Print Talks and Demos
Saturday 6 May, 10am – 3pm & Sunday 7 May 10am – 3pm
Opanuku Studio | Corban Estate Arts Centre | 2 Mt Lebanon Lane, Henderson, Auckland
A carefully curated selection of talks and demos will give an insight into a variety of different approaches to printmaking. Meet the artists and learn how they incorporate a particular print medium into their practice. Listen to the ideas, history and culture that have shaped the exciting developments in contemporary print in Aotearoa.
All talks and demos are free, no booking required. See below for the program.
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Keynote Speech: Dr Mark Dustin | On Screen
Saturday, 6 May, 10:00am – 10:45am | Free
Senior lecturer in Drawing and Printmaking at the University of Melbourne, Dr Mark Dustin will present his journey through printmaking from his time as a postgraduate student at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland; through to living, working, and teaching in Edinburgh, Scotland and consequently his current position in Melbourne, Australia.
Mark will give an overview of his time as the Head of the Drawing and Printmaking area at VCA School of Art (University of Melbourne) and the redesigning of the undergraduate curriculum alongside the extensive redevelopment of the Printmaking workshop to include a new screen-printing workshop. Mark will share his approaches to printmaking with a focus on promoting innovative and sustainable approaches to printmaking, particularly in the field of screen printing. Alongside this, Mark will introduce an overview of the wider printmaking landscape in Australia and the potential for connection with New Zealand artists.
Mark will also discuss his own practice which explores the ways in which images are used to shape our understanding of the world, and how this affects our everyday perception of reality. He often uses digital tools and processes to break down, manipulate, and re-examine the ways in which we consume and experience mediated images and the narratives that are associated with them. His practice engages with the place of the reproduced image as central to a shared experience of a wider perceived reality, and one that is fundamentally interconnected with consumption and the artificial.
Artist bio:
Mark Dustin is a Senior Lecturer in Drawing & Printmaking at the Victorian College of the Arts, at the University of Melbourne. He has exhibited widely throughout Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and Taiwan. His work is held in several private and public collections. Dustin holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland. He has been a finalist in a number of awards including The NZ Painting and Printmaking Awards, Geelong Print Awards, Fremantle Print Awards, Megalo International Print Prize, Swan Hill Print and Drawing Awards, Wyndham Art Prize and The Burnie Print Prize.
Dustin’s art practice engages with the place of the reproduced image as central to a shared experience of a wider perceived reality, and one that is fundamentally interconnected with consumption and the artificial.
Instagram: @markdustin
Talk: David Stuart | Colormaker and Sustainability
Saturday, 6 May, 11:00am – 11:45am | Free
David will speak about Colormaker Industries’ journey to becoming a sustainable manufacturer: the development of a solvent free ink in 2003/4, organic approval in 2012, installation of their solar array in 2019, electric delivery vans and EVs for staff, a big battery, reducing energy consumption, reducing waste and some of the steps being taken towards becoming a carbon neutral business by the end of 2024. David’s presentation will include Colormaker’s lived experience, some tips for other enviro-conscious businesses, some of the pitfalls along the way and the advantages to our planet of doing so. It’s one small step by a small manufacturer, as inspiration to others who may wish to follow suit.
Why use water-based Inks? And what is the PERMASET® Story?
As the art, craft, fashion and design worlds strive to tread more lightly on the Earth, practitioners are seeking more environmentally sustainable products, which are not only safer for the planet, but also safer for the artist to use. David will unpack the pros and cons of using water-based inks, and provide some insight into the PERMASET® story, and the company’s reason for being.
At the conclusion of his presentation, David will host a Q&A for 10-15 minutes.
Instagram: @permaset_aqua
Demo: Kyla Cresswell | Portable Printmaking: Intaglio Prints on a 3D Printed Press
Saturday 6 May | 12:00am – 12:45am | Free
What is a 3D printed press? How portable is it and what can it do? Come and see for yourself as artist Kyla Cresswell demonstrates printing drypoint on a 3D printed intaglio press. These presses were developed in Germany by the Open Press Project team to enable wider access to intaglio printmaking. With their 3D print plans available for free online, these presses can be created at home.
You will see Kyla printing from different plates and talking through the process of creating and inking a drypoint as well as options for adding colour to an intaglio print. These tiny presses will print relief blocks and monotype works too. Come and see the little press with big possibilities.
Artist bio:
Recently returned to the south (Ōtepoti/Dunedin) from Wellington, Kyla Cresswell is an artist who is beguiled by printmaking. Delighting in the burr of drypoint, the atmosphere of mezzotint and the subtle qualities of embossing, she produces small scale prints exploring the micro and macro of the natural world.
A graduate of the Otago School of Art, Kyla has also printed and taught in overseas galleries and print studios. Widely exhibited here and internationally, Kyla is the 2022/23 joint recipient of the William Hodges Fellowship.
Through her Little Prints printmaking workshops Kyla enjoys introducing others to the magic of print.
Facebook & Instagram: @kylacresswellartist Website: www.kylacresswell.com
Demo: Erinna Law | Eco printing
Saturday 6 May | 1:00pm – 1:45pm | Free
Eco printing is an accessible, sustainable way of printing without need for a press. Erinna Law will explain the process of how to create these unique one-of-a-kind prints including tips on which plants and flowers in your own gardens and the local environment will create the best natural dyes and which ones to avoid. There will be a discussion around how individuals can use eco printing to practice mindfulness and to enhance hauora (wellbeing).
Artist Bio:
Erinna Law is an artist based on Auckland’s North Shore whose work advocates for the preservation of flora and fauna. She became hooked on printmaking when living in London and studying the creative process at Kensington and Chelsea College.
Since 2019 her practice has focused on exploring eco printing due to the therapeutic element of the process, utilising the natural environment to create beautiful organic prints. As with traditional printmaking there is still the element of excitement when revealing the final print. She loves the accessibility this form of printmaking brings with the possibility to create eco prints at home without a press or using any toxic materials.
Instagram: @enazen_art
Talk: Steve Lovett BFA, MFA, M. ED.| What is Print For? A discussion about printmaking now and what informs it.
Saturday, 6 May, 2:00pm – 2:45pm | Free
At art school the persistent question asked among us art students was; Why print? Followed by; What is print for? Answering these questions in the classroom as a teacher, in my studio practice and my research writing has occupied the last 30 years of thinking and making.
In this presentation, I intend to address these questions from the point of view of both an art educator and a practitioner, referring to historical models and contemporary examples.
I will outline some historical models with printmaking history that determine the positioning of printmaking within broader fields of art practices. These concepts are often unchallenged or not thoroughly critiqued by curators and theorists who advocate for print. Deborah Wye, The senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Museum of Modern Art, for example, contrasts the alleged depth of painting with the flatness of print but avoids proposing alternative theoretical models for print.
Ruth Pelzer Montada a printmaker and theorist, proposes a theory of the haptic to explore aspects of contemporary printmaking. Montada’s theories of the haptic, Christiane Baumgartner’s observations of discernment, time and velocity. Helen Schmroth’s observations about narrative will be expanded to propose a language the printmaking practices as alternatives to the entanglements of history, pedagogical decisions and curatorial practices.
Artist Bio:
Steve Lovett is the Senior Technician in Print at Elam School of Fine Arts. From 1994 to 2016, he established and developed an interdisciplinary print research lab and curriculum at the Manukau Institute of Technology. Teaching and learning focus centred on understanding digital technology that could be applied in various ways to printed work.
Instagram: @stevelovett
Demo: Faith McManus | Bamboo Intaglio
Sunday 7 May | 10:00am – 10:45am | Free
Bamboo intaglio is a process that produces subtle organic marks. Faith McManus will demonstrate how to prepare a bamboo plate for intaglio printing. Her discussion will include tips on how to get the most out of Akua inks; an environmentally friendly, water-based ink that Faith prefers to use for it’s non-toxic properties.
Artist bio:
Faith McManus works from her studio in Te Kopuru looking out over the Northern Wairoa river. Much of her work investigates ideas about whakapapa, cultural memory and personal narrative. Her works veer between large colourful, pattern-based work to very painterly and fluid woodcuts, monoprints and small intaglio prints.
Instagram: @faithaprintmaker Facebook: Faith McManus NZ Printmaker
Talk: Gabrielle Belz, Vanessa Wairata Edwards, Faith McManus, Alexis Neal and Jasmine Horton | Toi Whakaata and the Pacific Print Project
Sunday, 7 May, 11:00am – 11:45am | Free
Toi Whakaata artists Gabrielle Belz, Vanessa Wairata Edwards, Faith McManus, Alexis Neal and Jasmine Horton will talk about the establishment of Toi Whakaata, who their members are and predominant exhibitions they have taken part in.
The Pacific Print Project is a stunning collection of work which will be on display at the festival. The panel will speak to the project’s inception, and process, including the online component and the printmakers that were involved in making it happen.
About Toi Whakaata:
The Toi Whakaata Māori Printmakers Collective, was established in Whanganui in 2006. Māori printmakers were identified and brought together by Vanessa Edwards and Mike Samuels, under the guidance of Gabrielle Belz. The original name was Toi WakaTAA which translated means to leave an artistic impression and spoke of the idea of introducing ink to mark making. The group emerged from a need to identify printmaking as a valid means of Māori artistic expression. Now Too WhakAATa which means reealaing to the light, the group aspires to enrich the print history of Aotrearoa and connect indigenous printmakers across the Pacific and beyond.
Instagram: @pacificprintproject Facebook: www.facebook.com/toiwhakaata
Website: www.pacificprintproject.co.nz
Talk: Dr Carole Shepheard | Stepping off the Cliff: the risks and rewards of print.
Sunday, 7 May, 12:00noon – 12:45pm | Free
A quick overview of Print in Aotearoa from the early Print Council up to now, will introduce this brief talk. Knowing the history of printmaking and identifying the key players is not only respectful but useful in providing some insights into why we occupy a marginal position, (an arguable comment) and what needs to be done to shift support, advocacy, and participation within mainstream art.
We will discuss and critique the current status of awards, prizes, exhibitions and art publications to see not only where we fit, but also where we belong creatively and where we can have the most impact. I will discuss the ethos of the edition, the hybrid print and how we need to use and accommodate new technologies and claim them as ourselves!
Recently deceased printmaker Hugh Merrill states that the print should be understood “as a fluid and vital means of expression rather than a secondary act of representation.” For me every print technology or process we use is a metaphor. What we have to decide is whether this is a primary or secondary function?
The title of this talk will hopefully give you some guidelines for what is needed to make print valued and sought after, not as a commodity but as an example of a rich culture.
Artist bio:
Since beginning her career as a printmaker in 1976 Carole Shepheard has worked across a variety of media, constantly exploring and developing her art practice while maintaining a strong advocacy for the place of printmaking in contemporary art.
2006 saw her take early retirement from the Elam School of Fine Arts where she was Professor of Fine Art and re-locate to Kāwhia. She set up Te Puti Art Studio for teaching community-based art and also as her own studio space. The move to Kāwhia has seen her return to printmaking where she continues to exhibit nationally and internationally.
Instagram: shepheardcarole Facebook: caroleshepheard1
Website: http://www.caroleshepheard.com
Talk: Leanne Radojkovich, Toni Mosley and Toni Hartill | Tactile Verse: Hand printed artists’ books from the Angela Morton Room
Sunday, 7 May, 1:00pm – 1:45pm | Free
The Angela Morton Room holds stunning hand printed Aotearoa artists’ books that have been made using fine art printmaking processes and letterpress printing, to more low-tech technologies such as wooden blocks, carved erasers, and jandals. These beautiful text/art collaborations have generated fresh ways to create books, and to experience reading them.
Artist and printmakers Toni Hartill and Toni Mosley, and librarian Leanne Radojkovich, will share examples of these beautiful, limited edition, hand-crafted books from the Angela Morton Room’s special collections.
See Beth Serjeant’s The Visionary, a pukapuka whose lithographs, printed from stones by Joan Taylor, won the 1989 BNZ Art Award; and PINE, a book of Bill Manhire’s poems and Ralph Hotere’s artworks which combines printing with wooden type, and hand-painted texts; and Judith Haswell’s POTSHERDS AND GERANIUMS, whose text was cut into erasers with tools made from razor blade slithers jammed into broken wooden chopsticks.
This is a unique opportunity to view twelve special hand printed books that demonstrate some of the ways makers have found to produce innovative, tactile, immersive books that are also works of art.
About Angela Morton Room Te Pātaka Toi Art Library:
Over 10,000 Aotearoa art books, journals and magazines are held in the Angela Morton Room Te Pātaka Toi Art Library. This is one of the largest publicly accessible reference collections of Aotearoa art books in the country. Founded in 1985 with a bequest from the family of the late North Shore resident Angela Morton, our collection has grown to hold materials for in-depth art history research, including 700 artist files, and for recreational use for the enjoyment of all library users. Open daily on Level 1 at Takapuna Library.
Instagram: @angelamorton.room @outofthecupboardnz Facebook: @outofthecupboardnz