PrintAustin 2017: A Sampler

Karen Kunc’s Place Naming

Woodcut. Linocut. Drypoint. Aquatint. Mezzotint. Etching. Monoprint. Screenprint. Lithograph. Photogravure … so many different printmaking techniques on display in PrintAustin, the annual art banquet that takes advantage of the city's wealth of and need to make "original multiples," as PrintAustin co-founder Elvia Perrin calls prints. With more than 30 venues showing prints of all kinds in this year's showcase, running through Feb. 15, it can be difficult to know where to start to get a representative sense of the varied processes. It's like trying to make a selection from a menu full of wines made in regions you don't know from grapes you've never heard of. Well, as our friends in the hospitality industry have ameliorated that actual situation with the wine flight, a cunning little sampler of vinos that provide the customer with a range of types and tastes, we've taken a page from their wine list for PrintAustin 2017. Our print flight offers four exhibitions that cover a variety of printmaking techniques, plus a panel discussion on printmaking techniques. And for convenience's sake, they're all located in the same building: the Flatbed complex at 2832 E. MLK.

"Karen Kunc + Monika Meler"

Monika Meler's Tower

The pairing of works by Kunc and Meler allows viewers to see how both artists employ vibrant colors to capture the eye and develop a sense of intimacy, but they also provide the opportunity to see how the former's large-scale woodcuts and the latter's monotypes, diffused relief prints, and hand cut stencil relief prints play off one another. Kunc's work finds its hues and tactile sensations in the natural world, while Meler's curved geometric shapes and fragile, fraying patterns are sourced from places the artist remembers from her childhood in Poland and emigration to the U.S.

"Orna Feinstein: Treetopia"

Orna Feinstein's Seeds and Seductions

Feinstein's follow-up to last year's "Matter, Material, & Metaphor," her first solo show at CAMIBAart, features work from two recent series, Seeds and Seductions and Translucentree, as well as their progeny, the Treetopia series. All draw inspiration from the natural world and organic matter and are layered in form. Feinstein favors the monoprint process by which she can create unique images through printing on nontraditional materials – say, fabrics, wood, or Plexiglas, which Feinstein will sometimes alter in shape by heating or bending – to add texture and dimension, and then painting on the print.

"Jay Bolotin: The Book of Only Enoch"

Jay Bolotin's Book of Only Enoch IV Provision

Twenty woodcut and relief etchings, plus selected plates used to create the prints, relate the dreamlike adventures of the son of the only Jewish coal miner in Kentucky – his surname is taken from a figure in the biblical apocrypha who "went to heaven and lived to tell the tale" – as the boy visits curious places and encounters strange people, animals, and plants. The Book of Only Enoch figures into a trilogy of films called The Jackleg Testament, constructed from Bolotin's art. At the exhibition reception on Jan. 20, Bolotin will sing songs from and present the short film "Kharmen," which mixes an aria from Bizet's opera Carmen with stories by the Russian absurdist writer Daniil Kharms.

"The Contemporary Print"

Juror Susan Tallman assembled this year's survey of contemporary printmaking, with works created using traditional techniques such as lithography, intaglio, silkscreen, relief, and monotype. Artists include Miguel Aragón, David Avery, Selene Bataille, Hélène Bautista, Win Bruhl, Dawnielle Castledine, Harry Clewans, Brian Cohen, Jesus De La Rosa, Jeffrey Dell, Barbara Duval, Mike Elko, Kate Fleming, Barbara Foster, Ken Frink, Brandy Gonzalez, Adriane Herman, Robert Howsare, Jayne Reid Jackson, Javier Jimenez, Alexis Kraus, Jim Lee, Juliet Mattila, Matthew McLaughlin, Larinda Meade, Hannah Neal, Lynn Peterfreund, Zackary Petot, Sheila Pitt, Milo Reid, Kelsey Stephenson, Allison Valdivia, Summer Ventis, Chris Warot, Art Werger, and Jack Wood.

Print: Materials, Process, and Thematic Concerns

Master printer and Flatbed Press owner Katherine Brimberry discusses the relationship of material, process, and artistic themes with printmakers Karen Kunc and Orna Feinstein.

PrintAustin Special Events

The Art of the Print
New acquisitions and rarely exhibited prints from the Blanton Museum of Art collection in the Julia Matthews Wilkinson Center for Prints and Drawings. Thu., Jan. 19, 5:30-7pm, Blanton Museum of Art, 200 E. MLK.

The Hancock Brothers Live!
T-shirt printing, art, and music. Sat., Jan. 21, 2-6pm; Feb. 11, 6-11pm, Gallery at Lewis Carnegie, 1312 E. Cesar Chavez.

PrintExpo & Steamroller Printing
Sat., Feb. 11, noon-5pm, Museum of Human Achievement, near Canopy on Springdale.

For more information, visit www.printaustin.org.