2011

Organized by Marais Press with Professor Brian Kelly, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA, and Professor Ross Jahnke from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, USA

East/West reflects and celebrates the pluralistic existence of printmaking practice and printmaking education in the United States. Representing every state in the country, this portfolio showcases 100 of the most prominent printmakers/educators. Unlike most portfolios, this project asked participating artists not to respond to a certain theme but rather to express their current image-making techniques and conceptual concerns. The result is a portfolio of diverse prints that embrace and celebrate the traditional and alternative printmaking techniques found in lithography, intaglio, woodcut, silkscreen, archival pigment, hybrid, intaglio types, and photo-relief prints. Artists were chosen based on their long and distinguished careers as both artists and teachers practicing the art of printmaking in a fashion coined from the tradition of the major Midwest universities in the 1960s—“the artist/teacher in residence.” This portfolio celebrates these artists as innovators for their continued development of the printmaking medium and their own unique artistic visions as evidenced by their work and continued success as educators. These printmakers have had and continue to have a dramatic impact on printmaking education, their institutions, and printmaking workshops.