Jim Dine

Found this on Art Daily:

First Survey of Jim Dine at National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Leading American artist Jim Dine’s groundbreaking achievements as a draftsman beginning around 1970 are featured in Drawings of Jim Dine at the National Gallery of Art, March 21 through August 1, 2004. The first major survey of Dine’s drawings in over 15 years, the exhibition will include more than 100 of his drawings from around 1970 to the present, borrowed from public and private collections. Often associated with Pop art and the Happenings of the 1960s, Dine became known for his paintings, prints, and sculptures–works that employed recurring themes such as tools, hearts, and bathrobes.

I really really wish this show was coming to Vancouver – Dine’s prints were a big influence on me in my earlier work.

Kiki Smith at MoMA

In my blogstrolls, I discovered this treasure on MoMA’s site: Kiki Smith: Prints, Books, and Things. Take a look at the neat website with the videos displaying the actual printing process!

“Kiki Smith (American, born Germany, 1954) is among the most significant artists of her generation. Known primarily as a sculptor, she has also devoted herself to printmaking, which she considers an equally vital part of her work. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, Kiki Smith: Prints, Books, and Things (2003), showcase the scope of Smith’s printed art and present it thematically, focusing on such topics as anatomy, self-portraiture, nature, and female iconography. This interactive Web site is similarly arranged and fosters a rich understanding of her innovative body of printed art, illustrating over 135 works in more than 50 comparative groupings. In the Process section, Smith’s creative thinking is explored through two series of evolutionary printed proofs and through video footage of the artist making prints.”

Mohsen Khalili’s monoprints

Today I happened to meet Mohsen at the studio and we showed each other our websites. I have seen him at work on his monoprints but he also does paintings and sculpture. To me, his monoprints are very moving, sometimes deeply disturbing yet always beautiful with a bittersweet quality. So, I am thrilled to see his work online and suggest you have a look. Do read his artist’s statement, it is poetry in prose.

Horkay’s digital collages

mr.h at Giornale Nuovo writes a fascinating blog with numerous entries about unusual art.

Recently he wrote about Istvan Horkay’s work and posted several of his images. Lee Spiro was quoted as saying: [his work] combines original drawn and painted images, appropriated masterpieces, photographs, artists’ signatures and commercial logos. These elements are digitally assembled, i.e., collaged, to create a single, layered moment reflecting different places and times.

I am always interested in how other artists do their work, particularly in the still new area of digital printmaking that I am exploring myself, and Horkay’s work is certainly inspiring! Thanks, mr.h.

Toni Onley

Toni Onley, the famed flying artist of BC, died on February 29, 2004 when his plane crashed into the Fraser River near Maple Ridge, east of Vancouver. At the age of 75, he had achieved international recognition mostly for his moody watercolours of remote regions of BC that he was able to access with his own plane. He died doing what he loved the most. Another major loss in BC’s art community in recent years.
Read more in CBC and Globe and Mail

Exhibition: Bob Steele – 50 years of Printmaking

Burnaby Art Gallery has an exhibition of prints by Bob Steele, a major Canadian printmaker. He is Professor Emeritus in Art Education in the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia. Steele’s work has won awards and been exhibited both nationally and internationally.
View images of Bob Steele’s work** and read his very interesting and informative statement “The Pleasures of Printmaking”.
Reception: Sunday, February 29, 1:30-3:30pm
The exhibition continues to March 21, 2004

** Update May 2014: Expired link has been removed.

A photogravure exhibition: Steven Dixon

Steven Dixon, one of the three artists in our Traces exhibition in Finland, is having an exhibition of his photogravures opening at the SNAP Gallery. This is a gallery run by the Society of North Alberta Print-Artists in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

(My “Meta-Morphosis” series of prints was on exhibition at the SNAP in 1999.)

UPDATE: More of Steven’s work may be viewed at Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary.

Tallinn

Continuing the story about our travels in conjuction with our Traces exhibition in Vaasa

Leaving Helsinki, a fast ferry ride across the Gulf of Finland took us to Tallinn, Estonia with its fascinating medieval walled old town, surrounded by a busy city rapidly catching up with the west after the Soviet collapse.

We met award-winning printmakers Virge and Loit Joekalda, who gave us a grand tour of the studios of the Association of Estonian Printmakers, and the Estonian Academy of Arts, as well as their own studio and several galleries and exhibitions.

Loit had just installed his exhibition of frottages and photos from his expeditions to sites of rock art by Fenno-Ugrians in Karelia. Seeing this work was, for me, a totally unexpected, mind-blowing and breathtaking experience! For some years I have been fascinated by this subject, and here was an artist, a kindred spirit, who had actually been to these sites! Loit is a very active member of the Estonian Society of Prehistoric Art** and the Fenno-Ugria Foundation.

Virge has exhibited and won awards in a great number of international print exhibitions, as well as travelled to many places. To see her work, visit Kunstikeskus, available for viewing for a little while. We felt extremely honoured to have met and become friends with this exciting couple!

UPDATE: March 21.05 **link is no longer working, unfortunately

Helsinki

Continuing the story about our travels in conjuction with our Traces exhibition in Vaasa

After Vaasa and Turku, came the beautiful capital city Helsinki, full of interesting things to see. As arranged, we met printmaker Vappu Johansson, who had been a visiting artist at Vancouver’s Malaspina Printmakers Society. She kindly gave us an interesting tour of the printmaking studios at the University of Art & Design Helsinki, as well as her own Arabia Printmakers studio next door.

Helsinki has numerous museums and galleries and the greatest is the very modern KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art. I think my Canadian friends loved the city as much as I do!
Read about our visit to Tallinn, Estonia next.

“Traces” Exhibition in Finland

In May and June 2002, I had the great pleasure of having an exhibition called Traces with friends and colleagues Bonnie Jordan and Steven Dixon at the Pohjanmaan Museum’s Taidehalli (Art Hall) in Vaasa, Finland.

Please look at: TRACES, my site specifically about this exhibition.

We all travelled to Finland for this great event. Naturally, I was translator and guide in my birth country as we toured around. In Vaasa we met well-known printmaker Juha Tammenpää, who kindly showed us his wonderful work, and gave us a very interesting tour of the Vaasa Printmakers Shop (site is in Finnish). Other highlights of the Vaasa area were the ruin area of Old Vaasa and the Stundars outdoor museum.

A quick visit was made to the 775-year old city of Turku and its fascinating Aboe Vetus museum of history & archaeology.

Read about our travels to Helsinki and Tallinn in next entries!