July 2012 Show Pics

Here is a quick slideshow of some of the work up in the gallery this month from Three Figurative Printmakers as well as Eric Robinson’s Press Room Mini Solo, Fragments.  This is by no means exhaustive–Eric has over 600 small prints up, Three Figurative Printmakers has 47 prints, and then there’s the member show as well, not pictured here.  Come in and visit us!

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…And we’re back!

“Tian Tan” by Liang Dong

Well, we never really were away, except for Annie (me).  But I’m back now, and super excited to see all the sales we’ve had from our Ex Libris show while I was away.  Haven’t seen it yet?  Best get in by the 24th, when it comes down.  Has your favorite print sold?  We can order you one (to arrive in late July)!

Next week starts our new exhibition, Three Figurative Printmakers, featuring Lee Newman along with Jack Boul and Robert D’Arista.  Also on view in the Press Room is Eric COGu Robinson’s mini-solo, Fragments. Mark your calendars for the opening reception on July 8.

Finally, if you’re an artist applicant patiently awaiting the results for National Small Works: our juror Brian Garner is making his final selections and notifications will be sent out on Saturday.

We’ll be back to more pithy posts starting tomorrow–right now there’s a week’s worth of emails and gallery housekeeping to catch up on!

“Fragments” by Eric COGu Robinson

"Fragments" by Eric COGu Robinson

In July WPG member Eric COGu Robinson will show his exhibition, Fragments, in the Press Room.  Below is his show statement.  Mark your calendars and enjoy!

I make artwork because the making helps me to understand life, like having a deep conversation with a friend, or taking critical notes at a library.  I develop understanding of a subject by addressing it in print variations—hundreds of them.

I make a lot of prints.  Many of them are good.  A few are great.  Quite a few are not that good.

I throw some of them away.

Some, however, I crop and use collectively as members of a greater whole.

I shall call it [trumpet sounds!]… Aggregate Art.

Really it’s just a quilt.  Our grandmothers were on to this ages ago.  They were doing this before Picasso, collage, and later Rauschenberg.  Indeed quilts have directly inspired many artists including Chuck Close and myself.

As for me, I am just discovering the exciting possibilities, and I invite you to join in the fun.  Select a group of prints to purchase and arrange however you see fit.

So, here they are, arranged for now in a pseudo-postmodernish appearance.  But don’t let that deceive you; for, truly, there is nothing new under sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Have you checked out our newest members?

WPG welcomed a lot of new members in 2011!  Just in case you missed them as they joined, here’s a quick review.  We bet you’ll find some new favorites!

"I Promise" by Andy Farkas

Andy Farkas works primarily with wood engraving and also some handset type.  He has written and illustrated his own children’s stories, too.  (Ask to see the beautiful hand-bound book we have in the gallery!).  Andy is our only artist working regularly in wood engraving at this time.

Clare Winslow is a new local member, so you might see her sitting at the gallery if you come on a Sunday.  Clare is creating mainly screenprintsShe has a tangential history with WPG, printing in the studio of Terry Svat and Pauline Jakobsberg and later taking classes with Michael Hagan, another of our screenprinters.

"State Line" by Dean Russell Thompson

Dean Russell Thompson is a woodcut artist.  We have woodcuts large and small of his infrastructure-inspired subject matter.  Dean also runs Copperplate Press, which you can read more about at the link.

Edward McCluney recently had a mini-solo in the Press Room.  If you didn’t see it, you can see samples of Ed’s linocuts and intaglio prints on his page, linked above.  Ed’s work is in many collections, including MIT and Harvard University.  We’ve also been told that one of his “Nine American Master’s” prints graces the walls of Samuel L. Jackson’s home.

Eric Robinson is a master of the varied edition.  You can see the range of expression he gets from one matrix with subtle changes in color and treatment when you visit his artist page (linked above).  Eric also uses wood engraving from time to time, for those interested in seeing more of that medium.

"Still" by Heather McMordie

Heather McMordie is an emerging printmaker currently studying the art at the University of Pennsylvania.  You may remember her print, “Still II” (pictured at Left) in 2011′s National Small Works exhibition.

Janet Yagoda Shagam’s prints look great on the screen, but we want everyone who can to come in and see them in person.  The rich, velvety quality of her blacks can’t be beat.  We are looking forward to seeing more of her work in a press room mini solo later this year.

Kiyomi Baird joined us after her National Small Works solo exhibition, which she won in 2011′s juried exhibition.  If you liked her big prints, but didn’t have enough wall space for them–a common problem, in DC–come back to see the smaller works we have in the bins.  They’re just as lovely.

Artist Q&A: Eric COGu Robinson

Prints by new member artist Eric COGu Robinson went up on our website last week.  We briefly introduced Eric in an earlier post, now here are more images and a short interview so you can know more about the newest WPG member artist!

"Stripes" Matrix image courtesy of Eric COGu Robinson

WPG: Besides your art, one of the first things I notice on your artist page is your unusual middle name.  Could you tell us what it means and why it is included in your signature?

Robinson: I sign my artwork COGu.  This is an acronym not a middle name.  It stands for Child of God, undeserving.  The core of my identity and my value is in my relationship with God, which is a undeserved gift from God to me.  To start with the obvious, if God did not create me I would not exist (and so could not have any relationship).  If God did not reveal himself, I would have no way of knowing God.  If God did not bear the penalty of his wrath against sin by crucifying his Son Jesus, I could not have been adopted, but would have perished justly.  If Jesus had not risen from the dead, I could not hope to continue knowing God.  My fulfillment is in God, and bearing God’s name, not mine, gives me worth.  Signing my work COGu is a reminder to myself of God’s great mercy and of the joy of my son-ship in Christ.

WPG: Varied editions are very important to your work, as you make clear in your artist statement.  You say that “a genuine dialogue about the subject occurs between myself and the artworks as I alternate making and viewing them.”  Can you give an example of how a body of work has developed as you work through its variations?

"Cruci 44" by Eric COGu Robinson

Robinson: One specific example of how the process of making variations is a dialogue between the work and myself is this: when I was producing (for two years) an edition varia exploring the crucifixion of Jesus, I made a one-layer monotype Cruci 44 (pictured, right).  As a viewer, I appreciated the way the figure of the body of Jesus dissolved into the image space despite having graphic hard edges.  I decided to make a woodcut (see matrix image “Stripes” above) with that thought in mind.  I used that woodcut in several other prints in that edition varia.  Two examples are Cruci 58 (pictured below) and Cruci 105.  At first I merely appreciated the appearance, but with further reflection, I came to understand that that visual quality bore meaning.  After all, by taking the “stripes” of punishment for sin, Jesus dissolved his life.   Therefore, I also employed this visual-meaning lesson in other prints in that series including Cruci 52 (pictured at bottom of post), Cruci 116, and Cruci 143.

"Cruci 58" by Eric COGu Robinson

WPG: The most prolific varied edition of yours that we have on the website is the image of the clock.  Can you tell us a little more about what drew you to that image, and what continued to hold your interest as you continued to manipulate it and make different prints?

Robinson: I started the pocket watch series with a very straightforward and basic thought: I want to explore mortality.  What I did not anticipate was that the otherwise banal reality that we all die would become almost secondary to the expression of humanity and of the living of peculiar lives especially through color.  This ongoing discovery drove me to continue making variations (well over a hundred unique prints of that composition).  A particular watch print may indicate the stage of human development of an individual, or it may picture a moment, say, of decision in a person’s life or of a state of mind or emotion.

"Cruci 52) by Eric COGu Robinson

The print could suggest a person’s vocation, or express a person’s general disposition—personality, attitude, gender, temperament, etc.  Yet all this is framed against the ticking of time and within the matrix of mortality, which begs for careful consideration of one’s own life, death and future.

Sneak Peek: two new artist members

"Quixotic Hebrew" by Eric COGu Robinson, wood engraving, 3.9x3.9 in, 2010

WPG is pleased to welcome Eric COGu Robinson and Janet Yagoda Shagam as our newest artist members.  They are so new that their work is not yet up on our website, but check back soon for more images!  You can also ask to see some of their prints that are already in the gallery.

Eric currently lives in Iowa and received his MFA from Iowa State University.  He has had solo exhibitions throughout the mid-west, and has been represented in group shows across the nation.  He says of his work:

“I make art to understand God, humanity, scripture, our time and culture, myself, transience, eternity, and the relationship between perception and belief among other things…

…In making edition varia, I emulate what I see demonstrated in life.  From the beginning, God made us to see light and darkness and distinguish between the two; likewise I make relief prints that clarify space in fundamentally binary contrast.  The earth is an ancient, perceptibly stable place, yet its appearance changes with night and day, stormy weather and fair, seasons, and so on.  God made us in his image, yet varied: male and female.  These things illustrate that we come to understand mysteries through our experience of dualities, unions, and variations.  And this is proof of the practice’s power: I came to understand these things by so doing, so viewing, and so comparing.”

"Hidden Beauty" by Janet Yagoda Shagam, 4-color collograph, 6x5 in, 2010.

Janet comes to us from Albuquerque, NM.  Originally a PhD in Biology, Janet is continuing her printmaking endeavors through classes at the University of New Mexico, Tamarind Press, Carol Sanchez, and others.  Her work has been reviewed by ArtSlant, and is also in collections internationally, including Loyola College in Baltimore, MD;  Museo de la Estampa in Mexico City, Mexico; and University of Texas, Austin, TX.

Janet’s prints explore the ideas of both “weather” and “work.”  Some of her prints explore these ideas conceptually, while others are made by exposing a matrix directly to the weather. According to her, “Weathering, in addition to ‘the weather’ also means endurance, perseverance, surviving difficult times, and aging. Work, not always a job, describes the physical relationship between energy, and objects.” The resulting marks “celebrate the physical and emotional effects of endurance, resolve, and the impact of time.”