The Gallery at Next Stage presents Drypoints from the Landscape by Brian D. Cohen, August 15th through November 15. The Gallery is open for viewing 30 minutes before each Next Stage event, as well as Saturdays from 10 am–1 pm, and by appointment with the artist.

Artist Statement:
This exhibit comprises a selection of drypoint prints made between 1993 and summer 2019. Drypoint is a technique for drawing directly on a metal (or Plexiglas) plate with a needle or sharp tool to create a burr (a raised ridge of metal) on the surface of the metal. In printing, the plate is covered in ink and carefully wiped so the ink is removed from the unmarked areas of the surface and left to stick to the drawn burr. A drypoint plate shows a great variety of character and intensity of marks owing to the varied pressure of the artist’s hand. I use a variety of other tools to texture the plate, as well as various means to lighten the plate through scraping, burnishing, and polishing.

Drypoint has the advantage of being quite portable, and the disadvantage of wearing down fairly quickly under the pressure of the press, as the burr is fairly fragile. As such, my editions are small. I sometimes develop the plates in the studio through subsequent states, occasionally incorporating techniques of acid etching to bring a more considered and sustained focus to these images.

An ultimately advantageous quality of drypoint is that it is essentially impossible to see what you’re doing while you’re working, as the marks do not contrast in color or value to the plate itself. Much depends on the roughness of the mark, a distinctly tactile, not visual quality. I find it liberating not to worry much about what a plate will look like — there’s no point in trying to judge what you can’t see.

My drypoints are begun on site in direct response to the landscape, and represent my regular practice of intimate and repetitive engagement with a place that I am especially drawn to. I often will work in drypoint, drawing, and watercolor from the same site, each respective medium guiding me to differing aspects of that view. Prints in this exhibit are from various trips I’ve taken to Italy, Bulgaria, Maine, and Cape Cod, as well as close to home in New Hampshire, and Vermont.

The cantonal prints collection, which has been housed at the Musée Jenisch Vevey since 1989, comprises a number of prestigious holdings totalling over 35,000 works from the Renaissance to the present day. This exhibition, which follows on from the 2016 display of masterpiece drawings from the collections, focuses on the techniques of printmaking, and serves up a choice selection of works by the most eminent practitioners of the form: Dürer, Goltzius, Callot, Rembrandt, Castiglione, van Ostade, Tiepolo, Canaletto, Goya, Corot, Bresdin, Bonnard, Vuillard, Picasso, Yersin, Sarto, Lichtenstein, Raetz and many more. While offering a subjective overview of the history of the print, it also positions the museum as a place for studying and appreciating works on paper.

International Print Center New York is pleased to announce its first two-person exhibition, Paper Borders, which brings into dialogue the works of Emma Nishimura (b. 1982, Toronto) and Tahir Carl Karmali (b. 1987, Nairobi), artists who share a commitment to unearthing historical and ongoing stories of migration, transgenerational memory, and xenophobia. Using the materiality of print and handmade paper, the two- and threedimensional works in this exhibition speak to cross-cultural and deeply embedded global struggles. Here, the precarity of paper becomes a metaphor for the precarity of place.

This exhibition is the first in-depth New York presentation of Nishimura’s work, which centers on the Japanese Canadian Internment during World War II. Through a practice rooted in her own family history, inherited narratives, and archival research, Nishimura uses etching, photo-transfer, hand-papermaking, and sculpture to literally and symbolically wrap stories, images, and memories of the internment into new forms. In her prominent work An Archive of Rememory (2016–ongoing) she shapes these stories into traditional Japanese bundles called furoshiki. Through an installation of hundreds of paper furoshiki, as well as a series of textbased etchings, this little-known piece of history is brought to light.

A cross-disciplinary artist, Karmali creates large-scale paper works and installations that engage materials and processes surrounding issues of colonization, nationality, and authenticity. Karmali’s handmade paper incorporates government-issued documents that trace family history—from his paternal family’s paperwork showing their change in citizenship after Kenya's 1963 independence from Britain, to his own application for a visa to relocate from Nairobi to New York. Dried on rusted metal plates, Karmali’s paper sheets absorb abstract rust marks and folds that reference the land. With the addition of photo-transfer and collaged elements, these works unfold a layered, material record of lived experience.

The exhibition title reflects the dualities within the words ‘paper’ and ‘borders.’ Paper acts as an apparatus for mark-making and sculptural experimentation, or as a pass validating identity and allowing movement from one territory to another; while borders can be hard lines between territories, or fragile and shifting.

PUBLICATION
The accompanying publication will feature an essay on the dialogue between the works of both artists by Kelly Baum, Cynthia Hazem Polsky and Leon Polsky Curator of Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with artist biographies, a reading list, color illustrations, and studio photographs.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Print Week (October 20–27), Date and Time TBA: History as Matrix, a conversation with Emma Nishimura and Tahir Carl Karmali moderated by Regine Basha, Senior Program Associate, Civitella Ranieri Foundation.

Saturday, December 7, 1–4 PM: Drop-In Papermaking Workshop with Tahir Carl Karmali.

Please visit the 'External Link' for more information about the artists.

Over two days, A Meeting of Cultures: Japan and Australia Print Symposium provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of issues, ideas and research from the printmaking sphere by bringing together scholars, artists, and representatives from cultural institutions through keynote addresses, panel discussions and artist talks.

The Symposium coincides with the Kyoto Hanga International Print Exhibition: Japan and Australia 2019 at Caloundra Regional Gallery and is presented by USC Art Gallery and the Print Council of Australia through the support of Sunshine Coast Council, the Regional Arts Development Fund, the Australia-Japan Foundation, Kyoto Hanga Print Exhibition Executive Committee, Argon Law and the Consulate-General of Japan, Brisbane.

Keynote Speakers
Saturday, September 21
Akira Kurosaki: the evolution of ukiyo-e and woodcut prints
Professor Atsuhiko Musashi, Kyoto Seika University

Akira Kurosaki (1937-2019) is representative of a generation of Japanese artists who started their career and in the 1960s; he was open to international styles and techniques, participated in international exhibitions, and he lived and worked abroad. Despite these international influences, his practice was deeply informed by the traditional Ukiyo-e woodcut artists of his homeland.

In this keynote presentation, Professor Musashi will chart the history of Japanese woodcuts beginning with early 17th century Ukiyo-e through to its end during the middle of the 19th century. He will discuss the last Ukiyo-e painter, Yoshitoshi Tsukioka and also cover Shin Hanga (New Print), Sosaku Hanga (Creative Print) and the importance of the Tokyo International Print Biennial. This will frame his discussion of Akira Kurosaki’s woodcut art from 1965 to 2014.

Sunday, September 22
The poetics of flow: the enfolding of matter, memory and print
Dr Jan Hogan, University of Tasmania

The waters connecting Australia and Japan are a fluid space of cultural flow. The narrative of exchange encompasses matter, cultural sensibilities, geological formations and the geographical flows of trade. There is a nonlinear entanglement where ideas and matter are enfolded, cast adrift, and float to new sensibilities. Across oceans, the formal integrity of works are translated and transformed by new places and ‘points of view’.

In this keynote, Dr Hogan will reflect on the traces of thoughts, languages and materials that echo across time and place leading to new poetics and modes of thinking through the innovations of the Ukiyo-e print.

Please visit the 'External Link' below for more information and to register.

This one-day symposium will explore aspects of modern woodblock printmaking in East Asia, with a special focus on connections between China and Japan. From the role of the sōsaku hanga 'creative print' movement as one of the foundations of the New Woodcut Movement under Lu Xun, to the woodblock prints of Kitaoka Fumio, as well as contemporary printmaking practice.

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM
Session Chair: Dr. Paul Bevan

13.45-14.15
Reinventions: Wartime Prints and the Art of New China
Mary Ginsberg, Independent researcher

14.15- 14.45
Kitaoka Fumio’s Repatriate
Dr. Clare Pollard, Ashmolean Museum

14.45 –14.55 Questions

COFFEE BREAK

15.15-15.45
Contemporary Responses to a Traditional Craft
Ralph Kiggell, Artist

15.45-16.15
Naoko Matsubara: A Life with Wood, Ink, and Paper
Lauren Moya Ford, Artist and Writer

16.15 – 16.45
The Dao of Making: Exploring Techniques of Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Printmaking, with Examples from the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum
Dr. Weimin He, Artist

16.45 – 17.00 Questions

Occasioned by a move into a newly constructed state-of-the-art museum building on the University of Nevada, Reno's main campus, this exhibition introduces viewers to an incredible collection of etchings, many of which have not been seen publicly for more than 30 years.
This exhibition will be the first one on campus to ever exhibit the entirety of the University's Piranesi holdings. Between the two collections, held by Special Collections and The Lilley, nearly the entire series of Roman "vedute," or views, will be available for study and review in the Museum's galleries. Foregrounding scholarly depth and scope, "Piranesi and the Eternal City" offers visitors to the museum a rare opportunity to study a representative sample of the artist's work, gain a deeper understanding of the technical and historical contexts of the work, and cultivate a deeper sense of wonder inspired by the mastery of the print work on view.

The acquisition of the Kenneth Tyler Print Collection in 1973 was a defining moment in the NGA's collecting history. Combined with a major acquisition in 2002, the Gallery consequently boasts the most comprehensive collection of post-War American art outside the United States. The collection includes over 7400 editioned prints, proofs, drawings, paper works, screens, multiples and illustrated books as well as a large collection of rare candid photography, film and audio. It directly reflects Tyler's entrepreneurial innovation and passionate drive to collaborate with some of the twentieth century's most brilliant artists.

Tyler was a pivotal master printer at the forefront of the American print renaissance. Having enticed major artists of the day to his print workshops on the West and then East coasts of America, Tyler orchestrated the move from printmaking as a minor artform to a leading visual practice. The ambition was to create works on a grand scale, involving ground-breaking materials and techniques, explorations of both two and three dimensions, an emphasis on papermaking, and the adoption of a wide-ranging palette.

Lichtenstein to Warhol: The Kenneth Tyler Collection will display exceptional works from the collection by major artists active in America in the post-war period in styles from Abstraction to Pop, from Minimalism to Maximalism. Artists include Josef and Anni Albers, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Sultan, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Claes Oldenburg, Nancy Graves and David Hockney.

The exhibition not only celebrates the great riches of the collection, but marks the beginning of an exciting new program that further builds on Ken Tyler and Marabeth Cohen-Tyler's exceptional generosity of the past. The establishment of The Kenneth E Tyler AO and Marabeth Cohen-Tyler Foundation will enable the NGA to continue maintaining an ambitious dedicated publication and exhibition program, whose most recent achievements include the shows California Cool and David Hockney: prints and their respective catalogues.

Lifelines is a celebration of the distinguished career of Japanese print artist Naoko Matsubara (b. 1937) who has donated over a hundred works to the Ashmolean. Now based in Canada, Matsubara has been working for over sixty years, making joyful woodcuts which demonstrate remarkable innovation and variety, constantly pushing at the boundaries of the woodblock medium.

Matsubara seeks to capture the essence of a subject in its simplest form, working both in monochrome and with multiple blocks and colours. Inspired by nature, place, literature, music and movement, her prints range from intimate to monumental, playful to contemplative, figurative to abstract. She works in a variety of formats, most recently experimenting with woodcut collages, murals and sculptural forms, and has published many books and portfolios containing original as well as reproduced prints. All her work is characterised by spontaneity and a bold freedom of expression. Matsubara carves directly into the woodblock to create her images, bringing a powerful energy to her works.

Since 1961 Matsubara has mainly lived outside Japan and her work is immersed in the modern artistic traditions of Europe and America. She also maintains a strong connection with her Japanese cultural roots. Yet the art she creates expresses a very personal vision.

This autumn, Tate Britain presents the largest survey of work by William Blake (1757-1827) in the UK for a generation. A visionary painter, printmaker and poet, Blake created some of the most iconic images in the history of British art and has remained an inspiration to artists, musicians, writers and performers worldwide for over two centuries. This ambitious exhibition brings together over 300 remarkable and rarely seen works and rediscover Blake as a visual artist for the 21st century.

Tate Britain reimagines the artist’s work as he intended it to be experienced. Blake’s art was a product of his tumultuous times, with revolution, war and progressive politics acting as the crucible of his unique imagination, yet he struggled to be understood and appreciated during his life. Now renowned as a poet, Blake also had grand ambitions as a visual artist and envisioned vast frescos that were never realised. For the first time, The Spiritual Form of Nelson Guiding Leviathan c.1805-9 and The Spiritual Form of Pitt Guiding Behemoth c.1805 are digitally enlarged and projected onto the gallery wall on the huge scale that Blake imagined. The original artworks are displayed nearby in a restaging of Blake’s ill-fated exhibition of 1809, the artist’s only significant attempt to create a public reputation for himself as a painter. Tate recreates the domestic room above his family hosiery shop in which the show was held, allowing visitors to encounter the paintings exactly as people did in 1809.

The exhibition provides a vivid biographical framework in which to consider Blake’s life and work. There is a focus on London, the city in which he was born and lived for most of his life. The burgeoning metropolis was a constant inspiration for the artist, offering an environment in which harsh realities and pure imagination were woven together. His creative freedom was also dependent on the unwavering support of those closest to him, his friends, family and patrons. Tate highlights the vital presence of his wife Catherine who offered both practical assistance and became an unacknowledged hand in the production of his engravings and illuminated books. The exhibition showcases a series of illustrations to Pilgrim's Progress 1824-27 and a copy of the book The complaint, and the consolation Night Thoughts 1797, now thought to be coloured by Catherine.

Blake was a staunch defender of the fundamental role of art in society and the importance of artistic freedom. Shaped by his personal struggles in a period of political terror and oppression, his technical innovation, and his political commitment, these beliefs have inspired the generations that followed and remain pertinent today. Tate Britain’s exhibition opend with Albion Rose c.1793, an exuberant visualisation of the mythical founding of Britain, created in contrast to the commercialisation, austerity and crass populism of the times. A section of the exhibition is also be dedicated to his illuminated books such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience 1794, his central achievement as a radical poet.

Additional highlights include a selection of works from the Royal Collection and some of his best-known paintings including Newton 1795-c.1805 and Ghost of a Flea c.1819-20. This intricate work was inspired by a séance-induced vision and will be shown alongside a rarely seen preliminary sketch. The exhibition closes with The Ancient of Days 1827, a frontispiece for an edition of Europe: A Prophecy, completed only days before the artist’s death.

William Blake is curated by Martin Myrone, Lead Curator pre-1800 British Art, and Amy Concannon, Assistant Curator, British Art 1790-1850. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue from Tate Publishing and a programme of talks and events in the gallery.

Opening Conversation with Kenneth Tyler
50 McCosh Hall
Thursday, September 19, 5:30 pm
Master printmaker Kenneth Tyler, whose collaborations with Helen Frankenthaler created milestones in the history of prints, and renowned curator Ruth Fine, who organized the 1993 retrospective of the artist's prints, kick off this two-day academic symposium with a public conversation. A reception and exhibition viewing will follow.


Friday, September 20, 9 am–12:30 pm
Expanding Abstraction: Experiments in Materials and Methods—9:00 am
Art Museum, McCormick Hall
In the latter half of the 20th century, artists championed abstraction for its potential to expand the possibilities of expression; scholars consider a few of the innovative practices that emerged.

Suzanne Perling Hudson, Graduate Class of 2006; Associate Professor, University of Southern California
Lucy Partman, doctoral candidate, Princeton University
Hannah Yohalem, doctoral candidate, Princeton University


Abstraction Today: A Conversation among Artists—11 am
Art Museum, McCormick Hall
Abstraction remains a vital practice in contemporary art; three practicing artists discuss why it continues to provide such fertile ground.

Allyson Strafella, artist
Marina Ancona, artist and founder 10 Grand Press
Nathlie Provosty, artist

Events are free and open to the public.