Spudnik Press Cooperative is excited to introduce the recipients of the 2018 Residency. This summer, we welcome Carris Adams, Holly Cahill, and artist couple Tom Christison and Anita Jung. Each residency will be modified to adapt to the interests and needs of the individual participants, while providing them with the artistic and financial support necessary to create new bodies of print-based artwork.

During their time spent with us, the four artists will partake in a variety of public programs and professional opportunities, as well as activate our space with different happenings during the Chicago Print Crawl on Sunday, June 24, 2018.

2018 Resident Artists

Carris Adams

Carris Adams is a visual artist whose practice visually investigates markers of “domesticated space”. The conceptually multi-layered works seek to inform and position viewers to recognize their assumptions, recall an experience and perhaps note how societal markers materialize in the landscape. Adams received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin (2013) and her MFA from the University of Chicago (2015). Adams’s work has been exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem ( New York, NY) , The Logan Center Exhibitions at The University of Chicago (Chicago, IL), Produce Model Gallery (Chicago, IL) Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery (Chicago,IL) and The Courtyard Gallery at The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX).

Holly Cahill

Trained as a painter, Holly Cahill uses an exploration of materials and process to engage with ideas connected to choreography, landscape, hyper-dimensional phenomena, and architecture. Her work has been shown at Penn State University, DEMO Project, Chicago Artist Coalition, the David and Reva Logan Center for the Arts, D Gallery, The Franklin, the Hyde Park Art Center, and the Walter Philips Gallery in Banff Canada, among others. She received her BFA in painting from Syracuse University and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati. She has been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center, 8550 Ohio, the Banff Centre, and Ox-Bow. Holly is an artist member of the newest branch of Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Chicago.

Tom Christison & Anita Jung

Tom Christison and Anita Jung are an artist couple who maintain separate studios and studio practices. Both artists explore an aesthetic and political practice that involves recycling and fragmentation. Their work comes from a dedicated practice of making in a world that seems to continuously be on the brink of self- destruction.

Tom Christison is a master of lithography and monotype processes, which he uses to create detailed fantastical prints about life cycles, passages of time, regeneration, and the food chain. Christison’s work may be found in numerous permanent collections including the Corcoran, Washington, DC, The National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Dresden Academy of Fine Art, Kupferstichkabinett, Germany, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, India Habitat Center, New Delhi, India, among others. He has taught printmaking and drawing at McNeese State University in Louisiana, Ohio University, The University of Tennessee- Knoxville, Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the University of Iowa. He has also been part of the Master Printmaker in Residence Program at the Robert Blackburn Print Workshop in New York City and a resident at the Plain Museum of Art in Fargo, North Dakota. He maintains a private print workshop, Sandhill Press in Iowa City, Iowa, where his investigations into printmaking take place. Christison studied printmaking and drawing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Arizona State University in Tempe, where he received an MFA in printmaking.

Anita Jung is a professor at the University of Iowa. She previously taught printmaking, drawing and installation courses at Illinois State University, Ohio University and University of Tennessee. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Arizona State University where she majored in painting and drawing. The Master of Fine Arts was awarded to her from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she worked with Bill Weegee as a printer at Off Jones Road and Tandem Press. Jung has also participated in the international IMPACT conferences in Poznan, Berlin and Tallinn. She was awarded a residency at the renowned Proyecto’ace atelier in Buenos Aires, Argentina, culminating in the exhibition Cuentos de Hadas (Fairytale). Her works of art have been exhibited throughout the United States in juried, invitational and solo exhibitions. Her art has been widely exhibited in juried, invitational and one-person exhibitions throughout the U.S. as well as India, Argentina, Iceland, Puerto Rico, China, England, Germany and Poland.

Image (left to right): Holly Cahill, Through the Eaves, 2013 (detail); Tom Christison, Turnbuckle, 2014-2015 (detail); Anita Jung, Jali Sunyata 27, 2017 (detail); Carris Adams, Bone No. 12 (Abassi), 2016 (detail).

Last June, Spudnik Press Cooperative entered our 10th year or programming. When we reached this milestone, we announced our goal of raising $65,000 from individuals and businesses by June 2018. We are already 80% to our goal and need your support to raise the final $12,833 by June 30, 2018.

Support the Campaign

Your donations are enabling:

• Free and low-cost professional development opportunities like portfolio reviews and off-site visits.

• Free and low-cost youth programs.

• Expanded opportunities for professional artists through our revamped Fellowship Program.

• Expanded Residency Program that brings accomplished artists to Chicago to produce prints, teach, and exhibit.

• A Reserve Fund to ensure stability and resiliency for years to come.

We are excited to introduce The Frame Shop, our newest business sponsor!

Their staff says “Every great artist needs an equally great support system behind them,” and that’s part of why they have committed to offering our members discounted framing services. The Frame Shop staff are seasoned designers and framing consultants who have decades of experience. Plus many are practicing artists that understand the challenges of finding the best way to present your artwork with a limited budget.

Many Thanks to The Frame Shop!

What does this mean for you? Anyone who becomes or renews their membership before 12/31/18 receives:

• Complimentary 5″ x 7″ frame
• One time “Buy one, get one” framing discount for all first-time customers of The Frame Shop
• 20% off all framing through 12/31/2018.

But wait, there is more! Join Spudnik Press today and your membership dues will support the tail end of our 10th Anniversary Campaign. This year-long fundraising effort is allowing our studio to expand our professional development opportunities and establish a reserve fund to ensure we are resilient for years to come.

Member or not, we encourage everyone to support The Frame Shop – a local businesses that is dedicating to supporting their community!

Join the Community! Become a Member!

This year, we are very excited to introduce a fun new summer event (drum roll) the Chicago Print Crawl! The Chicago Print Crawl is self-guided tour of printmaking production, publishing, exhibition and sales venues throughout the city of Chicago.

Sunday, June 24

12-6pm, 6-8pm after party

Naturally, Spudnik will rock our spot from the parking lot to the third floor with a food trucks, cold beverages, a member market, shop tours and print activities. Escape the heat at Low Res Studios at 6pm, when the member market turns after party!

Details to come, stay tuned!

Join Spudnik Press Cooperative as an annual member to both give and receive! We are hosting a Spring Membership Drive in support of our 10th Anniversary Campaign.

Our members are an inspiring group of artists, designers, makers, and creatives. Browse our Member Interviews to get a glimpse into the talented community. Then join our family as an Annual Member!

Why join? The program keeps getting better and better! We have gradually expanded the scope and depth of our membership program to be a comprehensive artistic support package that includes:

• Access to our new Professional Practices Opportunities (see more below)
• Discounted classes and workshops
• Discounted Open Studio and hourly appointments
• Promotion through our online Member Directory, Member Interviews, Print of the Month Club, and various exhibition opportunities
• Invitation to be a Keyholder or gain curatorial experience through our Exhibitions Committee
• Discounts with our partners: Fulton Street Collective and The Frame Shop.

In early 2018, we rolled out an entire Professional Practices program catered to the needs and interests of print media artists and exclusively for our members. Current opportunities include a studio tour with Karolina Gnatowski and 30-minute individual portfolio sessions with  review with Meg Duguid with more tours and portfolio reviews scheduled through out 2018.

We truly hope you will become an Annual Member in support of 10th Anniversary Campaign!

Join the Community! Become a Member!

In early 2018, the Spudnik Press Exhibitions Committee received an outstanding number of quality proposals for consideration for our 2018 exhibition schedule. Among the proposals the Exhibitions Committee reviewed, and ultimately selected, were Now More Than Ever, a solo show featuring new work by Emmy Lingscheit, and States of I: A Conversation, highlighting the work of artists Mary Jones and Jolynn Reigeluth.

Both of these proposals present exceptional print-based work that encourages dialogue and reflection within the context of a greater landscape. In Lingscheit’s work we will explore ideas of environmental change and geopolitical upheaval through a series of prints both small and large. Lingscheit writes about her work: “Some of my prints critique entrenched systems and attitudes that contribute to environmental damage, amplifying social and economic inequality in the process. I am particularly interested in the idea and aesthetics of salvaging hope, shelter, and community out of repression, division, and environmental catastrophe.” Meanwhile, in States Of I: A Conversation artists Mary Jones and Jolynn Reigeluth invite us to partake in an intimate exchange that celebrates the absurdity of being human by bringing to light some of our untold internal monologues. For their exhibition, Jones and Reigeluth will contribute two bodies of work that culminate in a conversation with a set of two prints – one from each artist – that correspond in size and title. These autobiographical works draw inspiration from the artists’ shared interest in narrative imagery as well as their love for the graphic legacy and energy coming out of Chicago.

States of I: A Conversation opens on June 15, 2018 and will be on view through August 11, 2018. Now More Than Ever is scheduled to open later this year and will run November 2, 2018 through December 29, 2018. Both exhibitions will take place at The Annex at Spudnik Press, 1821 W. Hubbard Street, Chicago, IL 60622.

About the Artists:

Mary Jones makes maps of the wilderness of personal histories. Images and words are layered out of time and perspective, and where and when are subjective. Space is delineated by the inhabitants, the who in the journeys being told. These personas are a combination of what is seen with what is imagined about encounters with people, places, and things. Details get piled on in the way that life is lived– in steps, notes, beats, breaths, and marks. Whether drawing or working in print media, collage is always an element. Trained as a printmaker, Jones is a scavenger of technologies, old and new.

Emmy Lingscheit’s work critically investigates the ambiguities and exchanges between organisms and non-organisms, and between humans and non-humans. These seemingly rigid categories become increasingly blurry as technological advances take us further into a postnatural domain, and scientific research continues to reveal surprising insights into the world we think we know. Lingscheit’s prints, drawings, and sculptural works explore the myriad ways in which we are enmeshed with the non-human world, from the cellular level to the global economy, and their implications for the ecological and climatic challenges we face.

Jolynn Reigeluth’s work combines an array of printmaking processes with drawing, painting, and collage to create print and mixed media hybrids. The images earnestly and humorously reflect on the emotional and physical aspects of the human condition and its twisted ironies. By working in tension between intuition and structure, she creates imagery that playfully captures the complexity of ubiquitous human experiences and interactions. She has a distinct affinity for the absurd and scatological that manifests in these introspective self-portraits.

Image (left to right): Mary Jones, Harryette, 2017 (detail); Jolynn Reigeluth, These Are My Legs II, 2017 (detail); Emmy Lingscheit, Longitudinal Study, 2016 (detail).

This summer, we invite you to explore news ways to make art and be creative. Our calendar includes a wide range of classes for new and experienced printers.

Highlights include a focus on intaglio printmaking with an intermediate class focused on color and multiple-plate registration with Jake Saunders and our first 6-week Photopolymer Intaglio class with the stellar printer, Chris Flynn (of Anchor Graphics fame).

Another exciting addition is a one-day bookbinding workshop just for our comics- and zine- making friends. Bookmaking for Comics & Zines will pair nicely with any Riso 101 workshop.

Browse All Classes & Workshops

*Brand New* Classes & Workshops
Monotypes & Collographs
Polymer & Paper Lithography
Bookmaking for Comics & Zines
Photopolymer Intaglio
Clamshell Box Making Workshop

Introductory 5- to 10-week Classes: No experience needed
Screenprinting Explorations (starts April 14)
Screenprinting Explorations (starts May 1)
Screenprinting Explorations (starts July 7)
Letterpress I: Wood & Metal Type
Printmaking Foundations

One-Day D.I.Y. Workshops:  All levels welcome!
T-Shirts & Totebags Screenprinting Workshop (April 8)
T-Shirts & Totebags Screenprinting Workshop (May 6)
T-Shirts & Totebags Screenprinting Workshop (June 10)
T-Shirts & Totebags Screenprinting Workshop (July 15)
T-Shirts & Totebags Screenprinting Workshop (August 26)
Risography 101 (April 18)
Risography 101 (May 23)
Risography 101 (June 27)
Risography 101 (July 17)
Risography 101 (August 29)
Etching Tester (or Refresher)
Relief Tester (or Refresher)
Botany of Blue: Cyanotypes after Anna Atkins (only offered once per year!)

Intermediate Classes & Workshops
Etching 201: Color
Screenprinting Refresher
Etching Refresher (or Tester)
Relief Refresher (or Tester)
Pre-Press Workshop: File Prep for Stress Free Printing

Browse All Classes & Workshops

Candor (pronounced kan-der) is the quality of being open and honest. Candor Arts publishes books about life, learning and healing. Operating on the basis of open and honest communication, the efforts of the organization are rooted in the support of its affiliated authors and collaborators. Specializing in handmade artist book editions, Candor Arts produces a range of design and print projects driven by each artist’s vision.

As a returning chef, we asked Matt Austin if he’d share a little more about their work and, of course, their thoughts on chili.

SP: Candor Arts always seems to be experimenting with economic models that are pushing a more equitable agenda. Was this emphasis on a alternative funding models with a bit of a moral overtone part of the plan from the beginning or something that has evolved out of need or trial and error?

CA: It has certainly been an evolution—I see any current existence of ours as a response to the circumstances we exist within, as well as a culmination of our learning through experience operating as a small institution. I think our model has been built partly in necessity to sustain our work without being so vulnerable to abrupt losses of support, like inconsistent/unlikely grant opportunities or the uncertainty of finding individual donors, and partly in observing the overall lack of financial support and equity for artists in America.

SP: Where did you get your mad bookbinding skills?

CA: A guy named Sage Reynolds on YouTube. He is an excellent teacher, gentle man, and does not require student loans to learn. 😉

SP: Do you have a favorite style of bookbinding? If so, why?

CA: Not necessarily a favorite style, but I think my favorite thing to make is complicated clamshell boxes. I think there’s some kind of madness to it, like you might mess this whole thing up in one small mistake over the course of hundreds of moves made to put it all together.

SP: What book(s) are you reading right now?

CA: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Five Fifths by Growing Concerns Poetry Collective, 11 poems for addicts/normal people by Justin Nalley.

SP: Can you tell us a little about your newish studio space?

CA: Yes! We have a nice nook in west Logan Square (3520 W Armitage) where we do much of our in-house bookbinding, foil stamping, and some digital printing. We share the space with talented awesome artists April Sheridan, Daniel Mellis, and the boys of Ghost Press: Ryan Troy Ford, Cooper Foszcz, and Josh Davis.

SP: What is the key to great chili?

CA: Consistency.

SP: Name something people should not put in chili, but do all too often.

CA: Too much heat.

SP: Who is one person, living or dead you would have over for chili and why?

CA: Gerhard Steidl, so we can critique the chili in our lab coats.

SP: Do you have a favorite chili story?

CA: True confession: I don’t think anyone will ever top the legacy of Cowboy Mustang Jane’s Flamin’ Hot Freedom Chili from the 2015 Hashbrown Cook-Off, but we will continue to try.

The Hashbrown Show Down:
Spudnik’s Rootin Tootin’ Fair & Chili Cook-Off
Saturday, February 24, 2018
5:00 pm

Reserve Your Tickets

On Monday, February 12, Spudnik Press Cooperative announced dramatic overhauls to two of their hallmark programs, the Studio Fellowship and the Residency Program. These two programs have been transformed to each serve a more distinct audience while also building symbiotic relationships across each of these programs.

The Residency Program is now able to supports a broad range of artists, including those working outside of the discipline of printmaking and in communities beyond Chicago. For the first time, the Residency Program is now open to national and international artists in addition to local artists.  To accommodate artists who may not have professional printmaking experience, the production of new work will, based on the technical skills of each resident, take the form of either self-directed use of facilities or a publishing project facilitated by Spudnik Press staff.

Another important shift is that residency period will be condensed but intensified to create a high energy program that integrated the production of innovative and well-executed print-based work with public programming. During one- to six-week residencies, artists will provide the various audiences that Spudnik Press serves, including first-time printmaking students, emerging artists, professional artists, art collectors and supporters, with educational and professional development opportunities.

Learn More about the Residency Program
View the Call for Applications

The benefits of the Fellowship Program are being greatly expanded through the addition of a high-quality results-oriented weekly professional development seminar. Throughout twenty sessions, Fellows will develop the artistic and professional skills needed to build a successful career in the arts. Topics range from self-promotion for artists to artwork documentation to business planning.

Additional program components work in conjunction to provide mentorship, technical training, meaningful interactions with art professionals, public programming experience, and leadership opportunities. For example, each cohort of fellows collaborates to design and present a public program at Spudnik Press Cooperative.

The remodeled program also allows Fellows to apply for a two-month extension to focus solely on completing a body of artwork.

“Our hardest-working fellows are often just discovering new directions or opportunities in their work at the end of their fellowship. They are often unable to continue their new body of work because financial limitations inhibit studio access.”  – Marcela Serment, Program Director

Finally, Fellows receive discounted registration for all Member Professional Practices Programs. In 2018, this collection of opportunities includes four portfolio reviews with curators and seven off-site visits to resources and arts professionals throughout Chicago

Learn More about the Studio Fellowship Program
View the Call for Applications
View the Fellowship Information Packet

Executive Director, Angee Lennard says,

“The positive changes we are making to these programs are really emblematic of what our community can expect from Spudnik Press Cooperative as we enter our second decade of programming. We are taking a close look at each of our programs and looking for ways to provide deeper support for our artists.” – Angee Lennard, Executive Director

The 2018 Residency will support three artists. The Studio Fellowship support eight artists each year. Applications for both of these programs are currently open. Applications for the next Studio Fellowship cohort close March 25, 2018. Applications for the 2018 Residency are due April 1, 2018.

Image: 2017 Studio Fellows

What exactly is fata morgana? Simply put, it’s a mirage. More specifically,  it’s an unusual and complex form of mirage that is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon. These rapidly changing mirages significantly distort the object(s) which they are based on. Often times making the object completely unrecognizable.

Fata Morgana Press is the studio of Mary Clare Butler and Amy Leners. They embrace all forms of craft from the traditional to the experimental. This interdisciplinary practice allows Mary Clare and Amy to constantly shift their approach to traditional craft, making the outcomes unique and unexpected.

Come February 24, Fata Morgana Press will present their manipulation of vegetarian chili for our consumption at The Hashbrown Showdow: Spudnik’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Fair & Chili Cook Off! Or will it just appear to be vegetarian chili?

Read on to learn more about Fata Morgana Press in the second installment of our pre-Hashbrown interview series:

Spudnik Press: How did Fata Morgana come to be? What does Fata Morgana do?

Fata Morgana: Fata Morgana began when Mary Clare and Amy were finishing grad school at Columbia. While working in the papermaker’s garden together, they began to plan a future studio. When they saw the press listed for sale in Chicago, they jumped at the opportunity. Luckily and they were able to rent space in the Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center alongside bike frame builders, woodworkers, puppet makers and other craftspeople. Since then, they’ve collaborated on papermaking and bookbinding workshops, broadsides, music packaging, and posters, in addition to producing their own work. Last year, Angela Davis Fegan joined the studio, where she prints the Lavendar Menace Poster Project and maintains an active studio practice.

SP: Where did the name come from?

FM: MC was reading The Yiddish Policemen’s Union when they were trying to think of names for the new venture and the phrase just kind of leapt out. Upon further investigation, the two discovered it was the term for a complex mirage named after an sorceress who used witchcraft to lure sailors to their deaths. They decided it was a fitting name for a studio run by women with an experimental approach to traditional craft.

SP: You’re a returning chef and you competed in our Printing Dash competitions over the summer. Do either of you play competative sports? Or strategy games? 

FM: Hell no. Unless bowling counts. We just take chili very seriously.

SP: Last year’s chili was quite delicious. Will you be working from the same recipe or trying something new? 

FM: We received some secret chiles from a friend so we’re working on a new recipe that incorporates those!

SP: What is the Chicago People’s Library?

FM: Right around the time Amy and Mary Clare were starting the studio, they met Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist; their People’s Library Project was featured in the Social Paper show curated by Jessica Cochran and Melissa Potter. While making paper from deaccessioned library books at the show, they got to talking to Sulzer Regional Library’s local history librarian, Julie Lynch. With Courtney and Mark’s blessing, they started a Chicago chapter of the People’s Library. They’ve held ten-ish workshops at the Sulzer and South Chicago branches of the Chicago Public Library, as well as the Chi Teen Lit Fest, where participants made paper, bound books, and recorded their experiences and memories of Chicago. The books were displayed at Sulzer with plans to circulate across the city.

SP: Many thanks Mary Clare and Amy! See ya at the Show Down! 

The Hashbrown Show Down:
Spudnik’s Rootin Tootin’ Fair & Chili Cook-Off
Saturday, February 24, 2018
5:00 pm

Reserve Your Tickets

Spudnik Press Cooperative is accepting applications for a part-time Development Assistant position.

The Development Assistant will broadly contribute to Spudnik Press Cooperative’s development and fundraising efforts. Working in a supportive role to the Executive Director, this position will primarily focus on individual giving and special events.

To apply:

• Downloaded and review theDevelopment Assistant Job Description.
• Submit a cover letter, writing sample, and resume with three professional references to angee@spudnikpress.org.