Professional artist, lecturer, and educational activist Anita Jung creates works of art involving repurposing, printmaking, stencils, installation and shadow art that are known and exhibited internationally.
Carris Adams’ work visually investigates markers of “domesticated space”. The domestication of space occurs through the markers and signs of presence (i.e. roads, residential structures, commercial structures, government buildings, cemeteries, advertisements etc.) resulting in “grounding”. This act of grounding produces neighborhoods and sites, often defined by temporal boundaries and limits. Human necessity (in addition to prejudices, politics, and aesthetics) aids in the formation of boundaries and subsequent value judgments about the inhabitants surrounding these objects. Carris’ work investigates these markers and the relational threads between ownership in marginalized spaces, politics, class, histories, celebration, and resilience. Her itinerant tendencies and unsettled curiosity allow for found images, objects and language to become source material for the studio. Thusly the works are conceptually multi-layered, often with double or triple meanings that seek to inform and position viewers to recognize their assumptions, recall an experience and perhaps note how societal markers materialize in the landscape.
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).
With this in mind, I chose these three paintings as sources because they are all created from signage in the landscape that exists in multiples. For instance, PRAYPRAYPRAY was inspired by an old newspaper bin that had been painted black, except for PRAY stenciled in white letters on its sides. I found this newsletter bin in the Southshore neighborhood of Chicago, but more have been spotted in Hyde Park, Wicker Park and Garfield Park. Who is this anonymous artist giving pedestrians a directive to pray and why? Is it what our world needs? And to whom do we pray?
Thus, just as PRAYPRAYPRAY enabled myself and the viewer to question its mission and motive, I aim to create an edition of prints that will do the same. Through printmaking, I want to experiment with color, texture, composition and mark-making. The option to have a work of art exist in multiples just as it does in the world is unchartered territory in my practice and I am interested in exploring this further.
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.
I’m Ashley Kukulski, the founder and designer behind Evermore Paper Co. I started Evermore in 2013 as a way to express myself creatively and live more intentionally by doing something I was truly passionate about. My goal was to create something unexpected and my trials with paper led me to design products with unique cut out and layered elements. Since then, my collection has grown to include hand-painted and printed designs, but one thing that remains at the core is my love of texture and pattern. My work is constantly evolving and a reflection of my personal style, which is minimal, romantic, effortless and a bit edgy. I pour my heart and soul into each product with the hope that they will inspire others to spread their love and live their best lives.
I am a visual person who enjoys taking mental snapshots of the beauty around me. I am especially drawn to patterns and textures found in nature and urban environments and I love exploring different ways to translate my findings into simple, yet beautiful illustrations.
Most of my designs are created by hand with ink or paint in my home studio overlooking the Chicago skyline. The components are then digitalized and recolored in Illustrator. Each paper cut card is machine-cut and hand-assembled from my home studio and all printed pieces are produced locally. I make an extra effort to use recycled materials and work with local suppliers whenever possible.
Brandy is a project manager, brand specialist, and marketing coordinator based in the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area. Brandy lives with her poodle pup, loves screenprinting and letterpress, and created an art residency program where artists make art on airplanes (Air Air).
Brandy is an enthusiastic supporter, approaching your business, your ideas, and your brand with 10 years of marketing, branding, and project management experience. In addition, she has a passion for organizing and building systems, travel and planning, and helping others recognize and reach their goals.
As an aspiring artist and storyteller, I enjoy thinking about how to communicate with the page, both in terms of content and white space. I’m obsessed with screen printing, colour palettes, and beautiful paper, and I am most drawn to artwork that evokes emotion and feeling, with characters that have a strong sense of personality. As a lifelong bibliophile, I dream of creating beautiful books and telling stories through both words and images.
Emma Bilyeu is a visual artist working out of her basement studio in Humboldt Park, Chicago. As a student of printmaking and book arts she likes to incorporate paper, letter shapes, book forms, and multiples into her work. With this she is able to explore ideas of communication and storytelling. When not in the studio, Emma is cuddling her dog, reading dystopian or self-help literature, or painting edges of business cards at Rohner Letterpress.
With access to Spudnik facilities, I will implement multiple printing methods for the completion of this project. The bulk of the case-bound book will consist of copperplate intaglio prints that include screen printed and letterpress elements. I hope to experiment with translucency though the use of transparent and/or clear substrates, building layered imagery.
I would like to use this book and supporting, framed visual elements as a vehicle to explore ideas of communication, more specifically communication between myself and those I love. With text-like elements in a book-like format I plan to address the benefits of transparency in dialogue all the while finding comfort in a hidden fog of silence or ambiguity.
A recent BFA Printmaking graduate of Ohio University, Dan Manion is an interdisciplinary artist and storyteller with an affinity for all forms of visual and auditory narrative. He wishes to continue pursuing printed and moving imagery to expand upon his experimentation with various storytelling forms which allow us to simultaneously escape, cope with, and confront our own experiences with the world. His narrative goals aim to evoke intimate, visceral and empathetic connections between diverse viewers.
My process begins with memory, photography and storytelling. I reflect on my time spent in Léogâne, Haiti, the birthplace of my parents, during my childhood and my time there as an adult. I focus on the conversations I had with the elders in my immediate family where knowledge of lineage, wisdom and laughter were all shared with me. I often flip through the photographs in my personal album that I’ve taken of my family members that serve as archival reference materials for my own work.
Moving in the direction of traditional practices has lead me back to a familial practice I first learned through my maternal grandfather, farming. I question how the farm can serve as an art studio and the greater relationship between food and art and what that means for black communities. Through the medium of collage I combine black models with produce to create another outlook of viewing blackness, one that takes into account those tools we already have and at the same time connecting two communities, artist and farmers in conversation.
David Soukup [born 1985] is known for his stunning hand-cut stencil paintings of the urban environment which lie at the boundary between photo-realism and graphic design. Soukup catalogs city life, specifically the life in his hometown of Chicago, and the decaying and now forgotten alleys and fire escapes of a previous life. His paintings reflect accumulated memories and experiences, with rich texture, abstract, and intentional elements and techniques.
Follow David on Instagram @soukupvisual
email: tpierson.pierson@gmail.com
instagram: @trent.pierson
