our students to expand their network of fellow printmakers and realize just how many artists are passionately engaged in printmaking … Many conference goers are students who will soon decide where they’d like to continue their artistic practice after graduation, and I hope that MAPC 2016 will encourage more artists to consider choosing our area as a place to make a living as an artist.” •
‘Print Matters, Printing Matters’ 2016 Mid America Print Council conference and exhibitions Wednesday, Oct. 5-8 mapc2016.org The gallery exhibitions are free and open to the public, with many on display during the Oct. 7 Republic Bank First Friday Hop and for extended periods.
21C MUSEUM HOTEL 21cmuseumhotels.com/louisville “Interventions: Re-Framing the Printed Image” – Through Dec. 31
849 GALLERY (KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN AT SPALDING UNIVERSITY) kentuckyschoolofart.org “Extended Family” — Through Oct. 8
ART SANCTUARY art-sanctuary.org “Tactility: Imprints and Traces” — Through Nov. 4
ARTS COUNCIL OF SOUTHERN INDIANA artscouncilsi.org “Journey” by Donna Stallard – Through Oct. 22 “Imaginary Prisons: Retelling Piranesi’s ‘Carceri d’Invenzione’” — Through Oct. 22
BARR GALLERY (INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST) ius.edu “Deborah Maris Lader: MAPC Outstanding Printmaker” — Through Oct. 30
CARNEGIE CENTER OF ART & HISTORY carnegiecenter.org Mid America Print Council Members Juried Exhibition — Through Oct. 15
FIRST BUILD firstbuild.com “Hybrid Printmakers: Post-Digital Printmaking Processes” — Through Oct. 28
FLAME RUN AT GLASSWORKS flamerun.com “Crystal Editions: An Intersection of Glass and Printmaking” — Through Nov. 17
FRANKFORT CROSSING STUDIOS 2132 Frankfort Ave. “Small, Medium and Large: Prints by Frankfort Crossings Printmakers and Friends” – Oct. 7-8
GALERIE HERTZ galeriehertz.com “Making Matter,” UofL Student Invitational Exhibition – Through Oct. 29
GREEN BUILDING GALLERY thegreenbuildinggallery.com “Of the North” – Through Oct. 28
HUFF GALLERY (SPALDING UNIVERSITY) spalding.edu/huff-gallery “Her/Hair” – Through Oct. 8
KAVIAR FORGE & GALLERY craigkaviargallery.com “Printmaking in Kentucky” – Through Oct. 29
KRANTZ ART GALLERY (JEFFERSON COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE) jefferson.kctcs.edu “Then and Now” – Oct. 5-Nov. 10
LIBRARY GALLERY (INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST) ius.edu Work of Indiana University Southeast printmaking program alumni — Through Nov. 15
MCGRATH ART GALLERY (BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY) bellarmine.edu “Signs and Signifiers” — Oct. 7-Nov. 6
PAUL PALETTI GALLERY paulpaletti.com “Print/Making” — Through January 2017
PORTLAND MUSEUM goportland.org “Imprint: Five Years of Carrier Pigeon Magazine” — Oct. 8
SCHNEIDER GALLERIES (UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE) louisville.edu/art “Mentors & Friends: Midwest Printmakers’ Networks” — Oct. 5-Nov. 4 “Steven Sorman: What Sticks to the Wall” — Oct. 5-Nov. 4
