A new exhibit at West Town’s Star Lounge Coffee Bar brings together some of the city’s foremost print artists exploring various styles and media of printmaking. “Fresh Prints” features intaglio printing made with metal sheets, silk screening and woodcut prints.
Featuring work by Elke Claus, Angee Lennard, Antonio Martinez, Barlow J. Nelson, Michelle Nordmeyer and Liz Born, the show represents artists who create on the city’s South Side at the Hyde Park Art Center, as well as in Ukrainian Village at Spudnik Press Cooperative.
Elke Claus, a teacher of printing at Hyde Park Art Center and Spudnik Press, curated the exhibit. In an increasingly digital age, printmaking is an art that provides satisfaction in handiwork and a tangible art form, Claus says. The exhibit is “a textbook example of all the different forms of printmaking.”
Opening night will be Sept. 2, 2011, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Star Lounge Coffee Bar. The exhibit continues through Dec. 1, 2011.
ABOUT (SOME OF) THE ARTISTS
Liz Born is a Chicago-based painter and printmaker. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she currently prints at Spudnik Press, a co-operative print-shop in Ukrainian Village. Versed in media from watercolor to screen-printing, her heart belongs only
to the Reduction Woodcut, sometimes called the “suicide woodcut,” a process in which one woodblock is carved and printed progressively to create multiple layers of color from the same matrix. Because the woodblock is destroyed in the process of making the print, each
edition is limited, and can never be reprinted. Born draws on evolutionary biology and science fiction in her prints, exploring hybridization, inter-species allegory and the possibility of reverse evolution. Her most recent series, “Dimorphisms,” addresses gender-based mutations in the animal kingdom.
Elke Claus holds a B.F.A. from Rutgers the State University of New Jersey and an M.F.A. from
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both degrees have a concentration in printmaking.
She has extended her research abroad in Germany at printshops in Berlin (Kunstlerhaus
Bethanien) and Trier (Academie der Bildene Kunst). Her artwork has been shown in juried
exhibits and solo shows in the Chicago area. Her experience includes teaching college/adult
courses at Columbia College, The School of the Art Institute, Lill Street Art Center, and the
Hyde Park Art Center. Her artwork can be seen at Morpho Gallery in Chicago or online at
www.elkeworks.com.
Angee Lennard is the founder and executive director of Spudnik Press Cooperative.
Established in 2007, Lennard built the press from the ground up, initially utilizing her apartment
to create a live/work space. The following year, the press moved to a dedicated studio
space, and programming expanded to include a residency program, keyholder memberships,
consignment printing and collaborative projects. She has participated in group shows at Green
Lantern, Heaven Gallery, Butcher Show, Beverly Art Center and Chicago Urban Art Space. She
has been an Artist in Residence at AS220 in Providence, RI. She currently teaches at Marwen,
CAPE, and Spudnik Press, and has previously taught at Rumble Arts and Paper Source. She is a
member of the Chicago Printers Guild and Southern Graphics Council. She received her BFA
with an emphasis is Print Media from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005.
ABOUT ART AT STAR LOUNGE COFFEE BAR
Since opening in 2007, the Star Lounge has featured art by some of Chicago’s freshest talents.
Every quarter, a changing collection of artwork brings new perspectives to the West Town
neighborhood. For more information about the Star Lounge or Dark Matter Coffee Co., visit
www.starloungecoffee.com.
