Recent Print Acquisitions: The Workshop Portfolios

Robert Siegelman, Untitled, 11 1/4" x 10 1/8", relief: woodcut, Museum Purchase and Gift of Lauren Walters and Karen Cadenhead, and David Lax

Arcade Gallery

January 28 – April 16, 2006

Exhibition Opening: Friday, January 27, 2006 from 6 – 9 pm

Historically, printmaking has been a collaborative process, from the workshops of Rembrandt and Rubens to contemporary studios in which large, expensive presses must be shared or rented. The artist-run studios represented in The Workshop Portfolios foster a cooperative and experimental ethos that embraces the constant exchange of ideas inherent to such communal work spaces. The collection includes prints by members of the short-lived, but pivotal, Artist’s Proof studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1980–1984) and the active studios it inspired: Mixit Print Studios and Hand Press Workshop, both in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Workshop Portfolios include works by some of Boston’s most innovative printmakers, and provide an important sampling of printmaking in the Boston metropolitan area from 1980 – 2000.

Woodcuts, engravings, etchings, and lithographs are among the range of media included in this exhibition that highlights the studios’ broad output and Boston’s thriving printmaking community. A selection of 26 prints, from the total 76 acquired, will be on view to celebrate this important acquisition. Recent Print Acquisitions: The Workshop Portfolios is organized by Curatorial Fellow Dina Deitsch.

Artists included in the exhibition are Jan Arabas, Peggy Badenhausen, Louisa Bloomstein, Lei-sanne Doo, K.E. Duffin, Jason Duval, Marty Epp, Phyllis Ewen, Randy Garber, Jane Goldman, Peter Haines, Joel Janowitz, Joanna Kao, Catherine Kernan, Linda Kimmerling, Marcia Lloyd, Ilana Manolson, Melleta Marx, David Moore, Debra Olin, Jennifer Perry, Julia Shepley, Mary Sherwood, Heddi Siebel, Robert Siegelman, and Ellen Wineberg.

Randy Garber, Silence takes its Measure, 11" x 10", intaglio: stencil, photocopy transfer, ink-shellac lift, spitbite, line etch, aquatint, 2002.29h

Jennifer Perry, Mnemosyne II, 11 ½" x 10", intaglio: softground etch of stitched human hair, 2002.29x