Sweet Stuff at Hemphill

A must-see screenprinted master work is now on view at Hemphill Fine Arts in downtown D.C. Conceived by art heavyweight William Christenberry and printed by Corcoran's masterprinter Dennis O'Neill, the print demonstrates the versatility of our medium. Alabama Wall is formed by a grid of 32 mini-prints, each a unique interpretation of Christenberry's trademark "Tops" snuff advertisements. O'Neill's genius lies in his processes. Experimentation within each image, along with the dustings of coffee and micro-beads on to wet ink, propels the print to magnificent.

        

Dennis O'Neill

Dennis lives, breathes and talks screenprinting: "The screenprint has long been associated with its commercial cousin for making imagery that is bold and graphic, flat and hard edged. When screenprinting began to switch from solvent based to water-based technology over two decades its very nature began to change and expand as well.The screenprint today is a chameleon, borrowing freely from sculpture, painting and digital imagery, to name just a few of its influences. It has a capacity to adapt and alter as well as replicate everything it sees and touches."

Alabama Wall, detail. Granular additions evoke the impression of rust.

See the print, discover the secrets!

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William Christenberry
Assembled Memory
Hemphill Fine Arts
September 8 – October 27, 2012Hemphill Fine Arts
1515 14th Street
Washington, DC

Dennis O'Neill
presents his unique screenprint processes at the
Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair
Sunday, Nov. 18th, 2:00 - 2:45 pm
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center
8230 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD

Another Akman Achievement

The finished print.

Screenprint regular and art gym member Allan Akman has completed another one of his signature labor intensive prints; D.C. Blossoms. Allan keeps close tabs on his process, but is reluctant to state the number of colors, "because I re-printed some plates to change colors for shadows .... I didn't count reprints as additional colors in the plate counts."

Allan at work in the studio.

Hair splitting aside, word has it the count was somewhere between 30 and 38, including at least one split fountain, creating the gorgeous pastel sky gradation. Congratulations, Allan, and we look forward to the next masterpiece.

New T-shirt Printing Wheel

Jose Dominguez surveying Pyramid's newest resident.

Former intern Will Thomas has donated a 4-color t-shirt printing wheel to the screenprinting studio. The "Vidar" tabletop needs some elbow grease and TLC. A quick Google search shows this brand is no longer manufactured, so creativity is key. Any tinkerers  ready to get this gizmo going? We've got lots of t-shirt printers in the Society!

Aesthetic Apparatus at Play

Along the back wall of the Graphic Design: Now in Production show on Governors Island, NY, hangs a cascading array of glorious screened posters from the graphic design duo Aesthetic Apparatus.

Poster detail.

"Often considered Minneapolis' best totally unknown design super team, Aesthetic Apparatus was founded around 1999 in Madison, Wisconsin by Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski as a fun side project from their "real" jobs. Over the years their limited edition, screen printed concert posters have secretly snuck into the hearts and minds of a small, rather silent group of socially awkward music and design nerds."

Their genius idea: recycle and print on top of "make readies" (test prints). Not only a nod to green graphic design, their simple concept opens up our sometimes painstaking process to random juxtapositions. Give it a go, and see what happens!

Poster by Aesthetic Apparatus

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Graphic Design— Now in Production

On View: Saturday, May 26, 2012 to Monday, September 3, 2012

Open weekends and holiday Mondays, 10am to 6pm
Building 110, Governors Island, New York.
Free Admission.

The Warholy Grail

A mere 4 hour drive from D.C.,—through the rolling hills of rural Pennsylvania,—lies the payoff in Pittsburgh: The Andy Warhol Museum. Any screenprinter worth their salt understands the contribution of this extraordinary talent to our medium. Imagine my giddy response finding out my niece Claire had a summer internship at the museum. A trip ensued. I had visited previously in 1994, soon after it had opened. There were many new things to take in. Recent unfortunate events have tarnished its "Sandusky" street name. A hands-on room on the ground level has been created to demonstrate Andy's inventive processes. The screen printing station was the popular standout. Four friendly assistants handled the screens, in a constant motion of ink and sink. Another table stocked with coloraid paper and black acetates mimicked Warhol's invention of playing with color before he committed to a large work. He also carved his own rubber-stamps, then hand tinted the impressions with dyes—represented at yet a 3rd table. 

Of course the museum is an immense homage to one of America's greatest artists and conceptual thinkers, housing and exhibiting artworks, films, TV footage, personal possessions and his "time capsules"— over 600 identical cardboard boxes stuffed with items collected by Andy. Claire reports "apparently they've found some crazy stuff in them —$10,000 in cash once, pizza dough from the 80s, a photo of jackie o nude (!)." 

—Marty Ittner

Left to right from top: a pillow tries an escape from the mylar room, the 6 story museum in Pittsburgh's
North Shore neighborhood, a screen printing video in the activity area, playing with color and acetate,
Claire shows off her Warhol badge, the screenprint sink and available designs.

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The Andy Warhol Museum

117 Sandusky Street,

Pittsburgh, PA 15212-5890

Phone: 412.237.8300 

Screenprinting with African Immigrant and Refugee Foundation (AIRF) at Pyramid Atlantic

Intern Kate Horvat supervising a small screenprinter
muscle through a print

This Tuesday a group of eight girls came to Pyramid Atlantic from the American Immigrant and Refugee Foundation to participate in a whirlwind print exchange. Interns Amy Cousins and Kate Horvat showed the girls how to draw on films to expose onto screens. Highlights for the kids included putting their hands on the exposure unit as the vacuum seal kicked in as well as seeing their images magically appear at the washout station. Ah, the joys of screenprinting.

After demoing how to register and pull prints, we handed the reins over to the girls, and they were pros.

Each student produced an edition of eight prints which they brought back to AIRF to trade. Imagery in the editions ranged anywhere from mementos of their home country to silly faces to geometric abstraction, all in bold colors--true to the screen printing medium.

We may have made screenprinters of them yet!

CTRL + POW! @ AAC

Arlington Art Center's (aac) new exhibition CTRL + P is a must-see tour de force of cutting-edge printmaking. "Curators Kristina Bilonick and Julie Chae present the work of artists who are approaching this discipline through non-traditional processes, forms, and means of dissemination and distribution. The work is rooted in the tradition of printmaking, but crosses into and employs multiple disciplines, including installation, performance, film and new media." --aac

We zoomed in on all things screenprint, particularly artists pushing exciting new directions. CTRL + P is packed with screenprint risk-takers: screenprint collages, wheat-paste pants, a screenprint video installation, a 2-story scroll and a print made with raw pigment powder pushed through the screen. Prominently displayed in the main hall are Brian Chippendale's colorful screenprint collages (top). These multilayered masterpieces appear to be cut-out shapes from larger prints that are then adhered to board and paper. Don't miss Anthony Dihle's intimidating and amusing trouser trio Here Come the Pants (center) on the lower level (see his process here). Dihle notes the wheat-pasted silhouettes will be scraped off the wall at show's end (there go the pants!). To the left of the pants, a first for this blogger: a video screenprint animation by Jordan Bernier. (bottom).

On the first floor in the rear, Serena Perrone screen printed a complex and tranquil pattern on
a swath of cotton sateen in Biwa. Her craftsmanship is flawless and inspiring.

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CTRL + P

New Directions in Printmaking

June 22 - September 16, 2012

Arlington Arts Center

3550 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA

www.arlingtonartscenter.org



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