Platemark Podcast

10/22/2024

In s3e66 of Platemark, I talk with Jennifer Roberts, an art historian and professor at Harvard, about her latest book, Contact: Art and the Pull of Print, which explores the intersection of conceptual and technical richness in print. Jennifer's book offers a fresh perspective on printmaking, synthesizing simple maneuvers like reversal and pressure to account for the medium's expansive influence. Based on her acclaimed Mellon Lectures (link below) delivered during the pandemic, the book is both conversational and accessible, aiming to engage a wide audience beyond the traditional confines of print expertise.

In our conversation, Jennifer shares insights from her 20+ years of teaching where she is famous for a long-looking-at-objects assignment (3 hours!) and integrates studio and theoretical learning. Additionally, Jennifer discusses an exciting collaboration with artist Dario Robleto. They are writing a book together that delves into the fascinating realm of printed sound, specifically examining the Golden Record—a phonographic record sent into space on the Voyager probes. This project exemplifies Jennifer's penchant for exploring the intersections of materiality, meaning, and communication within both earthly and cosmic contexts, as well as the intersections of art, science, and the evolution of visual culture.

Jennifer’s book is a must read. Contact introduces a new way of thinking about print, and truthfully, this conversation is one of the key interviews we’ve done here at the pod.

Contact: Art and the Pull of Print, 2024
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691255859/contact-art-and-the-pull-of-print?srsltid=AfmBOoq_6iSOwrkK9suakEqQRn7TWwBvOj4zyh0Gf3zLcw4gvTpA2uC3

Mellon Lectures, National Gallery of Art
https://www.nga.gov/research/casva/meetings/mellon-lectures-in-the-fine-arts/roberts-2021.html

You can listen to Platemark or watch a video version. Links to all the possibilities are on the episode page at www.platemarkpodcast.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter-emails, which alert you to new episodes and occasional other stuff. And, do me a favor and leave us a review. It really helps people find the pod.

09/21/2024

Upcoming Platemark guest Jennifer Roberts' Harvard students are assigned a three-hour looking session with one work of art. The NYT has picked up on it and suggests you try to look at a painting (naturally) for ten minutes.

Let me know how it goes.

It’s very hard to slow down and look closely at something. You may find it’s worth it.

09/10/2024

It's episode-drop day here at Platemark.

In this episode, I talk with renowned printmaker Jenny Robinson who recently opened up her eponymous print shop in Sydney, Australia.

Jenny shares her experiences moving from America to Slovenia during the Trump era, integrating into Slovenia's printmaking community, and ultimately relocating to Sydney, Australia, to establish her print studio. We talk about the challenges of getting different materials and the cultural contrasts in the art scenes of America, Europe, and Australia, backing and seaming prints with gampi (thanks to Paul Mullowney’s tutelage), flying with rolled prints in golf bags (for free!), and the Mario Avati Prize, which led to a one-person exhibition in the Institut de France in Paris, across the river from the Louvre.

The episode also touches upon the extensive network and collaborative spirit of printmakers and Jenny's summer residency at Flatbed Press in Austin, TX. Throughout the conversation, Jenny emphasizes the significance of artist visits, educational resources in art, and her ambitions for large-scale prints and workshops in her new Sydney studio.

08/27/2024

Hot of the presses! It's episode-drop day here at Platemark Central.

In s3e63, hos Ann Shafer talks with collaborative printer Peter Pettengill. Peter founded Wingate Studio in 1985 on his family’s dairy farm in Hinsdale, NH, where it remains. Originally trained at Crown Point Press, Peter specializes in multi-plate color etchings. Now semi-retired, Peter’s son James has taken over the operating of the shop, though Peter lends a hand when requested.

They talk about printing for Sol LeWitt and John Cage, the on-the-spot creative powers of Walton Ford, and working alongside son James, and so much more.

08/13/2024

It's episode-drop day here at Platemark Central.

It's time for another installment of our five-part mini-series in which I'm talking to five artists who were selected to be included in an exhibition called 5X5 that was part of Print Austin's winter festival this year in 2024. The juror of the show was Mysczka Lewis, who is a curator at Tandem Press and whose taste I respect. Next up is Teresa Cole, an artist and printmaker from New Orleans. She has taught at Tulane University for nearly thirty years.

Teresa’s interest in the humanness of pattern has been a throughline in her work and she incorporates different cultures’ methods of patternmaking and storytelling in beautiful installations. In our conversation, we talk about orizome (a Japanese method of folding and dyeing paper), commissioning printed fabric for saris in India, printing on aluminum mesh, and Tulane’s tuition-free MFA program.

You can listen to Platemark or watch a video version. Links to all the possibilities are on the episode page at www.platemarkpodcast.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter-emails, which alert you to new episodes and occasional other stuff. And, do me a favor and leave us a review. It really helps people find the pod.



USEFUL LINKS
Teresa’s website: https://teresacole.net/artist/
Callan Contemporary: https://www.callancontemporary.com/artists/teresa-cole
IG:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/teresa.cole.9889

08/12/2024

Here's something exciting for the printmaking ecosystem. If you've been following along, you know Brian Miller and I have accomplished two iterations of the Baltimore Fine Art Print Fair so far. Stay tuned for an announcement of the next Baltimore fair, which will occur in October 2025.

In the meantime, Brian and I are working with Luther Davis and his team to bring a new print fair to Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn next spring. The Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair will occur March 27-30, 2025 in Gowanus at Powerhouse Arts's incredible building.

I'm in search of print shops, publishers, and galleries to join us in the regular type of booth you expect at a fair. But, we are also offering tables to book-arts purveyors, individual (print) artists, and university printmaking departments and presses.

We all believe in increasing sales/showing opportunities for smaller presses, colleges/universities, and individual artists, and that more fairs are better. We are excited to run parallel to the IFPDA print fair during NY Print Week, March 27-30, 2025.

DM me for details if you are interested in participating and want more details.

It's gonna be awesome!

PS, if you haven't taken a tour of Powerhouse Arts's facility, you absolutely need to. Public tours are listed on their website.

07/30/2024

It's episode-drop day here at Platemark Podcast.

Ever wondered how far you can take chine collé in a project? This episode will provide an answer. Listen in as Annalise Gratovich tells us all about this method of adding thin pieces of hand-dyed papers to her giant woodcuts.

In s3e61 of Platemark, I continue my conversations with artists included in Print Austin’s 5x5 exhibition, juried by Myzska Lewis, a curator at Tandem Press. Next up is artist Annalise Gratovich who works in woodcut primarily (and etching), and is best known for her monumental woodcuts with multiple dyed papers glued down by chine collé.

We take a deep dive into the ins and outs of chine collé, her Ukranian heritage and inherited trauma, cuteness as a means to help viewers access difficult subjects, and her recent battle with a mystery autoimmune disease.

You can listen to Platemark or watch a video version. Links to all the possibilities are on the episode page at www.platemarkpodcast.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter-emails, which alert you to new episodes and occasional other stuff. And, do me a favor and leave us a review. It really helps people find the pod.

07/23/2024

HoP part two of The Enlightenment is here!

The Enlightenment marks the beginning of the modern world and publications on human anatomy changed the way artists understood their place in it. Check out these examples of life-changing images brought to you by prints in books!

In s2e31 of Platemark’s History of Prints series, Tru and I continue our discussion of the Enlightenment. This time we look at several publications that put forward new discoveries about human anatomy: William Hunter’s The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, Bernhard Siegfried Albinus’ Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani, and Jacques Fabien Gautier d’Agoty’s Myologie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle. We conclude with Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, a 17-volume tome that attempted to define and codify all of human knowledge.

At the end of the episode, we wax philosophical about how incredible this blossoming of human knowledge is, and how talking about it makes each of us think about our place as humans on the planet. It gets a bit deep, but I think it's worthwhile.

You can listen to Platemark or watch a video version. Links to all the possibilities are on the episode page at www.platemarkpodcast.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter-emails, which alert you to new episodes and occasional other stuff. And, do me a favor and leave us a review. It really helps people find the pod.

07/16/2024

Our history of prints series is back! In s2e30 Tru introduces the concept of the Enlightenment.

In Platemark’s History of Prints series, we are leaving the Baroque behind and are turning to the Enlightenment. The late seventeenth and eighteenth century is a fascinating time when social ideas focused on the value of knowledge in all sectors. Rationalism and empiricism led to the scientific revolution, the separation of church and state, literary salons, and for the purposes of this episode, the centralization of artistic instruction through art academies and Salon exhibitions.

The era saw the establishment of taxonomies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and studies of foreign cultures. The results of all of these studies led to both good and bad. Tru and I discuss alternate terms for the era beyond the Enlightenment: the Endarkenment and the Enwhitenment. Listen in as we parse out this fascinating moment in history.

You can listen to Platemark or watch a video version. Links to all the possibilities are on the episode page at www.platemarkpodcast.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter-emails, which alert you to new episodes and occasional other stuff. And, do me a favor and leave us a review. It really helps people find the pod.

07/16/2024

New Episode! "s2e30 History of Print The Enlightenment (part one)"

In Platemark’s History of Prints series, we are leaving the Baroque behind and are turning to the Enlightenment. The late seventeenth and eighteenth century is a fascinating time when social ideas focused on the value of knowledge in all sectors....

In Platemark’s History of Prints series, we are leaving the Baroque behind and are turning to the Enlightenment. The late seventeenth and eighteenth century is a fa…

07/02/2024

New Episode! "s3e60 Ron Rumford, dealer"

In s3e60 of Platemark, podcast host Ann Shafer speaks with Ron Rumford, director of Dolan/Maxwell, a private gallery in Philadelphia. Dolan/Maxwell deals in 20th century art, with a particular specialty in the prints of Stanley William Hayter and the...

In s3e60 of Platemark, podcast host Ann Shafer speaks with Ron Rumford, director of Dolan/Maxwell, a private gallery in Philadelphia. Dolan/Maxwell deals in 20th ce…

06/18/2024

Hurrah! It's episode-drop day here at Platemark central.

In s3e59, Platemark host I sit down with David Avery to talk shop. David is an etcher, who restrains his work in both size and palette, but manages to tackle big topics. His social commentary is stinging and remarkable in that it comes in such a small package. These etchings pack a punch.

We talk about absurdist literature, standing on the shoulders of giants (Dürer, Max Klinger, Della Bella), how prescient Goltzius’s Disgracers are, and how we could never have imagined the state of our politics—reality is outstripping our imaginations.

Check out all the listening/watching options at platemarkpodcast.com. If you value the content we produce, click Support and Donate on the website. If nothing else, tell a friend about the awesome podcast you are listening to hosted by your favorite print evangelist. Appreciate all the support!

06/18/2024

New Episode! "s3e59 David Avery, artist"

In s3e59, Platemark host Ann Shafer sits down with David Avery to talk shop. David is an etcher, who restrains his work in both size and palette, but manages to tackle big topics. His social commentary is stinging and remarkable in that it comes in...

In s3e59, Platemark host Ann Shafer sits down with David Avery to talk shop. David is an etcher, who restrains his work in both size and palette, but manages to tac…

06/17/2024

Regret not submitting for NEXT 2024 (the exhibition I juried and was just in Houston for)? You have another chance to show me what you've got. I'm jurying the Washington Printmakers Gallery National Small Works exhibition. Deadline for submission is JULY 7.

Here's the URL: https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=13584

06/04/2024

I marvel at the fact that I can talk with an artist in Latvia or Australia without a second thought. Today's hot-off-the-press episode takes us to Poland and the studio of Anna Trojanowska.

In s3e58 of Platemark, I continue talking with artists included in Print Austin’s 5x5 exhibition, juried by Myzska Lewis, a curator at Tandem Press. Today you'll meet Anna Trojanowska, an artist and lithographer from Wroclaw, Poland. Anna creates collages made from lithographs, which she creates on a single marble slab in her garage studio. The works included in 5x5 seek to give the feeling of echolalia, a form of autism in which words and phrases are repeated over and over. That repetition is a central part of the collages and gives the feeling of uncontrolled reverberation.

We talk about falling in love with lithography, what it’s like to use marble instead of limestone, how the veins in marble wander as the stone is ground down, how to translate sound into images, and the surprise technique she would turn to if she had to give up lithography.



Anna's website: https://litografia.pl/en/authors/

06/04/2024

New Episode! "s3e58 Anna Trojanowska, artist and professor"

In s3e59, Platemark host Ann Shafer continues talking to artists included in Print Austin’s 5x5 exhibition, juried by Myzska Lewis, a curator at Tandem Press. Second up is Anna Trojanowska, an artist and lithographer from Wroclaw, Poland. Anna...

In s3e59, Platemark host Ann Shafer continues talking to artists included in Print Austin’s 5x5 exhibition, juried by Myzska Lewis, a curator at Tandem Press. Secon…

05/21/2024

It's episode-drop day here at Platemark headquarters.

In s3e57, I had the pleasure of speaking with Karen Kunc, an artist who manipulates reduction woodcuts in an amazing and unique way. Karen is a retired professor from the University of Nebraska, and is owner of Constellation Studios in downtown Lincoln. At the studio, which opened ten years ago, Karen offers workshops, curates exhibitions, and makes her own work. The studio includes equipment for papermaking, book arts, letterpress, and other means of creating prints.

Karen’s work includes relief prints and artist books reflecting her signature nature-based lyrical abstraction. These images could be macro or micro: the biomorphic shapes could be aerial images of her native Nebraska, or the wiggles and squiggles could be forms held within our cells. Each print becomes a portal to an alternate reality, where the boundaries between the tangible and the intangible blur, inviting us to explore the complexities of our earthly domain.

This all sounds simple, but Karen’s process is anything but. She uses stencils, fingers, hands, brushes and any other tool to gain amazing transitions between forms. Plus, she intuitively solves compositional challenges as she goes. Karen is an artist's artist whose groundbreaking woodcuts will amaze and delight you.

Check out all the listening/watching options at platemarkpodcast.com. If you value the content we produce, click Support and Donate on the website. If nothing else, tell a friend about the awesome podcast you are listening to hosted by your favorite print evangelist. Appreciate all the support!

05/21/2024

New Episode! "s3e57 Karen Kunc"

In s3e57, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Karen Kunc, an artist who manipulates reduction woodcuts in an amazing and unique way. Karen is a retired professor from the University of Nebraska, and is owner of Constellation Studios in...

In s3e57, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Karen Kunc, an artist who manipulates reduction woodcuts in an amazing and unique way. Karen is a retired professor …