But to find out about the gallery’s current artists — fine art photographers as well as printmakers — go to our website at www.washingtonprintmakers.com. You can read all about our events and exhibitions there. And follow us on social media too.

Pauline Jakobsberg
at Central Booking in NYC

This show called FUSION took place at the Central Booking Gallery in New York’s lower east side.  Three of my clothing pieces were chosen (This is the gallery right before the show opened) The New York art scene is like Marti Gras in New Orleans; everyone shows up at the receptions.  Lots of fun.

Pauline Jakobsberg

Artist Statement

The color monotypes on display for Observations are the results of my experimenting with a working method that is new to me. They are executed by working up an image in oil-based ink on a sheet of glass that is 59 x 35 x 5/16 and transferring the image to full sheets (22 x 30) of printmaking paper by hand rubbing the back of the paper.  I rely on a studio assistant to help with much of the cumbersome handling of full sheets of dampened paper, heavy glass and large improvised rollers.  The result, as the name monotype suggests, is a one-of-a-kind work. The rest of the pieces in the show, roughly half, are watercolors.

What I find interesting is that despite the two very different media, displayed side-by-side, it is surprisingly hard to tell which is which.  The work was done during roughly the same time period and I think the show hangs together as a unified body of work.  Not unexpectedly, the subject matter throughout remains consistent, mostly landscape featuring rural scenes from the time I have spent living in Virginia and Colorado.  A little surprisingly though, given the fact that the monotype medium doesn’t lend itself readily to time-consuming detail, the range of realism is also fairly consistent. Some watercolor passages do display a capacity to be more focused than the monotypes, which by contrast lean towards an energetic spontaneity at times.  One unintentional, but welcome quality of this set of monotypes, is the diffused airiness of their light, a trait they may have acquired as a result, at least in part, to their having been hand rubbed onto slightly textured western papers rather than the thinner smooth-surfaced oriental papers more commonly used with hand rubbed prints.

Deron DeCesare

Monotypes – Cultural Discoveries through Color and Repetition
March 4-29, 2015

Kristine DeNinno, winner of the 2014 National Small Works juried exhibition and a new member of the gallery, is exhibiting a series of prints at WPG through March 29.

In a series of multilayered monotypes, she invites the viewer into an abstract space immersed in varying layers of texture, color and form. The prints are large in scale and leave much room for the observer’s own narrative and interpretation.

Kristine describes her approach: “I am fascinated with the manipulation of a two-dimensional surface to create a dialogue with three-dimensional space. The qualities of form, depth, and materiality of painting, design, and drawing inform each of my prints.”

In addition to being a busy studio artist, Kristine is deeply committed to her work teaching in local community settings.  In the photo shown here she can be seen with students at THE ARC Community Center, a year-round museum outreach program that works with D.C. youth and families. (On the corner of the table you can see her little printing press she travels with.)

 

Kristine, who has also worked for several years in the field of Interior Design, holds a BA in Studio Art and is completing her Master’s degree in Teaching from the Corcoran College of Art and Design/GWU.

More information about the exhibit can be found on our web site.

Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5.

Pauline was invited to exhibit her Legacy work at the Holocaust Museum, Houston October 30^th 2014 through June 14^th 2015.

The exhibit Birthrights Left Behind displayed in the Museum’s Central Gallery is dedicated to her late husband and her children who lovingly continue to support her in this endeavor.

As Pauline began her Legacy work, she wanted to avail the full richness and variety of print media and wanted the prints to perform a twofold function. First to bear witness to her subjects and their stories by memorializing them and also to simultaneously express the bitter fact that our human impulse to know and remember our past can never be completely fulfilled. Determined to create a permanent impression with her audience, Pauline uses her prints full of tenderness, caring and humanity balanced with pathos and grief to ask the question “Is it possible to shape the future through memories of the past?” Inspired by memory drawings, journal sketches, artifacts and family tales told by the Holocaust survivors of her late husband’s family, Pauline has created art that leaves sweet, yet haunting memories making her visions a reality. By incorporating images from photographs and other documents into her etched prints, she develops a story. “I believe that creating images of people now gone or maybe never known, renews their lives and gives substance to their memory.”

Two days before the reception Pauline was asked to participate in the Museum’s Docent Training program which required talking about her art in detail to the Museum’s ninety five docents. For the artist the experience was a great refresher tool, going back to why one does the art to begin with, the actual creation and what message the artist would like their audience to take home. The evening of October 30^th was a beautiful reception served by a Danish chef followed by Pauline’s presentation in the Museum’s auditorium. The Director, staff members and Museum donors were present and went out of their way to make the artist feel at home. Pauline has been invited back, possibly in May, for a program that is in conjunction with Syracuse University students.

Depicta by Matina Marki Tillman

From October 26th to November 8th 2014, Melbourne meets New York in the Joint Exhibition of Intaglio Prints under the title 40° 42’ N / 37° 48’ S at the National Arts Club in New York City. Matina Marki Tillman will participate with “Depicta,”one of her solarplate etchings of real or imagined graffiti preserving messages nearly lost in the human landscape. In this particular print the messenger (Greek “angelos”) appears with his comment on a New York City street. The exhibition was sponsored by the New York Society of Etchers, with juror Dr. Sean Corcoran, Curator of Prints and Photographs, Museum of the City of New York. “Depicta” will also be shown at the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the upcoming November member’s exhibition.

Earlier this fall, Matina participated in another New York City show, the Hudson Valley Art Association’s 82nd Annual Juried Exhibition, where her print “Arabesque” was selected for the Perry Alley Memorial Award. The show took place from September 20th to the 26th at the Salmagundi Club Gallery on 5th Avenue in New York. This annual juried exhibition strives to preserve the character, craftsmanship, and respect for the natural form, color and design which distinguish fine arts, and encourages artists’ participation with a wide variety of media.

They don’t let Carmen dance

Arabesque

Artist member Matina Marki Tillman will have prints on display in two national exhibitions during August and September.

“They don’t let Carmen dance,” a solarplate etching that carries on the artist’s series of charcoal drawings on vellum directly etched onto solarplates, is currently on display in the Northwest Area Arts Council’s Real People 2014, a show dedicated to the human figure and portraiture (Aug. 7 through Sept. 28). This recent work is the artist’s homage to the uncompromised female, as portrayed in two of her lifelong inspirations, Bizet’s opera, Carmen, and Kakoyiannis’ film Stella. Also this fall, “Arabesque,” the first of this series of etchings, will be hosted in the Salmagundi Club gallery in New York City for the Hudson Valley Art Association’s 82nd National Juried Exhibition running from Sept. 20-26.

“They don’t let Carmen dance” was also featured in the inaugural Washington Printmakers Gallery member’s exhibition at the new Georgetown gallery space in July. With the upcoming Hudson Valley show, prints from the “Arabesque” edition will be appearing in their sixth national exhibition in two years, including venues at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee; the Museum of Printing History in Houston, Texas; and the New York Society of Etchers national intaglio exhibition in New York’s National Arts Club gallery. This September, “Arabesque” will travel home to be included in the member’s show in WPG’s new gallery.

Diane Alire “Shaded”

From July 30th – August 31st, 2014, Washington Printmakers Gallery presents the 17th Annual National Small Works Exhibition. This exhibition displays thirty non-members’ works originating from across the country and selected by juror Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of the Katzen Center at American University. Running concurrently is the solo exhibition Waiting for Godot by the 2013 grand prizewinner, Diane Alire. Alire’s exhibition features twenty unique photogravures, which “juxtapose and layer the female and male figures with landscapes, images of walls, graffiti, and textures found in natural and urban settings.”

Alire’s work explores the human figure in artistic ways. She makes the figure a part of landscape and the world around it. Portraiture and landscape come together to create contemporary prints that surprise and challenge the viewer. Her 2013 Small Works prizewinning piece, Waiting for Godot, sets the tone for the exhibition. This piece explores the costumed female dancer figure, while the rest of the exhibition explores figures in the nude, particularly Shaded. Shaded juxtaposes a female nude, waist up, against a window. The female and window alternate foreground with background, and in a sense, the piece surrenders those two labels. In one way, the female is the subject in the window, and in another way, the female stands before the window. How are human figures reflected in our surroundings and how do our surroundings house those figures? Alire contrasts soft human curves against hard angular structures. Shaded acts as a window into the artistic mind where wall and figure combine to create one subject matter, which Alire masters.

While Alire’s exhibition explores similar themes in various interpretations, this year’s National Small Works Exhibition takes on many artists with unique themes, few which are similar. From pears to numbers, the Small Works exhibition exemplifies subjects’ and printmaking’s variety and potential. Elizabeth Dove’s All Letters demonstrates the many levels that make a print. Dove layers letters A – Z to create a simple yet complex print. Solely black and white, this print allows the letters to act as the work’s main focus. The artist takes a familiar concept, letters of the alphabet, and makes it art. She complicates and plays with our preconceived idea of what the alphabet should look like on paper. In this print, components of literature become art and art becomes literature. Much like Diane Alire’s works, All Letters plays with two concepts that become one.

Diane Alire “Push”