Guide and Protector of All the Children (detail), Jerry Evans, lithograph, 2000
(scanned from Burnaby Art Gallery invitation)

The Burnaby Art Gallery has been featuring quite a few print exhibitions this past year and this one sounds the most exciting yet: The Power of Place – 30 Years of Printmaking in Newfoundland is on from January 14-February 27, 2005.

This exhibition includes 50 prints and one artist’s book by 13 artists selected from the archives of the St. Michael’s Printshop in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It is curated by Patricia Grattan, director of the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador and organized and circulated by that gallery.

The Printshop’s spring 2003 newsletter on their website states:

The Power of Place opened at the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador on March 14 to explore the role that St. Michael’s Printshop has played in the development of Canadian printmaking practice and to mark its 30th Anniversary. In attempt to select the work for the exhibition from the over 2000 works in the printshop archives, curator Patricia Grattan “chose to focus on individual artists from Newfoundland and elsewhere.” She wanted to show “artists whose work and art practice have been shaped by St. Michael’s, or artists who have helped to shape its operations and objectives (and the influence often has gone both ways). They include its primary founders, visiting master printers, Newfoundland artists who have gone on to earn their master printer chops, artists who also served as shop co-ordinators, board members, and some who are acknowledged as leading Canadian printmakers and print innovators.
… (from Patricia Grattan’s curatorial text.)

St. Michael’s Printshop has played an important role in the development of printmaking in Canada. It was founded in 1972 by artists Heidi Oberheide and Don Wright. At the time, there were no accredited art teaching programs in St. John’s and the studio quickly became, and continues to be, and important element in the development of professional and experimental artists.

The Visiting Artist program is internationally well-known and sought out, and some of my printmaker friends on the Westcoast have taken that opportunity, such as Taiga Chiba and Manuel Lau in 2003.

I am really looking forward to viewing the works of these important printmakers who live or have worked for a while in Newfoundland, on the very far away opposite coast of Canada. For my away-from-Vancouver readers, I’ve found links for all the artists so that you can see some examples of their work, since the exhibit itself, sadly, has no web page and the Burnaby Art Gallery’s listing is very minimal. if you are interested in learning more about printmaking and the history of St. Michael’s Printshop, do visit their website.

The artists: Anne Meredith Barry, Sylvia Bendzsa, Jerry Evans, Helen Gregory, Don Holman, Harold Klunder, Christine Koch, Heidi Oberheide, Sharon Puddester, William B. Ritchie, Otis Tamasauskas, David Umholtz and Don Wright

ADDED: Please see my post with photos about our visit to this show

Art Beatus is presenting Fountain, a special collection of prints and mixed media works by Tomoyo Ihaya from January 14 to March 11, 2005. The opening reception is on Friday, January 14th from 3 to 6 pm. in the Nelson Square Tower at 108 – 808 Nelson Street, Vancouver.

Tomoyo and I met and became friends some years ago at the Art Institute, Printmaking at Capilano College. Later she went on to do her Masters in printmaking at one of the best printmaking schools in Canada, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Tomoyo has won many awards for her work, including the Ernst & Young Great Canadian Printmaking Competition. To see more of her work, have a look at this award-winning piece (pdf). If you are in Vancouver, I hope to see you at the opening!

UPDATE Jan.15.05: I did make it to the opening yesterday afternoon and was glad I went. Tomoyo’s work is always appealing and poetic. Her venture into a new medium with the “little people” installations succesfully melded thematically with her works on paper. Lots of people there. Congratulations, Tomoyo!

Mark your calendars. Master printmaker Taiga Chiba will discuss his experiences teaching printing techniques to Inuit artists in the Canadian North. A slide presentation will be followed by a guided tour of the exhibition Experimental Prints from Baker Lake.

This is at the Marion Scott Gallery, in its new location in Gastown at 308 Water Street, Vancouver, BC on Saturday, December 11th from 2:00 to 3:00 pm. Refreshments will be served.

Do look at the online gallery to see the delightful results of these Inuit artists’ experiments with new techniques. The exhibition is on until January 5, 2005.

Steven Dixon: Mine Site No. 17
photogravure 58 x 70 cm

Master printer, teacher and friend Steven Dixon just let me know that some of his photogravure prints are on exhibition at Lando Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta until December 11th. If you are in the area, you must see them; if not, the gallery website gives us a good look.

Photogravure is an old technique that has had something of a revival, and Steven has mastered it superbly. If you are interested in learning more about photogravure Steven has two sites to recommend:

Kamakura Print Collection is a bit long but has good reproductions and good information.

Lothar Osterburg’s site is good, not quite as detailed but easy to understand.

You might recall Steven’s name because I’ve posted about some of his exhibitions this year as well as the “Traces” exhibition that Steven, Bonnie Jordan and I presented in Pohjanmaan Museum in Vaasa, Finland in 2002.