VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University, presents Houston Ink.  In conjunction with PrintHouston 2012, and on view Exhibition on view June 1-August 24.

Roundtable: Houston Collaborative Printmakers, Friday, June 1, at 6:30 p.m. Opening reception: June 1, 7:30 p.m.

""HOUSTON INK": A Panel Discussion and Houston Ink exhibition at Rice Media Center
Moderated by Karin Broker. Panelists include Kelly Moran of Nau-haus Art & Graphic, Carlos Hernandez  and Pat Masterson of Burning Bones Press, and Isaac Menge of Night Owls.

This first presentation of works from Nau-haus Art & Graphic (NAG) collaborations presented at "Houston Ink" include artists :
Ann Harithas
Susan Plumb
Marzia Faggin
Kelly Moran
James Magee
George Gittoes
Sharon Kopriva
Nancy Reddin Kienholz

Curator statement: As a printmaking educator and the Director and collaborative printmaker for the PrintPalace Press at Rice University I’m interested and fascinated by the dynamics of a group of people working in sync to produce an artist’s vision on a piece of paper, the surface of a six pack of Saint Arnold’s Beer (Burning Bones Press) or in the case of Night Owls Print Shop on sheets of wood.

It takes a toolbox filled with inventiveness, superb technical skills, very cool equipment, a willingness to work hard, and a search for new technology to bring a visual idea to the final state of Editioning. But there must also be a mix of niceness, kindness, good sense of humor, generosity, laughter and more than a little alcohol to ever insure that this process will repeat itself with another artist. I believe that without a healthy and even insane collaborative spirit the concept of working with artists wouldn’t interest the three print shops in this exhibition.

Their ability to forge ahead with first-class printmaking tools and more than a fair share of creativity makes Neu-haus Art & Graphics, Burning Bones Press and the Night Owls Print Shop places of magic. You only need to walk into these ink scented, press and computer heavy shops to realize that your brain automatically jumpstarts itself into high gear creativity mode.

These guys are hubs of print energy. Whatever art ideas you walk through their doors with Dan Allison, Carlos Hernandez, Pat Masterson and Isaac Menge are automatically and genetically tuned to take hold of those bits and enthusiastically convert them into shinier, more exciting, more “you” pieces of art worthy of multiple production.

The exhibited works from all three shops are dynamic and they beautifully reflect the artists’ own singular expressions but the collaborative teams behind these works are the silent magicians who have made these art productions a merry dance of brilliant expertise and eye-popping wizardry. I thought you should see for yourself what the best of Houston has to offer.

Karin Broker
Professor of Printmaking and Drawing
Rice University

Pictured bove: Nancy Reddin Kienholz, "Fortune's Cookie," polymer photogravure on Rives BFK, fortune cookie transfers,  with film transparency overlay, 20"x 22" y. 2006 edition of 10 variant impressions, collection of Bart Truxillo.