Over the past few months, Spudnik has been working hard on organizing and documenting our art archive. After taking some time to fully understand what we have in our collection, we are excited to announce that you too will now be able to have access to previously unreleased art!

That’s right, Spudnik is expanding our online store! Over the next few months we will be periodically uploading new artwork to our store that you will be able to peruse and purchase. New art will be posted each week and will be featured both online and in the Gazette. Sometimes you will see a lot of art by one artist and other times you will see a collection of art by many artists. Either way, we are very excited to get such wonderful art out of our files and into your hands.

To kick things off, this week we are featuring artwork by Lilli Carre and Victoria Martinez. Lilli was our Artist in Residence in the spring of 2010. You may have previously seen some of Lilli’s work in the store; however, we are adding some new work that is equally as beautiful. Victoria completed her residency in the fall of 2012. Victoria’s work consists of a series of colorful screenprints reminiscent of collages and painterly doodles. These two artists bring a lot of color and energy to our collection and potentially to yours.

Our entire collection of art for sale can be found on our online store. Make sure to check back next week for another batch of new artwork!

Curator:

Nate Cubeta, 2014 Fellow

Featured Artists:

Kyle Tata
James Bouché

Dates:

04/12/2014 – 04/27/2014

Location:

The Printshop @ Spudnik Press

Opening Reception:

Friday April 18, 2014
7:00-9:00pm

Press Release:

Our farmer friends at Peasants’ Plot are excited to continue to serve CSA shares to Spudnik. 2014 is a special year… It’s the Year of The Tomato!

While Julia and Todd work on their Vegetables Are People, Too” Farm Infrastructure Project, the 2014 CSA* will offer three different types of tomato shares.  Their new addition is the innovative Canning Share that will encourage the practice of extending our short Midwestern season well into the winter.  Julia will be “geeking out” on canning info and classes in the city, so that everyone understands how easy this practice is!

Please visit their Kickstarter Campaign to see how you can help and learn about their Worker Share Program, or head to their website to sign up for a 2014 Tomato Share!

*Community Supported Agriculture

Register for any spring or summer class during the remainder of March, and automatically receive $10 off the listed price!

With 11 new classes and 5 new workshops, we have crafted our next round of courses to provide a variety of avenues for our friends and followers to be productive and creative, expand their artistic practice, and support the use of art to make community and dialogue. Ultimately, we want all our students to become authorized and to continue printing at Spudnik Press.

Yes, these are lofty goals, but that’s what makes our classes so special! With diverse students and professional artists as teachers, our studio is proud to offer a rich array of classes covering printmaking processes, book binding, illustration, and self-publishing.

Browse All Classes

Curators:

Luke Daly, Spudnik Press Cooperative
April Sheridan,  Columbia College’s Center for Book and Paper Arts

Featured Artists:

Rosmarie Waldrop
Keith Waldrop
Gustave Morin
Michael Carr
Brandon Downing
Jen Bervin
Eric Unger
Norma Cole
Bailey Romaine
David Baptiste Chirot
Lewis Freedman
Barrett Gordon
Tom Ahern
Krista Franklin
Brett Brady
Kyle Schlesinger

Dates:

05/17/2014 – 06/28/2014

Location:

The Annex @ Spudnik Press

Opening Reception:

Saturday May 17, 2014
6:00-9:00pm

Press Release:

This Spring, we are taking our press on a day trip to the north side! Nicolette Ross is a guest teaching artist at the Evanston Art Center!

Print Your Own Broadside Posters
with Nicolette Ross
Saturday, May 17, 2014
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Evanston Art Center
2603 Sheridan Road #3
Evanston, IL 60201

Explore two elements of relief printing (letterpress and linoleum block printing) through creating an edition of broadsides. Text will be laid out using wood type and printed on the Line-O-Scribe cylinder press. Imagery will be incorporated through a hand-carved linoleum block. Explore the interplay between image and text while learning technical carving and printing skills. Leave with your own edition of broadsides, as well as the work of your peers.

Details and Registration

Spudnik’s photocopier might be our best kept secret. This unassuming machine feeds paper up to 12×18 and prints black & white, full color, duotone, or single colors! We’ve got long range staplers, bone folders, a nipping press, and an electric guillotine to round out the resources. Housed in The Annex, there is plenty of room for self-publishers turn our studio into a production hub paradise.

Our pricing structure is a little different than a copy shop. Cost is divided into 1) the cost for using the studio and all of our awesome supplies, and 2)the cost of the actual copies.

Let’s give an example! Your producing 100 24-page comic books, and you come to Spudnik Press during an Open Studio. That totals 1200 copies. The cost would be a $12 Open Studio base fee, plus 5¢ per copy. All said and done the cost would be $72 (or $65 for members). Compare this to Kinko’s 10¢ per copy and choosing Spudnik saves $48!

Our photocopier is not currently connected to a computer, so we are not able to cue jobs from a computer. Originals must be scanned by the copier. Know how to fix this problem? Let’s talk!

2014 Zine Fest: Zine Exhibition

Featuring over 200 tablers with zines, self-published books, &  mini comics for sale and trade. Enjoy workshops, printing demos, panel discussions, kids activities, & MORE!

Saturday, March 15, 11am-6pm
Columbia College
1104 S. Wabash
1st, 2nd, and 8th floors

The Chicago Zine Fest is an independent event creating an outlet for small press and independent publishers to showcase their work. Their goal is to make DIY zine-making accessible, highlight the talents of self-published artists, and give independent artists a chance to interact and swap skills through tabling, community events, and workshops. This year, they won’t fall short of this goal!

We will be at Columbia College all Saturday. Join us in the Center for Book and Paper at 2:30 for a letterpress workshop led by our very own Jenna Rodriguez!

See the exhibitors list and learn more!

In early 2014, Spudnik Press Cooperative received $5,000 from an anonymous donor. This substantial donation comes at a critical time for Spudnik Press.  We are in  the midst of developing a robust 5-year Strategic Plan. Having already completed a Strategic Vision, focusing on themes including stability, resource, and artistic community, we feel confident that we can strategically utilize this unexpected, but welcome donation. The board of directors has determined to split the funds between two focuses: studio improvements and administrative support.

First, a comprehensive renovation is underway for our screen printing area at Spudnik Press. This spring, we will be adopting a new ink storage system, with custom-built shelving to accommodate ink pumps. This upgrade will lead to a cleaner, better organized studio, as well as ultimately reducing our supply costs (currently about $1000/month!).

Second, this anonymous donation will support administrative staff while we apply for an increasing number of grants, seek sponsorships, forge new collaborations to keep overhead low, and  lay the path for mission-driven and effective evaluation of current and future programs. In 2013, staff logged over 1,000 unpaid hours. Even with this above-and-beyond volunteering, staff had less time than needed to focus on the long-term administrative needs of the organization. With increased hours in 2014, staff has already made great strides forward, restructuring our program map, developing a staff handbook, posting our first an annual survey, and identifying objectives, outcomes,  indicators, and action items for a number of our programs. This work will ultimately culminate in the 5 Year Strategic Plan, to be implemented in January of 2015.

Generous donations allow the Spudnik Press community to thrive. This incredible contribution will provide clear benefit to all who use our studio. Many many thanks to our anonymous donor!

Make your tax-deductible donation today.

Spudnik Press is very pleased to announce Ali Aschman as our Spring 2014 Artist in Residence.

Ali’s work takes place in a variety of disciplines, including sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and animation, often combined in installations. Ali has most recently been working on creating narrative animations that focus on landscape as metaphor for an inner emotional state. “I’m trying” Ali says “to make work that occupies an uncomfortable space between immersion in an imaginary world, and an awareness of the constructed and artificial nature of that world, through my use of materials and building techniques, lighting and scale.” For her project at Spudnik press, Ali has proposed to work on a portfolio of woodcuts and screenprints that will be used to create a 3 to 5 minute stop-motion animation.

Our Residency Program is proud to host Ali at Spudnik Press Cooperative March 1 through May 31, 2014.

This winter, Spudnik Press has been working with artist Sara Holwerda as she prepares for her exhibition And is Herself Created that will debut at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland. See her work, including prints published by Spudnik Press on her website, GOD IS THE DJ, which acts as a preview for the exhibition. Her work is  a contemporary homage to the Moulin Rouge that explores the origin of female archetypes in mythology and pop culture through image and performance.

See more artwork that Spudnik Press has published!

For all the details please download our Call for Guest Curator. Before applying please also review the Guide for Curators. Proposals are due April 29.