Arts Benicia

Location: Arts Benicia Gallery, 991 Tyler Street, Suite 114, Benicia, California

About the Exhibition:
Arts Benicia is proud to present Printmaking & Process: An Overview of Contemporary Practice, curated by Arts Benicia’s Artistic Director, Kathryn Weller-Renfrow and Thomas Wojak, founder of The W.O.R.K.S. studio in Vallejo. Wojak is a master printer, and a professor at the California College of Arts in Oakland.

Printmakers from around the region will represent a broad range of techniques used in printmaking, with sterling examples of their craft. The artists featured are David Avery, Claudia Bernardi, Jessica Dunne, Barry Ebner, Diane Fenster, Barbara Foster, Art Hazelwood, William Harsh, Jeff King, Emily McVarish, Doug Minkler, Howard Munson, Deborah Oropallo, Rex Ray, Coriander Reisbord, Jack Stone, Inez Storer, Kirsten Stolle, Toru Sugita, Hee Jae Suh, Thomas Wojak.

The exhibit will also include text describing the printmaking techniques, as well as a display of tools, plates, and blocks used in creating this rich and varied artwork.

San Francisco artist David Avery will be represented by a dozen tiny, finely detailed "storybook" etchings; Claudia Bernardi of Berkeley by large scale, brilliant “frescos on paper” using dry pigment; Jessica Dunne (San Francisco) by moody aquatints of nighttime streets; Barbara Foster (San Francisco) by large black digital prints overlaid by mysterious woodcut imagery. Four very different examples of digital printmaking techniques will be provided by Diane Fenster, Deborah Oropallo, Inez Storer, and Rex Ray, courtesy of Griff Williams of Gallery 16 in San Francisco. Traditional stone lithography is the medium of Barry Ebner and Jack Stone, and letterpress is used by Coriander Reisbord and Emily McVarish to produce their engaging text (2 and 3D) work. Artist books are also presented by master bookmaker Howard Munson, who uses screen-printing and pop-up binding techniques. The striking, large scale work of Thomas Wojak, and the colorful provocative posters by Berkeley street artist Doug Minkler are also outstanding examples of screen-printing techniques. Toru Sugita’s bold black and white etchings and Hee Jae Suh’s self portraits combining etching and chine-colle exemplify intaglio, while Suh is also showing examples of mixed-media printmaking in her collage/woodcuts. Monotype is beautifully represented by Burlingame artist Kirsten Stolle in her muted abstract prints, and by William Harsh, Arts Benicia’s printmaking instructor, with his boldly abstracted still life monoprints. Jeff King, a San Francisco sculptor and printmaker, has created an installation for this exhibit consisting of large carved dice, which are used to make huge woodcut prints on handmade paper. Art Hazelwood, also from San Francisco, is presenting five powerful full-color linocut illustrations for Requiem for Dionysos by Euripides.

The Print Sale is a fundraising event benefiting Arts Benicia. There will be framed prints on the walls, and hundreds more unframed prints in bins. Many will be offered at very affordable prices. Funds raised will help support Arts Benicia’s calendar of regionally important gallery exhibits and will allow for the development of other programs that will expose and educate the community about the vibrant local and regional arts scenes, including the expansion of Arts Benicia’s fledgling printmaking studio program.

Arts Benicia’s Education Program will also benefit from this fundraiser. Classes at Arts Benicia are intended for anyone interested in learning different artistic approaches from local artists. One of the artists in this show, William Harsh, is Arts Benicia’s printmaking instructor, teaching the very popular monotype class, oil painting, etching & intaglio printmaking to name a few. Classes are being offered for July, August and September.

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