Milestones - Black Church Print Studio
Transcription
Milestones - Black Church Print Studio
Milestones BLACK CHURCH PRINT STUDIO 1982 – 2007 Milestones 9 77 0 26 3 9 4 70 08 BLACK CHURCH PRINT STUDIO 1982 – 2007 Past & present members Black Church Print Studio 1982 – 2007 Louise Allen Deborah Ando Joy Arden Jordi Arko Aïda Bangoura Dawn Barry Kate Betts Caroline Bouguereau Maggie Boyd Lucy Braddell Margaret Bradish Cecily Brennan Paul Brooks Geraldine Bruce Mary Burke Anya Burton Bob Byrne Caroline Byrne Catherine Byrne Michael Byrne Claire Carpenter Jonathan Cassidy Niamh Clancy Michael Colman Linda Condon Barrie Cooke Liadin Cooke Michael Corcoran Gráinne Cuffe Siobhan Cuffe Brian Cullen Cora Cummins Pauline Cummins Gina Davey Janine Davidson Jan de Fouw Mary Delany Lynda Devenney John Devlin Alexandra Domaradzka Phoebe Donovan David Doran Gráinne Dowling Barbara Dunne Aoife Dwyer Declan Finn Dermot Finn Emma Finucane Brian Fitzgerald Mary Fitzgerald Jane Fitzsimons Niamh Flanagan Taffina Flood Monica Flynn Andrew Folan Annette Foley Michael Ford Mary Frazer Martin Gale Jane Garland Arthur Gibney Joan Gleeson John Graham Noel Guilfoyle Naomi Hanrahan Nickie Hayden Michael Hegarty Catherine Hehir Jamie Helly Paula Henihan St John Hennessy John Hern John Hewitt Pete Hogan Sara Horgan Sandy Hudson Patricia Hurl Margaret Irwin Karen Johnson Sandra Johnston Peter Jones Eithne Jordan Ann Kavanagh Catherine Kelly John Kelly David Kiely Frank Kiely Brian Kreydatus Lisa Langhey Elaine Leader Catriona Leahy Maureen Levy Róisín Lewis Aidan Linehan Catherine Lynch Mairead Lynch Anthony Lyttle Theo MacNab Colin Martin Marie Louise Martin Michele Martin Brid McCartin Ann McDonald Fiona McDonald Patrick McElroy Christy McGinn David McGinn Yvonne McGuinness Tom McGuirk Anne Marie McInerney Theresa McKenna Aileen McKeogh Margaret McLoughlin Greta McMahon Louise Meade John Meagher John Meany Breda Mooney Tom Moore Pat Moran Sarah Moylan Rose Mary Murray Blake Patricia Neary Silvia Nevado Roca Ailbhe Ní Bhriain Liam Ó Broin Margaret O’Brien Pádraig Ó Cuimín Eamonn O’Doherty Sarah O’Doherty Siobhan O’Donnell Catherine O’Dowd Gwen O’Dowd Margaret O’Hagan Seán Ó Murchú Sinéad O’Reilly Geraldine O’Reilly Colette O’Sullivan Michael O’Sullivan Louise Peat Alison Pilkington Peter Power Conor Regan Marc Reilly Jean Rooney Piia Rossi Thierry Rudin Pamela Ryan Maura Selfe Naomi Sex Vincent Sheridan Silje Skuterud Dorothy Smith Paki Smith Rob Smith Louise Somers Simon Spain Jacqueline Stanley Rose Stapleton Tracy Staunton Yvonne Sweeney Liz Smyth Michael Timmins Yvan Vansevenant Stephen Vaughan Stephen Webster Rachel Weir Oliver Whelan Charlie Whisker Conor Wickham Annraoi Wyer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.Foreword Kate Betts 6.Black Church Print Studio chairpersons 12.History of Black Church Print Studio Sara Horgan 22.Born again and again Andrew Folan 30.Milestones / Miles’s tones: A coincidence Brian Fay 38.Illustrations 120.Biographies 138.Glossary of terms Kate Betts 144.Artist index Published in an edition of 500 by the Black Church Print Studio, 4 Temple Bar, Dublin 2 to accompany the exhibition ‘Milestones’ at the Office of Public Works, 51 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 1-22 November 2007 ISBN 978-0-9557248-0-0 © Black Church Print Studio & the artists First edition 2007 Front cover: Black Church Print Studio, Temple Bar – installing printing press through the studio window on the second floor. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Project Co-ordinator Hazel Burke, Black Church Print Studio Essays Sara Horgan, Andrew Folan & Brian Fay Artwork photography Ronan McCrea Studio photography David McGinn Proofreading Aoife O'Kelly Editors Kate Betts, Vincent Sheridan, Claire Carpenter & Janine Davidson Design & production Peter Maybury Studio Printing & reproduction Drukkerij Rosbeek bv Binding binders name here (printer adds this) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to Milestones, an exhibition and publication celebrating twenty-five years of the Black Church Print Studio. Selected from the work of all our members, past and present, this show is diverse in medium, style and subject and as such I hope it gives a sense of the artistic terrain and the distance covered since a small, passionate group of artists opened the doors to a new kind of printmaking facility twenty-five years ago. Established in 1982, the Black Church provides facilities for and nurtures printmaking artists from all over Ireland, and the world. We facilitate the very oldest of printmaking media right through to the most modern: woodblock, etching and lithography are housed cheek-by-jowl with the twentieth-century developments of photo-reprographics and screen-printing as well as the latest in computer aided design and digital printers. In short, the whole rich diversity of the printmaking genre is available; each separate medium having its own unique expressive possibilities for the artist. The studio also provides an editioning service for artists in other media, who can work with a master printmaker to realise works of art in an unfamiliar medium. We run an exhibitions programme, which includes regular international exchanges. Meanwhile through our education programme we aim to maintain and improve the printmaking skills-base in Ireland and to promote awareness and understanding of printmaking amongst the art world and the public. Foreword Kate Betts Chairperson The ‘Milestones’ exhibition was selected by Brian Fay, artist and lecturer in Fine Art at the Dublin Institute of Technology together with Andrew Folan, print and digital artist and lecturer in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Both Brian Fay and Andrew Folan have also contributed thoughtprovoking essays to this publication, and I thank them both for their vital collaboration and support. We are very happy to also enjoy the ongoing support of the Arts Council of Ireland, without which the Black Church Print Studio would no doubt be a very different organisation. Finally, I must acknowledge the work, dedication and passion of so many people, some paid but mostly voluntary, over the last quarter of a century. It is thanks to all this past, present and, we trust, future generosity that the Black Church Print Studio is here to enjoy and build upon its twenty-fifth year of artistic endeavour. 5 BLACK CHURCH PRINT STUDIO CHAIRPERSONS Black Church Print Studio Chairpersons ---------------------------------------------- The Beginnings 1980 – 1990 The growth of printmaking in Ireland during this time was concurrent with a flourishing growth in confidence in Irish Fine Art. Michael Byrne, Phoebe Donovan, Liam Ó Broin, Sara Horgan and Pádraig Ó Cuimín were the small group of passionate individuals who, led by the late John Kelly, set out to facilitate this growth by creating a new kind of printmaking studio; one which would include the oldest technology side by side with the newest. They were later joined by Barbara Dunne, Andrew Folan, Jan de Fouw, Ken Langan, Marie Louise Martin and Jacqueline Stanley. Initially without formally identified roles, and later employing a rotating chair system, each of these people played a key role in the establishment of the Black Church Print Studio; particularly Sara Horgan who also acted as Administrator. This gradual development of formal structures at the Black Church reflects the true nature of a grass-roots artists’ organisation. Jan de Fouw Hon NCAD Chairperson 1990 – 1996 With the National College of Art and Design now awarding diplomas in printmaking, membership and ambitions continued to grow at the Black Church. Emerging as a natural facilitator and motivator, able to sum up wide-ranging discussions, Jan de Fouw was the first formal Chairperson of what was by now an incorporated company. The fire which destroyed the Studio in 1990 created the biggest challenge to date – that of keeping the spirit of the Studio alive when its building had been lost. Jan describes this as a time of ‘lots of energy awaiting direction’. The Board of Directors pressed ahead with the planned exhibitions programme and started yet again the difficult search for premises. Black Church finally reopened for business at its new purpose-built Temple Bar premises in 1993. Designed by McCullough Mulvin Architects, the building won the Downes Medal awarded by the Architectural Association of Ireland in 1996. (for example of work by Jan de Fouw see page 48) 7 Milestones ---------------------------------------------- Andrew Folan Chairperson 1997 - 1999 Describing the day-to-day life of working in a Temple Bar studio ‘like running a business in a theme park for boozing’, Andrew Folan nonetheless gave 16 years service to the Black Church, two of which were as Chair. During this time digital technologies were increasingly used by artists world-wide, not least by Black Church’s own members. The Studio welcomed these developments with open arms and the Board showed support with the purchase of new equipment. Andrew’s own work reflects this ethos, having exhibited consistently during this time, his work is typified by the very considered use of a wide range of techniques, embracing both the tradition and the cutting edge of printmaking. ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- Ken Langan Chairperson 1996 – 1997 Having already served on the Board for five years, Ken Langan’s history of commitment and creative contribution to the Studio were key in his being elected to the chair. But as an accountant by profession, Ken was initially somewhat reluctant to take on the role. Yet it was his particular expertise both as an accountant and as Assistant Director of the National College of Art and Design that was vital in this period. Ken established the finances of the Black Church; a vital grounding on which the organisation was able to stand steady and look to the future. He then launched a period of expansion at Black Church, attracting new members to both the Studio and the Board. Dr Tom McGuirk Chairperson 2000 – 2003 Tom McGuirk enjoyed his term as Chairperson and attributes this not only to his self-professed delegation skills, but also to the cooperation and selfless dedication of the Board and Administrator at that time – Avril Percival. During Tom’s time as Chair, Black Church welcomed new graduates working in digital media and launched the website print.ie. The exhibitions programme was used as an agent to encourage experimentation, by setting themes such as ‘Challenging Conventions’ for members’ shows. This was an outward-looking time and an international dimension was introduced to the exhibitions programme with shows in Paris and Stockholm. Plans were also put in place for an exchange exhibition with the New York Society of Etchers. At a time when other artist-focused organisations were folding due to cutbacks in Arts Council funding, Black Church balanced the books and, in recognition of this and other successes, received assurance of stable and secure funding on an annual basis from the Arts Council of Ireland. Also at this time, health and safety issues in all industries had come to the foreground. Printmaking has historically been highly toxic, and since Dürer’s day there has been much anecdotal evidence of the poor health and short lives of printmakers. The Board ordered a health and safety audit of the building. As anticipated, improvements to the ventilation of the building were recommended which required a significant capital investment. 8 Andrew Folan Surface Dwelling, 1986 photo–etching and aquatint, A/P 86 x 47 cm Tom McGuirk Detritus (Strangels), 1996 etching, 4/30 75 x 53 cm Milestones Kate Betts Toad that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one, 2007 screenprint and origami, Unlimited Edition 25 x 10 x 22 cm Margaret McLoughlin The Road Through, 2006 carborundum etching, 1/20 47 x 66 cm ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- Margaret McLouglin BA Fine Art, Printmaking Chairperson 2003 – 2006 At the beginning of Margaret McLoughlin’s term as Chairperson the Board undertook the two-fold challenge of raising the € 55,000 required for the ventilation project and installation of the system. The phenomenally successful ‘BOXiD’ exhibition raised a substantial amount. It was an ‘anonymous’ show, with the artist revealed on purchase. Along with the support of the Arts Council and Friends of the Black Church, this secured the funds for the ventilation project to proceed. Key in bringing the project to successful completion was board member and architect Ronan Phelan of Scott Tallon Walker, who gave generously of his time and expertise to ensure that Black Church installed a state-of-the-art ventilation system that would protect the health of printmakers for years to come. Kate Betts BA Hons Fine Art, Printmaking Chairperson 2006 – to date There has been much change at Black Church recently, with Administrator Avril Percival resigning after seven years of committed service to study for a Masters in Art History. Technician Michael Timmins also left after seven years to take up a place at the world-renowned centre for lithography, the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico and finally, Studio Technical Manager Colin Martin was enjoying such success in his own artistic career that he no longer needed to subsidise his art with a ‘day job’, resigning after eight years. Amidst this intense period of change, Kate Betts began her term as Chair and the Board set about recruiting a new staff team. The artistic development of the Studio continued and to this end equipment was bought and upgraded, while the introduction of the Black Church Graduate Award attracted a flow of new talent. Emphasis was also placed on continuing to raise the international profile of the Black Church; the exchange exhibition with the New York Society of Etchers went ahead, as did an exchange with Danske Grafikere Hus of Copenhagen, where Studio members’ work stood up well in an international context. To celebrate the Black Church’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the Board launched an ambitious and varied series of events bringing members’ work out of the traditional print venues and into a broader arena. The programme included two member shows in the Original Print Gallery; a collaboration with the Lab, Dublin; a site-specific show on Grattan Bridge and the ‘Milestones’ exhibition which included work from the twenty-five years of the Studio’s history. In the spirit of fairness and transparency the current Board has committed to working with arts professionals from outside the Studio whenever possible for the selection of Black Church exhibitions, as well as for the twice-yearly selection of new members. With the acceptance of video art into the mainstream, artists and the public are open, more than ever, to the concept of multiples, and to the authenticity of work produced in edition. Continuing its commitment to education, Black Church has responded to demand by running more printmaking courses for the public than ever before, while the Board has also begun to exploit the grass-roots style communication made possible by the internet to promote its activities and in 2007 launched the new ‘National Print Studio Network’ linking people, skills and facilities across Ireland. 9 11 HISTORY OF BLACK CHURCH PRINT STUDIO History of Black Church Print Studio Sara Horgan Black Church Print Studio first opened for business on 1 October 1982 but the very first committee meeting had been two years before that on 1 January 1980, in my kitchen. The initial Board of Directors was appointed, Liam Ó Broin, Michael Byrne, Pádraig O Cuimín and Phoebe Donovan, who was backing a new enterprise at almost 80 years of age, with myself, Sara Horgan as Secretary and John Kelly as the first rotating Chairman. The Arts Council’s suggestion was to establish a major national print centre, in much improved premises, to include expanded printmaking facilities catering for the development of innovative and experimental work. The national print centre would also engage in active marketing methods, offer an editioning service to artists, participate in exhibitions both nationally and internationally and tour Studio exhibitions. The only print studio in the country at that time was Graphic Studio Dublin, established 20 years earlier. It was located in a rather dank basement in Upper Mount Street. Patrick Hickey was the Director for the first ten years, John Kelly for another ten and Leslie MacWeeney, whom I later succeeded, was Secretary. The Arts Council was aware of developments in France and the United States that were reviving the arcane world of printmaking, and in 1977, under the Directorship of Colm Ó Briain, approached Graphic Studio Dublin with a suggestion of expansion. Apart from the cramped and oversubscribed conditions in Upper Mount Street, this expansion was necessary because the National College of Art and Design was undergoing major changes and was about to start awarding diplomas and later degrees in printmaking. Graphic Studio Dublin, as the only existing public printmaking facility in Ireland, would shortly become inadequate. The search for premises began. Dublin City Librarian Deirdre Ellis-King, who was a colleague of John Kelly’s, suggested we look at St Mary’s Chapel of Ease beside Parnell Square, known as the Black Church for its particular dark stone called Dublin calp. The property had huge potential and the City Development Department offered it to us for a peppercorn rent. We had conversion plans drawn up by Richard Hurley Architects, to include the replacement of what seemed to be crumbling plaster on the walls. Every organic growth has birth pangs and the membership of Graphic Studio Dublin was divided for and against this expansion, with members becoming more and more disaffected. This led to a tumultuous period, which was resolved by a mass meeting in the United Arts Club in 1979, chaired by Professor George Dawson, as a Patron of Graphic Studio Dublin. The majority decided to stay in Upper Mount Street and the group of dissenting members left to continue with expansion plans, therefore splitting from Graphic Studio Dublin. 13 HISTORY OF BLACK CHURCH PRINT STUDIO Black Church Print Studio finally opened in October 1982 with a positive ethos: entry was by invitation or portfolio. At least a token payment for all services rendered was given; one print from every edition was to be donated to the Studio. There was an encouraging studio atmosphere and an open welcome. Learners’ access was by a strict progression from beginner, to working under supervision and to possibly evolving into a full member and key holder. Experienced printmakers joined, Gráinne Cuffe was the first, followed by Jackie Stanley. We offered beginner printmaking courses in January 1983 and by that September we ran an intensive week to attract artists. We had an excellent line-up: Cecily Brennan, Eithne Jordan, James McCreary, Aileen McKeogh, Theo McNab, Michael O’Sullivan, Rob Smith and Oliver Whelan. By late 1983, Andrew Folan had replaced Liam Ó Broin as a Director on the Board and brought his darkroom experience to the Studio. We set ourselves up as a Company Limited by Guarantee under the name Black Church Print Studio. We submitted conversion plans for the Black Church to the Arts Council, who agreed to give us £80,000, which was a lot of money at the time. However, as the Dublin saying goes, ‘Three times around the Black Church and you meet the devil’. As we had concerns about the plaster in the Black Church, we had it analysed and found that it was a double layer of disintegrating asbestos. To remove it would add £40,500 to the cost, which we were unwilling to bear. We started house-hunting again. One of the best options, which came through Pádraig O Cuimín, architect in CIE, was in the area that CIE was reserving for a transport centre in Temple Bar. This was a magnificent ex-clothing factory, too big for our needs. We approached the Arts Council with the idea of them taking on the building and running it as a multiple tenancy of arts organisations – this was already happening in the London docklands and in Scotland. The factory eventually became the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, under brave Jenny Haughton. That same year Graphic Studio Dublin left their Upper Mount Street premises and moved to Green Street East. They also opened a Print Gallery in the Powerscourt Town House on South William Street. Nevertheless, the Arts Council was still pressing for the idea of a national print centre and together both studios looked at a number of alternative buildings for sale. We kept the name Black Church Print Studio in the firm hope of the eventual resolution of our housing situation but without working facilities we risked losing all momentum. However, within a short time we rented a unit temporarily at Ardee House at the top of the Coombe. Loughlin Kealy, later Professor of Architecture in University College Dublin, advised us on the initial layout. We settled in, ordering and installing new and second-hand equipment, and establishing workshop practice. In 1984 the first Black Church Print Studio exhibition was held in the Triskel Art Centre in Cork. The first in Dublin was over Ray’s Restaurant on Crow Street, which travelled to Longford. Our artistic profile was beginning to increase, Gráinne Cuffe was awarded a scholarship to the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico and the Arts Council organised VIP representatives to visit from print societies and museums in Cleveland and Sweden. The first Studio scholarship was awarded to Christy McGinn. We published Ireland’s first commissioned fine art lithograph, Barrie Cooke’s Megaceros Hibernicus (Great Irish Elk), and later we printed a cover illustration by Barrie for a John Montague poetry collection. Ms Laura Magahy, former MD of Temple Bar Properties, Mr Leslie Waddington of Waddington Galleries, London and Mr Jan de Fouw by the large format etching press at the official launch of the Black Church Print Studio. 15 The crowd gathers and awaits Mr Leslie Waddington, the official speaker at the launch of the Original Print Gallery and the Black Church Print Studio. Milestones The Douglas Hyde Gallery organised educational tours to the Studio and Art History students visited from the National College of Art and Design. The second Irish Miniprint exhibition followed, administered by Mary Bryans and jointly sponsored by the Rohan Group and We Frame It. Held in the RHA Gallery in 1987 and including 541 entries from 22 countries, it was numerically bigger than Living Art, Oireachtas and Rosc exhibitions combined. The show toured Kilkenny, Limerick and Cork and brought in excellent sales and publicity for print and for the Studio. The first British Miniprint exhibition followed, organised by Peter Ford, the winner of the First Prize at our exhibition. In 1985 the Arts Council, under the new Directorship of Adrian Munnelly, announced that they had agreed with Dublin Corporation to share the cost of the asbestos removal in the Black Church and suggested that the two studios regroup. It was too late. We found ourselves in an enforced marriage of the two Studios, which entailed shared Arts Council budget applications. This system was to be eventually annulled in 1989, ten years after the split. Nonetheless, our members were making their mark in Studio and other exhibitions, Gráinne Dowling won a Salmon poetry magazine award, Andy Folan won the Douglas Hyde Gold Medal for Print at the Oireachtas, Marie Louise Martin won a Print Award at the RHA, as I did in the last Bradford Biennale. We became much more ambitious in 1986 when John Kelly suggested we stage a First Irish Miniprint exhibition. It was held at the Hendriks Gallery on St Stephen’s Green, with 326 prints on show. This exhibition was sponsored by We Frame It and short-listed for a Sunday Tribune Arts Award. After Michael Byrne’s death in 1988, John Kelly, Dan Treston (Michael’s life partner), and I set up an exhibition in the Davis Gallery and announced the Michael Byrne Scholarship for Printmakers, the first of which was awarded to Michael Corcoran. After Dan died, I handed over this scholarship to the Arts Council to administer. By September of 1990, our Committee was Barbara Dunne, Andy Folan, Jan de Fouw, Marie Louise Martin, Jackie Stanley and me. A total of 79 artists had used our Studio. We had organised a total of 22 Studio exhibitions and had a further 8 in the pipeline. We were starting to prepare the European Large Format Printmaking exhibition. We were also lining up a Studio exhibition in The Hague for the next year and another in the Riverrun Gallery Dublin. The ILAC Library had asked for a small exhibition and Jan de Fouw was organising a Studio calendar to benefit the Rape Crisis Centre. We were in negotiations with our landlord about moving the screenprint area into a second unit at a reduced rate. Then we had a break-in by kids (judging by the footprints) who got the petty cash box. The window was reset with fresh iron bars, but a week later they got in again. This time, not finding the petty cash, they set fire to the Studio. The ensuing fire was compounded by explosions of inks and solvents and much was lost by fire or water damage, including the Studio’s records. Links continued with Graphic Studio Dublin over the following years. Still on a joint Arts Council budget, Marie Louise Martin and I were asked to view the site of what was to become the Graphic Studio Dublin’s new gallery off Cope Street. In 1987, to coincide with a celebration of Irish women artists in the National Gallery and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Graphic Studio Dublin gallery at Powerscourt mounted an exhibition of Irish women printmakers: Maria Simmonds Gooding, Alice Hanratty, Jenny Lane, Mary Farl Powers, Anne Madden and me. 16 Milestones Once the Temple Bar Properties Ltd submission arrived at a financial package and planning permission for a purpose-built studio and gallery, I resigned, burnt out and thanks to an aunt’s legacy left for Samarkand, and later Timbuctoo. Everyone rallied around, our members, friends and several members of Graphic Studio Dublin. We dismantled presses, shifting what could be salvaged, and gave Graphic Studio Dublin the ball-grainer we had got from the Ordnance Survey. Members claimed back what was left of their work and gear. Everything was put into storage. It was back to the kitchen table for Board meetings, with the charred filing cabinet in the living room. A formal meeting for all the Studio members followed at the Artists Association of Ireland office in Liberty Hall, chaired by Jan de Fouw. The members voted overwhelmingly for the Studio to continue, encouraged by our insurance loss adjuster’s hard work, which provided the seed money to carry on. Our show at Riverrun Gallery Dublin became a Phoenix Exhibition to publicise our crisis and we took a collection in a fireman’s helmet. The aspiration of a national print centre never materialised, but the aims of regular and travelling exhibitions, active marketing, editioning, galleries, screen-printing and darkroom, were all achieved over time. Through our Studio shows, we made print and the Studio better known in both national and international contexts and more particularly, in generating the two Irish Miniprint and Large Format Printmaking exhibitions we surpassed our original aims. Also, we wholeheartedly played a part in advising the growing network of print studios in Ireland. Andy undertook to administer the European Large Format Printmaking exhibition in the Guinness Hopstore and negotiated printing facilities for Studio members in the National College of Art and Design for the summer. I set up viewings of yet more premises from an armchair after a car crash. After some false starts with other premises, such as Marrowbone Lane, Cornmarket and Broadstone, I was finally able to enter negotiations with Temple Bar Properties Ltd and we were accepted as clients by them on the evening of the Large Format Printmaking exhibition opening. We held a viewing in the RHA Gallery for Studio members, of McCullough Mulvin’s architectural proposal for the new studio beside their scheme for Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. We had come full circle. All that time and effort spent in house-hunting was validated by the eventual resolution, a new purpose-built printmaking studio right in the middle of Temple Bar: and the legacy continues. Sara Horgan, Director and Administrator of the Black Church Print Studio (1980 - 1992). 18 Mr Leslie Waddington (left) and Mr Jan de Fouw, former Chairman, standing near the Relief Press at the official launch of the Black Church Print Studio. (below) Black Church Print Studio, Ardee Street (after the Studio fire in 1990). (opposite) Contact sheet of photographs taken during the installation of printmaking equipment into the new Studio premises in 4 Temple Bar in 1993. BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN The curious process of intaglio printing is practised today at the Black Church Print Studio, in the same manner as it has been for centuries throughout Europe. Its invention stems from a fortuitous discovery in fifteenth-century Germany when armourers sought to keep records of their heraldic designs. They discovered they could print basic images by filling the engraved lines with ink and pressing paper on to them. These early graphics served as guides to the restoration of suits of armour, as well as forming an archive of designs for future clients. Stemming from the success of these images, engraving and subsequently other forms of intaglio were adopted as printing methods in their own right. Although woodcut printing preceded this practice, intaglio printing was revolutionary in the distribution of image and text. Since its primitive origins as a recording method, the constant need for image and information set in place a process of refinement in the quest for greater quality and speed of print production. Curiously, as the commercial world shed old methods for new, artists rescued printing machines, fostered the processes and re-employed them in their less time dependent creative imaging. The term printmaking was coined to distinguish the use of print for purely artistic purposes. Andrew Folan Born again and again Historically printmaking has developed alongside painting and sculpture, while maintaining a distinctive quality. From its beginnings as a reproductive process, through its vital role in politics and society, to more recent formal and conceptual concerns, printmaking has secured its position within the fine arts. Allied to graphic communication and publishing, it keeps pace with the latest developments in the printing world (although usually one step behind). The continually expanding range of methods is daunting, and keeping up with new technologies, while maintaining traditional ones, presents an ever-increasing challenge, particularly in the management of print workshops like the Black Church. 23 Milestones Printmaking is taught at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), for example, as a specialist subject equal in potential to any other discipline. Students there have had the option of taking print to degree level since the mid 1970s. Print is taught as a fine art subject despite its somewhat craft-like methodology. Without doubt a certain amount of craft and skill are required if one is to achieve success in its delivery. To do anything beyond dabble in print requires a specific temperament. Print is so intrinsically linked to modes of drawing, painting and photography that of course boundaries overlap. What is certain, however, is that print requires a controlled and systematic approach. Inherent is the need for a certain amount of pre-planning or at least an appreciation of the mutability that results from the progressive application of process. Master printer Aldo Crommelynck, describing Picasso’s love of intaglio printing, stated: Throughout 500 years printmaking has maintained an exclusive role in the dissemination and marketing of images, mostly by established artists. The Pop Art movement of the 1960s gave a new credence to the perception of printmaking. Artists such as Warhol, Rauschenberg and Hamilton employed photo-print techniques in reaction to Abstract Expressionism, while devoted to their own specific populist agendas. Utilising the most up-to-speed methods and materials print was at the forefront of what was then considered new technology. It was also recognised as the most democratic art form and was employed in social and political causes throughout eastern Europe in particular. Some artists chose to realise their images exclusively through print and this interest encouraged the introduction of specialist print courses in colleges throughout Europe and America. ‘… working with Picasso, there was no technical failure; it was the easiest thing to do.When he was dissatisfied with a plate, he would take it and scrape large areas, it didn’t bother him. I offered to help, but he never accepted. It was known to the people around him that when he dedicated himself to printmaking, especially intaglio, he was in a good mood – he didn’t mind seeing visitors.When he was in a painting sequence, he didn’t want to see anybody. Drawing on the etching plate was a very casual process for him.’ Picasso was working towards an ultimate conclusion – repeatedly altering the plate in search of the desired effect. The printing plate provided a challenge for him. His physical manipulation of the surface and his desire to utilise the full range of possibilities was very much part of his creative process. While the desire of most artists is usually to force a conclusion, provision should be made also for the notion of the artist as explorer engaged in the open-ended journey of transformative production. 24 BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN The act of breaking the creative process into discrete stages introduces a circuitous path and opens the potential for unexpected diversion. For many the journey will be more interesting than the destination. Print is unique in the fine arts in its ability to retain a record of the development and evolution of an image through printed states. This is a valuable quality enabling the artist to systematically refine a work. The resulting sequence may also be a creative exercise in itself. The mechanically reproductive nature of printing enables the serial evolution of image and concept, and the subsequent recording of this in printed form. In a tentative fashion, this quality takes print beyond the confines of static rendering and places it alongside dynamic time based media such as animation, film and video. A sequence of prints is, thus, a sequence of frames containing alterations and additions in smooth linear transition. This has been demonstrated to great effect by treating the plate as a palimpsest – systematically erasing and reworking the surface, while recording each transition. The resulting series is, thus, readily locked into a sequence with every print having a readily identifiable location. This chain of events forms a code with many biological parallels. A less defined approach, open to discovery and interpretation as distinct from control and structure, is highly engaging and rewarding for some. There will always be a percentage of artists who welcome the ‘happy accident’ when a mistake proves fortuitous. This is not at all unusual in such process dependent production and where the manifestation of an image is so many steps removed from the hand of the artist. George Baselitz once said of intaglio printing: ‘Working on zinc or For print artists the 1980s were particularly scary! While the bold character of woodcut and the emotive energy required to make drypoints shared values central to Neo-expressionism, print lacked the dynamism and physicality of the enormous paintings produced at that time. Print was not included in the blockbuster exhibitions, which heralded a ‘new spirit in painting’. An equivalent regeneration did not occur in print. Susan Tallman, hightlighted the problem in her publication ‘The Contemporary Print’. Print was considered neither fish nor fowl. ‘Partly hand made and partly automated, partly populist and partly elitist, the original print has struck many as either a fussy little craft or as posters with pretensions.’ Many artists failed to see the worth of so much complex process. Indirect methodology often requiring a synthesis of separate components proved problematic for some. Those who took time to master print were often seen to do so at the expense of the main thrust of their concerns. Printmaking, which requires technical expertise, sophisticated equipment and mechanical printing presses, was executed in shared workshops rather than private studios. Produced in relatively small format and with an emphasis on producing commercially viable editions, it was thought of as ancillary to mainstream art activity. In 1991 European artists addressed this perceived failing, producing large-format prints specifically for an exhibition at the Guinness Hop Store, Dublin. The show, ‘European Large Format Printmaking’, organised by the Black Church Print Studio, resulted in the production of prints in which large format was a central proposition. The exhibits, which spanned a broad range of processes, sought to overcome the limitations of printing by hand in innovative, novel and ultimately creative methods. copper plates demands a certain concentration, a certain isolation, almost a singularity. One is a strange man when one scratches these metal plates and it sometimes scares me’. 25 Milestones The remainder of the decade brought many changes in attitudes to printmaking. Initially access to computers and their widespread acceptance in the visual arts gave print a new relevance. Digitally created artworks had, up to recently, only one tangible form – that of print. The revolution in digital technology has marked a watershed in the practice of printmaking. Layer based image composition through PhotoShop, for example, uses a language already familiar to printmakers and gives them an advantage with this leading technology. Print artists can now excel in sophisticated productions without ever getting their hands inky! For many this transition has been automatic and welcome, for others it is not even worthy of consideration. authority and surface quality become manifestly independent of the content. The plate’s latent image – barely visible in its uniformity of copper colour and shallow depth – may only be realised through the application of ink and subsequent printing onto paper. The intaglio plate is a receptacle, a form of memory bank, capable of recalling on demand. An ‘original’ intaglio print is not a simulation, replica, or reproduction. The original print, as unique or as a multiple, evades definition. Its genesis from the nonimage matrix of the printing plate lends it a singularity. It is not a copy of the plate that gives rise to it. Born from the surface of the plate the first proof print is always a revelation. Seen for the first time in positive, reversed from its conceived state and standing in a light bas-relief it is truly something new. Even in its multiple form, it somehow retains originality. It is thus an emanation capable of being born again and again. So why do artists still choose the more traditional methods of printing when contemporary methods are cheaper, more refined and more expedient? One answer is that printing by hand affords a greater individualisation of mark and style. Another attraction is the nature of the process, which at times may seem mystical and even ritualistic in method and effect. For many artists, engagement with the tactile qualities of image production fulfils a deeply rooted need. For them the absence of surface and tactile qualities in digital synthesis is soulless, while traditional intaglio, for example, has an almost alchemical resonance. Tactile values are inherent in intaglio and may become manifest as central concerns in the symbiotic relationship between ideas and process. Working with intaglio plates, marks are incised, layers built up and a printed image delivered in a distinctly process based manner. The resulting product bears a resemblance to sculptural casting. The printing press forces paper into the hollows of the plate, making what is effectively a cast from the detail. The paper is stripped from the plate pulling ink from the finest mark. The indentations of the image are embossed as a light physical relief on to the paper. This formal ‘inkscape’ is unique to intaglio printing. It may be viewed independently of the image it forms and is one of the key attractions (and of course pitfalls) of the process. The deliberateness of the mark, its Andrew Folan is a print and digital artist and lecturer in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. 26 MILESTONES / MILES’S TONES: A COINCIDENCE Coincidences happen. The American author Paul Auster, famous for his use of chance, states: ‘There are coincidences and it is impossible to know what to make of them.’1 My Brian Fay coincidence occurred when I was asked to be involved in the selection of this show – I had just been listening to Miles Davis’s 1958 album Milestones. While this record is sometimes overshadowed by his later more famous collection Kind of Blue (1959), Milestones is known for its contrasting styles, range of technique and the bringing together of artists, in his case a sextet, who offered a special and unique mix. I hope it is no coincidence that these elements are also present in the ‘Milestones’ exhibition. Milestones / Miles’s tones: A In selecting a showcase of work there are many methods one could use. Choose chronologically, selecting representative pieces from each year. Choose one piece by every studio member. Look at different print methods and exhibit those. Impose specific thematic threads. What we tried to do was simply look at the work submitted and choose what we felt was the strongest. Perhaps this allowed coincidence to answer some of the questions we had asked ourselves. coincidence Different selectors would no doubt bring their own concerns, interests and influences to the table and, of course, arrive at different outcomes. No selection is infallible; it is always just a snapshot in time. In this case a snapshot trying to record 25 years of artistic production. When you assemble over 40 artists with diverse practices it might be coincidence that lets us look for connections, shared interests and subject matter. Independent pieces made at different times can seem to run into each other, creating counterpoints and dialogue. Obviously none of this could be intended by the artists, but it does create a context for us to reflect and respond to these relationships. Conceivably, it allows us to see how certain themes have changed and evolved; or remained unanswered questions that still need engagement. Themes include visual responses to literature, landscape and space, process-led work, self and identity, the extraordinary in the everyday and art as social/political engagement. 30 31 Milestones Landscape and the depiction of space play a significant and diverse role in many of the pieces presented here. In Cora Cummins’ subtle etching Factory Mountain, landscape and location act as anchors for issues of refuge, a wishing to be elsewhere and the commodification of leisure time. The finely rendered etchings Tent and Hammock by Colin Martin depict familiar settings and scenes of recreation and leisure where wider narrative themes – beyond what are shown – are implied. Barbara Dunne’s sensitively balanced etching Yellow Flower, The Touch, Blue Feather Triptych is emblematic of her interest in space as an expanded vista, a site for transformation and nurture. Joan Gleeson’s two etchings Moon Shadow and the recent Into the Depths skillfully show her ongoing interest in man’s imprint on nature. Jacqueline Stanley’s elegantly structured etching and aquatint The Palm House and Morning Glory show the shift in her focus to landscape work during this earlier period of her practice. Kate Betts inventive use of a Turner landscape highlights her concern with dialogically opposed systems of thought. Hope III – Sky after Turner, a composite etching, presents an expanse of cloud comprising playing cards individually altered by Betts. Michael Timmins’ monochrome print Mesh Landscape depicts another type of pictorial space. One that is constructed through an intricate build up of delicate lines over broad stark solid areas. Anthony Lyttle’s etchings Enclosure I and Dot II also deal with elements of landscape, specifically its containment, division and transitional states. Equally in Stephen Vaughan’s work there is an interest in deriving marks and systems from architectural forms. Juggernaut, an etching and screenprint contrasts organic forms with geometric shapes alluding to the imposition of man in the natural world. Transitional states might also be, by coincidence, referred to in Paki Smith’s etching Wildman Burns the City. In his biographical piece for this catalogue Smith mentions the studio fire in 1990. Perhaps, one might suppose, an image that could have inspired this piece. The identification of these headings is not intended to be a definitive listing. Rather it is one of many possible readings that we as viewers can make. It is not intended to limit the potential responses to the artists’ work, or indeed to define the core of their practices, but to offer a framework to discuss the works on show. The continuing influence of Irish and European literature as a source for visual artworks can be seen from Eamonn O’Doherty’s 1982 etchings Ulysses – Cyclops/Citizen and Bloom in Nightown to Frank Kiely’s recent colourful screenprint Voyage to Houyhnhnms 2007, drawn from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Jan de Fouw’s detailed etching Amergin Hawk was created in response to and reproduced in a recent poetry collection. As well as literature being a source for content the book as an object has proved a rich vein for artists to pursue. In Marie Louise Martin’s recent piece Book of Days – September, we see a series of seven prints, developed from diaries and sketchbooks, threaded together referencing a book’s narrative and journey. We also receive a sense of Martin’s artistic journey with the much earlier double portrait etching Maud & Lottie, highlighting her interest in early Florentine Renaissance art. In Paula Henihan’s digital print My Life, we see the book used as a ground for an appropriated scientific image of a head and a tree, creating a dialogue between universal empirical sources and our own personal subjective histories. A different dialogue appears in Caroline Byrne’s Procession, a linocut on japanese paper. With great delicacy Byrne explores the natural world and its presence in an urban landscape. Byrne’s use of animal imagery is also shared with Jane Garland. Garland’s composite screenprint Unspeakable Pursuits draws from literary traditions of using animals as metaphors for understanding human society. Here the fox is emblematic of nature being excluded from our controlled human order. Similarly in the etchings of Vincent Sheridan, Motion II and Evening Dance, swarming birds are employed to mirror human group dynamics and social behaviour. The frantic motion of the birds is juxtaposed against the calmness of the landscape they travel over. 32 MILESTONES / MILES’S TONES: A COINCIDENCE questioning of a sense of self in a changing world. Self and identity is also examined by other artists in this exhibition. Catherine Lynch’s vivid Untitled IV silkscreen on cotton showing multiple figures against a patterned background refers to the choices that women make in relation to their domestic and work life. Louise Peat’s screenprint Deep Song shows a naked faceless female figure obscured against a black background, suggesting moments of change and flux both physical and psychological. Similarly in Rob Smith’s energetic To Catch a Cat we see a representative work from a practice that was concerned with an inner search for meaning. However it is the construction of buildings and the imposed order on our environment that inform Piia Rossi’s Paper Houses. These three-dimensional monoprints constructed to depict familiar, yet anonymous places, are made to relate to each other, allowing us to imagine a utopian or dystopian world they could occupy. Her exploration of the three-dimensional properties of print is also investigated in the work of Andrew Folan. Folan’s practice has constantly sought innovative forms for print, combining new technology with traditional techniques. His investigation is seen in the range of work here from the three-dimensional Parcel Constrained by its Image, Surface Dwelling to Love Heart 3. He allows collaboration in architecture, medicine and science to inform his own practice. Likewise Fiona McDonald draws on her background in chemistry to influence and define much of the outcomes in her print work. Scientific-like investigations into alternative methods of etching plates produces extraordinary results, as seen in Merging Waterlines and Untitled – Grey/White. Poet Patrick Kavanagh’s dictum to make the ordinary extraordinary unites a diverse range of work. Aoife Dwyer’s screenprint 25 Years details the residual marks of insignificant things, a subtle form of commemoration. Sara Horgan’s etching Love Letter 7 employs an ambiguity at the actual centre of her intriguing print. Framed by a Greek male/female pattern, is the image denoting a heart or a pelvis? Is this a physical residue of an emotional experience? Catherine Kelly’s striking screenprints Mother & Child and Teresa reflect her experience and knowledge of her subjects and surroundings. This is comparable in intention to Gráinne Dowling’s sensitive aquatint Resting, demonstrating a skillful response to her circumstances and environment. Margaret O’Brien’s wide ranging exploration of everyday objects and activities transformed by a replacement of their actual function is seen in her four screenprints Woman’s work IV, Dirty Trash II, Precious and Rubbish. Triptych, an etching by Silvia Nevado Roco, picks up on the playful qualities in O’Brien’s work. She transforms an ordinary chair into a more joyous object than perhaps originally intended. Sinéad O’Reilly in her finely rendered etching The Daydream also alludes to the everyday with an air of the unusual. Naomi Sex’s two atmospheric etchings Pick up Truck and Overhanging Wire present scenes of the mundane, where something of significance may have occurred. Alison Pilkington evidences the centrality of process in Even, an etched-lino print. Pilkington has specialised in this particular print form as it acts as an appropriate medium to retain the painterly qualities within her interdisciplinary practice. In Mary Fitzgerald’s Embedded Blue we can see her interest in the properties and potential of drawing. There is also a sophisticated questioning of the production of meaning, initially through the placement of elements within a composition, then the further placing of the artwork in the public arena. Strong associations with drawing can also be found in Aïda Bangoura’s It Doesn’t Count and It Doesn’t Count 1. A range of dynamic handmade marks are used, describing systems of time, fragments of writing, numbers suggesting calendars combine to give a sense of presence and disappearance. The use of supposed analytical imagery is also seen in the delicate and dreamlike etchings Untitled and Butterfly Net by Elaine Leader. Leader draws on a wide variety of sources, including botanical illustration and maps to populate her work. Each element contributes to her overall 33 Milestones Engagement with the social and political is also a strong undercurrent. Perhaps most explicitly so in Annraoi Wyer’s provocative screenprint Viper, juxtaposing a dictionary definition of a viper, a picture of the viper and an image of – the then centre of a political storm – Oliver North. Dermot Finn’s etching That Men Cannot Learn acknowledges preceding political printmakers such as Goya and Hogarth while drawing on contemporary media and street art giving his message a contemporary relevance. Equally in Margaret Irwin’s etching Sweet Flower of Youth current images of warfare are arranged around a poppy motif – a symbol synonymous with the First World War. Janine Davidson in her four etchings from the Little Devils series decontextualises motifs and iconography associated with different cultures allowing us to reinterpret their original meaning and create our own. Diverse cultures, and notions of the stranger provide a backdrop to Emma Finucane’s striking digital print Disappearing Other. Finucane engages in the debate of the role of the artist in society and how that position is defined and mediated in a significant way. In my role as selector I would like to thank the Black Church Print Studio for inviting me to be involved in this project. I would particularly like to thank Hazel Burke for all her help and patience and my fellow selector Andrew Folan. I hope we have caught a sense of the quality, diversity and endeavour that emerged from the Studio over the past 25 years. It is said that Miles Davis’s Milestones provided a platform of experimentation and technical virtuosity for his future work. Looking at this exhibition I believe that the next 25 years are in very good hands. And that is no coincidence. 1. Auster, Paul, Interview, The Art of Hunger, p 290, Faber and Faber, London, 1997 Brian Fay is an artist and lecturer in Fine Art at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin. 34 39 Aïda Bangoura It Doesn’t Count, 2007 silkscreen, 1/1 70 x 100 cm 40 Kate Betts Hope III (sky after Turner), 2003 etching à la poupée, composite, unique 104 x 247 cm 42 Caroline Byrne Procession, 2005 lino cut on japanese paper, monoprint 63 x 400 cm 44 Cora Cummins Factory Mountain, 2003 etching, A/P 71 x 100 cm 46 Janine Davidson Little Devils I, 2002 etching, 2/7 30 x 30 cm Janine Davidson Little Devils IV, 2002 etching, 2/7 30 x 30 cm 48 Jan de Fouw Amergin Hawk, 2000 copper etching, 5/12 38 x 33 cm 50 Gráinne Dowling Resting, 1989 aquatint & soft ground, 3/5 13 x 13 cm 52 Barbara Dunne Yellow Flower, The Touch, Blue Feather Triptych, 2001 etching, 8/10, 8/10 & 1/10 22 x 30 cm ea 54 Aoife Dwyer 25 years, 2003 screenprint, 2/3 100 x 70 cm 56 Dermot Finn that men cannot learn…, 2006/07 etching, 1/11 36 x 60 cm 59 Emma Finucane Disappearing Other, 2005 digital image on photorag, 2/3 65.5 x 48.25 cm Mary Fitzgerald Embedded Blue, 2003 etching, drypoint & carborundum, 8/10 75 x 102 cm 61 62 Andrew Folan Parcel constrained by its image, 2001 stack of 65 intaglio prints, unique 7 x 12 x 18 cm 64 Jane Garland Unspeakable Persuits, 2003 screenprint, 2/10 56 x 69 cm 66 Joan Gleeson Moonshadow, 1984 etching & roll up, A/P 75 x 53 cm 68 Paula Henihan My Life, 2006 digital print, 1/10 30 x 38 cm 70 Sara Horgan Love Letter 7, 1987 lino etch & tissue lamination, 3/3 92 x 72 cm 72 Margaret Irwin Sweet Flower of Youth, 1995 etching, 6/25 71 x 54 cm 74 Catherine Kelly Mother & Child, 1995 acrylic screenprint on printed paper, 1/3 245 x 133 cm 76 Frank Kiely Voyage to Houyhnhnms, 2007 screenprint, V/P 45 x 100 cm 78 Elaine Leader Butterfly Net, 2006 etching, 11/20 40 x 35 cm 81 Catherine Lynch Untitled IV, 1998 silkscreen on cloth 60 x 60 cm 82 Anthony Lyttle Dot II, 2006 etching aquatint/ copper, 3/15 60 x 65 cm 84 Colin Martin Hammock, 2006 etching, 7/50 62 x 80 cm 86 Marie Louise Martin Book of Days – September, 2007 etching, embossing & chine collé, 3/5 60 x 320 cm 88 Fiona McDonald Merging Waterlines, 1999 aluminium electro-etch, A/P 76 x 34 cm 90 Silvia Nevado Roco Triptych, 1999 etching, 1/5 56 x 150 cm 92 Margaret O’Brien Dirty Trash II, 2001 silkscreen on aluminium, 1/1 65 x 96 cm 94 Eamonn O’Doherty Bloom in Nightown, 1982 lithograph, 1/25 76 x 57 cm 96 Sinéad O’Reilly The daydream, 2006 etching, 5/10 35 x 25 cm 98 Louise Peat Deep Song, 1996 screenprint, 7/8 76 x 56.5 cm 100 Alison Pilkington Even, 1998 etched lino, 6/6 57 x 62.5 cm 102 Piia Rossi Paper Houses, 2007 monoprint 11.5 x 4.5 x 3 cm & 10 x 4 x 2.5 cm 104 Naomi Sex Overhanging Wire, 2006 etching, A/P 19 x 25.5 cm 106 Vincent Sheridan Motion II, 2004 etching, 9/40 64 x 76 cm 108 Paki Smith Wildman Burns the City , 1996 etching & carborundum, 20/50 38 x 52 cm Image courtesy of the Office of Public Works 110 Rob Smith To catch a cat, 1983 etching, A/P 53 x 76 cm 112 Jacqueline Stanley Morning Glory, 1990 etching & aquatint, 4/30 76 x 57 cm 114 Mick Timmins Mesh Landscape, 2002 carborundum & etching, 6/10 75.5 x 76 cm 116 Stephen Vaughan Juggernaut, 2003 etching, carborundum & screenprint, 17/20 54 x 74 cm 118 Annraoi Wyer Viper, 1989 screenprint, 3/6 76 x 57 cm BIOGRAPHIES Biographies B She has exhibited widely, having had previous solo exhibitions at the Original Print Gallery, Dublin; the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick and at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. She has also exhibited in Paris, Dublin, Copenhagen, London and New York. Kate’s work is represented in public and private collections, including Northern Rock, Office of Public Works and AIB. ------------------------------------------- Aïda Bangoura Born in Paris, Aïda Bangoura moved to Ireland in 1995 and took a Painting and Printmaking degree at the Institute of Technology, Sligo. After graduating in 2001 she returned to France for a period of time before coming back to Ireland in 2006. She currently lives and works in Dublin and joined the Black Church Print Studio in April 2007. Bangoura is a fine art printmaker, a painter and an installation artist. Screen-printing is her preferred print medium. Time plays an important role in her work; she seeks the experience of absence and presence, appearance and disappearance over time. She plays with spatial and emotional tension using text, numbers, erratic lines, forms, colour and composition. In 2005 she was awarded First Prize, Laureate, in Resolution 9, Paris. ------------------------------------------- Caroline Byrne Born in Waterford, Caroline Byrne moved to Dublin in her early years. She attended the College of Marketing and Design from 1988 to 1990 and the College of Technology from 1990 to 1991, where she graduated after three years with a Diploma in Graphic Reproduction Technology. She then pursued a career in design and illustration in Dublin and later in San Francisco, where she was first introduced to the art of book design and limited edition books. In 2000 she travelled to Scotland where she completed a Masters in Illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art in 2002. Pursuing this course through traditional and contemporary print media she created a series of artists’ books. Byrne joined the Black Church Print Studio in 2004 and continues to create both original prints and limited edition artists’ books. She works primarily in the relief printmaking methods of woodcut and linocut. Her creative practice explores the natural world and its diversity, which can be found within the urban landscape. Selected solo exhibitions include Resolution 9, Paris (2006); ‘Despite my Confusion’, Market House Gallery, Monaghan (2003) and Galerie de Tableau, Marseilles (2002). Bangoura has also participated in a number of group exhibitions in both Ireland and France. Collections include the Institute of Technology, Sligo and private collections in Ireland, England and France. Byrne has exhibited at group shows in both Scotland and Ireland. Solo exhibitions include Halliwells House Museum, Selkirk, Scotland (2004); South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary (2005) and No. 72 John’s Street, Kilkenny (2007). Her work is held in private and public collections including the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. ------------------------------------------- Kate Betts Born in Liverpool, Kate Betts completed a BA honours degree in Fine Art at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle in 1995. Upon graduation Betts was awarded a membership bursary at the Northern Print Studio in North Shields. She has been a member of the Black Church Print Studio since moving to Dublin in 1998. She joined the Black Church Print Studio’s Board of Directors in 2005, and became Chairperson in 2006. Betts works mainly in intaglio printmaking. She is interested in the polarisation of opinion (such as the evolution versus creation debate), and in modes of thought which rely on diametric opposition, and in their inherent tension (such as right brain/left brain function, and right and wrong). 121 Milestones of Directors in 2006. She is currently part of the Artists Panel (2007/2008) at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. While her personal work is based in traditional printmaking, she consistently seeks to incorporate new media which enhance and inform her practice. The main impetus behind her work is to create an accessible visual language that reflects societal and cultural concerns. Her work de-contextualises motifs associated with different cultures, offering the potential to reinterpret their original meaning and create elements of intrigue, which were otherwise absent. Davidson’s new work explores the habitual, the everyday routine and our subsequent attempt to break from these grounding elements. She has participated in residencies in Johannesburg and Nice. C ------------------------------------------- Cora Cummins Born in Co. Carlow, Cora Cummins studied Fine Art at the College of Marketing and Design, Dublin from 1991 to 1995, specialising in etching. In 2003 she completed a MA in Fine Art from the National College of Design, Dublin. In 2002 she was accepted on the work programme studio residency at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. She joined the Black Church Print studio in 1995, serving as a Director of the Board from 1999 to 2006. Cummins work can be described as an ongoing exploration of the subject of landscape and location, encompassing issues of refuge, resistance, identity and memory. Under the title ‘Workroom Elsewhere’ – an independent collaborative art initiative with fellow artist Alison Pilkington, Cummins has been involved in exhibitions, projects and publications, such as The Fold. She has received funding awards from the Arts Council of Ireland (2000, 1999) and Carlow County Council (2000). Her work has been exhibited internationally in New York, Sweden, South Africa, France and here in Ireland. Recent group exhibitions include ‘Order & Chaos’ at the Lab, Dublin; Íontas, Sligo and the RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin. She is currently working towards an exhibition with the artists collective Jeco Sword, of which she is a founding member, to be exhibited in the Lab, Dublin in 2008. ------------------------------------------- Jan de Fouw Solo exhibitions include The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon (2007); the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin (2004, 2002, 2000); Portlaoise Arts Festival (2001) and Toradh Gallery, Co. Meath (2001). She is also a regular exhibitor at the RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin (2006, 2003, 2000) and numerous other group exhibitions throughout Ireland. Public collections include the Office of Public Works, AXA Insurance, Dublin Institute of Technology, Northern Bank, National Council for Vocational Awards, Bausch & Lombe and AIB. Born in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan de Fouw was trained as a graphic designer at the Royal College of Art, The Hague. He worked as a trainee designer for KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) from 1947 to 1949. After his Dutch army military service (1949 – 1951), he travelled throughout Europe. He settled in Dublin in 1951 and started to work as a free-lance designer with a Bauhaus background. He initially joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 1964 and was instrumental in setting up the Black Church Print Studio in 1982. His printed works are mainly copperplate colour etchings of medium format, which reflect man’s relationship with nature and the elements. Poetry sometimes accompanies the imagery, as in the book Amergin, published in 2000 by Wolfhound Press, Dublin. More recently he has been experimenting with bronze sculpture focusing on similar concerns. From 1952 to 1996 he worked as free-lance design director of the bi-monthly magazine Ireland of the Welcomes. He is a three-time award winner from the International Regional Magazine Association, USA. He was awarded Honoris Causa Associateship of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1991. He has lectured at the College of Marketing and Design, Dublin and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire. D ------------------------------------------- Janine Davidson Born in Belfast, Janine Davidson graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin with a BA honours degree in Fine Art Printmaking in 1997 and subsequently with a Higher Diploma in Community Arts in 2003. Davidson joined the Black Church Print Studio in 2001 and its Board 122 BIOGRAPHIES a place where light is ever present, never absent. Contained within the light is the wonderment of the silent colours, revealing themselves, transient, transforming, nurturing and bathing all that is within the vista. And so it is and so it continues to reveal a unique incredible beauty of ‘strength in simplicity’. ‘In the skin of our fingers we can see the trail of the wind, it shows us where the wind blew when our ancestors were created.’ He has participated in countless group shows both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Boston, Toronto, Sydney, Beijing, Hang Zhou and here in Dublin. He is a regular exhibitor at the RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin. ------------------------------------------- Gráinne Dowling Born in Dublin, Gráinne Dowling spent much of her childhood living in England. She returned to Ireland in 1960 and in 1963 entered the College of Art, Kildare Street (now the National College of Art and Design), graduating in 1968 with a Diploma in Painting. In 1968 she received a scholarship to study printmaking in the Folkeswang Schule fur Gestaltung in Essen-Werden, Germany, where she studied etching and lithography for two years. Dowling joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1986. She currently teaches printmaking in the National Print Museum, Dublin and drawing studies in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Etching is her specialised area of printmaking, and the subject matter and inspiration for her work has always been a reaction to her own circumstances and physical location. She is a winner of a Taylor Award, Arnotts Portrait Award, Íontas Drawing Award, Book Cover Prize for Salmon Poetry, and a contributor to The Great Book of Ireland. Her work has been exhibited regularly in the Taispeántas Ealaíne An Oireachtas, Dublin; RHA, Independent Artists, Dublin; Impressions, Galway; Original Print Gallery, Dublin; Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, and in the USA and Europe. Dunne was a prize-winner at the Irish/International mini print exhibition at the Hendricks Gallery, Dublin in 1986. Public collections include the Arts Council of Ireland, Office of Public Works, Bank of Nova Scotia, Great Southern Hotels, Air Rianta, AIB, Office of An Taoiseach and the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. Publications include Contemporary Print of the World, Kyoto Arts Centre Japan. ------------------------------------------- Aoife Dwyer Born in Dublin, Aoife Dwyer spent some time living in Brighton, England, where she studied screenprint at night under the tutelage of Terence Gravett at the Brighton Polytechnic College of Art. In 1993 Dwyer began studying at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, graduating in 1998 with a BA honours degree in Fine Art. She became a member of the Black Church Print Studio that same year and subsequently became a Director of the Board in 2005. Since 1998 she has been teaching fine art print with the City of Dublin VEC and is currently working with Dun Laoghaire/ Rathdown County Council as part of their Artist in School programme. Working with photography, screenprint and etching, Dwyer is interested in drawing attention to everyday domestic objects, spaces and surfaces, where the stories and emotions of life accumulate. She works towards giving a sense of importance to the overlooked and evokes a sense of stillness, time passing and absence in her work. Dowling is a regular exhibitor at the RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin; Íontas, Sligo; Claremorris Open, Mayo; Éigse, Carlow; Watercolour Society of Ireland, Dublin and numerous Black Church Print Studio exhibitions. Residencies include Annaghmakerrig (2000, 1996, 1993, 1992, 1991), Heinrich Boll House, Achill (1998, 1993) and Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo (1999). Public collections include the Haverty Trust, The Labour Party and the Office of Public Works. ------------------------------------------- Barbara E. Dunne From Kilkenny, Barbara Dunne has been living in Dublin since 1983. She was awarded a Diploma in Fine Art Printmaking at the Crawford College of Art, Cork in 1981. She is currently a tutor in Fine Art Print at the Senior College, Ballyfermot, Dublin and the National College of Art and Design. She joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1983, where she served on the Board of Directors for 13 years from 1985. Dunne is both a printmaker (specialising in etching) and a painter. Her work is inspired by a ‘vast vista’, a place of expanse, a place of discovery, a place of light – Solo exhibitions include ‘Wild’, National Concert Hall Dublin (2004) and ‘Link to the Future’, Aer Rianta Arts Festival (1999). She has also participated in many selected group exhibitions, including Taispeántas Ealaíne An Oireachtas (2003, 2002); RHA Annual Exhibition (2003, 2000); Éigse, Carlow (2001); Íontas Sligo (2000) and Black Church Print Studio exhibitions. In 1998 she was short-listed 123 Milestones James’s Hospital, Dublin and a research project entitled ‘The role of the artist in learning communities’ in NCAD. Over the past year she coordinated and participated in a research project in association with NCAD and Pfizer Ireland entitled ‘Portraits of Pain’. In 1998 she won the Dakota Printmaking Award and she has received funding awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Bray Town Council and Wicklow County Council. In 2006 she received a Phase One Research and Development Grant from CREATE; an International Utopian Art Prize, Germany and a Wicklow County Council Artist in Residence Award with St Fergals Boxing Club, Bray. In 2007 Finucane was invited to take part in Voice Our Concern, Amnesty in Schools Programme and Ballyhaise Unframed, Co. Cavan. for the CAP Foundation award and won an ESB bursary. Her work is represented in many private and public collections, including the Office of Public Works, RTE, Guinness Irl., Dublin Bus, PMPA Insurance and Campbell Bewley Group. F ------------------------------------------- Dermot Finn Born in Dublin, Dermot Finn studied Fine Art, specialising in print at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin graduating in 2005. Since then he has experimented in many techniques, from painting on found materials and street art to digital and traditional printmaking. He joined the Black Church Print Studio in 2006. Finn has been teaching art at Pine Forest Art Centre for the past few years and is currently a member of City Art Squad, where he has worked with a wide range of community groups. In 2007 he returned to the National College of Art and Design and is currently studying a postgraduate Diploma in Art Education. Finn lists influences such as Goya, Hogarth and Callot, amongst other artists, whose work deals with social or political issues. War, death and human neglect have captured the artist’s imagination over the last number of years and all of his work has focused on these themes. Finucane regularly exhibits nationally and internationally and has had three solo exhibitions to date. Her work was selected for the Claremorris Open (2005); Perspective (2005); OBG, Belfast and most recently as part of the Black Church Print Studio twenty-fifth anniversary programme. Finucane was selected to create four site-specific digital images which were displayed in windows on the Grattan Bridge Kiosks. Public collections include AIB, Dublin Institute of Technology and University College Dublin. ------------------------------------------- Mary A. Fitzgerald Born and currently based in Dublin, Fitzgerald studied Fine Art at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and the National College of Art and Design, where she completed her Masters of Fine Art in 2004. She is a recipient of both Visual Arts and Professional Development Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2005 her work was shown as part of the 5th International Biennale de Gravure in Liege, Belgium. Fitzgerald was invited to show works at the 175th Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition in 2005, and is part of the current Artists Panel at IMMA. In 2003 Fitzgerald completed a major public art project entitled ‘The Home Project’, commissioned by Breaking Ground and Ballymun Regeneration. She has been a key member of Black Church Print Studio since 1995 and has also acted as Print Coordinator. She has lectured at both NCAD and DLIADT. He has had one solo exhibition to date, ‘all my old socks’, 128 Rathmines Road, Dublin (2004). Since 2001 he has participated in various group exhibitions in Ireland and most recently at the 25th Dunlavin Festival, Wicklow (2007); the Original Print Gallery, Dublin (2006); the Back Loft Gallery, Dublin (2006) and the Dublin Fringe Festival (2006). ------------------------------------------- Emma Finucane Emma Finucane was born in Dublin and lives in Bray, Co. Wicklow. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin with a BA honours degree in Fine Art Print in 1997 and an MA in Fine Art in 2006. She joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1997 and works in the area of screenprint, digital imaging and video. Finucane’s work investigates the way we communicate with others and ultimately how it determines the quality of our lives. She is also interested in the role of the artist in society and is currently involved in the ‘Open Window Project’ in St She exhibits both nationally and internationally and her work is included in private and public collections, including Bank of Ireland, AIB, University College Dublin, Office of Public Works, Bank de Paris, AXA Insurance and Microsoft Irl. Solo exhibitions include ‘A longer Walk Home’, Lemon Street Gallery, Dublin (2007); ‘Drawn’, Original Print Gallery, Dublin (2004); ‘Showcase’, Lemon Street Gallery, 124 BIOGRAPHIES area of screen-print. Garland has created a series of prints based on her interest in the literary and visual traditions of using animals as metaphors for human society. Aesop’s fables have been a strong influence on her work. In these fables a fox is depicted as being continually at odds with prevailing human efforts to control and exploit the environment and to exclude all who do not fit into the social plan. In Garland’s work she uses the metaphor of the fox trying to gain unauthorised access in the context of contemporary Ireland. Dublin (2006); Postgraduate Show, The Digital Hub, Dublin (2004) and ‘Works On Paper’, Galleuiet, Grafikens Hus, Stockholm (2002). Recent selected exhibitions include the RHA Annual Exhibition; ‘Attraction’, Talbot Gallery, Dublin; ‘Drawing is a verb, Drawing is a noun’, The Stone Gallery, Dublin; ‘Hung, Drawn and Quartered’ and ‘Tender’, Original Print Gallery; Portrait Ireland, Newtown Barry House and ‘Contemporary Irish Printmakers’, The Gallery of Graphic Art, New York. ------------------------------------------- Andrew Folan Her work has been selected for several group shows in Ireland, including, Íontas, Sligo; RHA Annual exhibitions; Taispeántas Ealaíne An Oireachtas and the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. She has also been selected for many exhibitions in Britain, including group shows at the Barbican, the Mall Galleries, the Curwen Gallery, the Royal Festival Hall and the Bradford International Print Exhibition. Since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 1981, Andrew Folan has practised in print, photography and sculpture. Recent works have combined digital processes with print in multi-layered composites. He is an active collaborator in scientific, medical and architectural projects and participated in the ‘Digital Surface’ presented at Tate Britain (2003). Essentially a conceptual artist, Folan has more recently explored concerns of a social, psychological and scientific nature. While he is essentially concerned with issue-based reasoning, aspects of process (particularly photography and print) are often delivered in a formalist and labour intensive manner. ------------------------------------------- Joan Gleeson Born in Co. Mayo, Joan Gleeson completed a teacher training course in Carysfort College of Education, Blackrock; art teachers’ certificate courses in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin from 1968 to 1976 and subsequently a BA degree in University College Dublin from 1970 to 1973. She joined the Black Church Print Studio in the early days in 1983. Gleeson specialises in the area of etching, sometimes combining a variety of techniques including carborundum, embossed paper, chine collé and photo etching, to convey a sense of unfolding possibilities within an image. She has always been fascinated by nature, and the impact of the elements on natural phenomena. Gleeson now lives in Clontarf, the coastal region around Howth and Dollymount, which provides an ever-renewing source of inspiration and investigation. Imprint of man on nature as well as natural phenomena on man, are part of this investigation. He has exhibited widely throughout Europe. His solo exhibition of printed sculptures ‘Arterial Ink’ toured to a number of venues in Ireland, as well as London, Paris and Stockholm (1991-2001). More recently his solo exhibition of digital lambda chromes ‘Stray Light’ was shown at the Ashford Gallery, Dublin in 2002. He participated in the group exhibition ‘Dead Bodies’ at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris in 2003. In 2006 he completed a sculptural installation ‘The Fleet Morph’ at the Mater Hospital Dublin. His work features in the collections of the Arts Council of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Central Bank of Ireland and Trinity College, Dublin. Gleeson has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. Solo exhibitions include Lambay House Howth Gallery, Dublin; Cintra Studio Exhibition, Kinsealy; National Concert Hall Terrace Exhibition, Dublin; Limerick County Golf Club, GPA House, Limerick and Red Stables Arts Centre, Dublin. She is also a regular exhibitor at the RHA Annual Exhibitions; Claremorris Open, Mayo and Íontas, Sligo. Public collections include AIB, Office of Public Works, Gresham Hotel Group, INTO Headquarters, Jury’s Hotel Group, Muckross House, Mater Private Hospital, Nova Scotia Bank and St Luke’s Hospital. G ------------------------------------------- Jane Garland Born in Dublin, Jane Garland studied Printmaking at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She is a member of the Black Church Print Studio since 1995, and works mainly in the 125 Milestones instrumental in establishing the Black Church Print Studio and was the Studio Administrator for 12 years from 1980 to 1992. Lino, etching and chine collé, cast paper and plaster are her preferred media for editioning and printmaking. She says ‘her work refers to love, death and the whole damn thing’. H ------------------------------------------- Paula Henihan Horgan has exhibited widely in Ireland. Her solo exhibitions include the Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin (1989, 1987) and the Original Print Gallery, Dublin (1999). Awards include a prize from the British Print Biennale, Bradford and an Arts Council of Ireland award in 1987. Her work is included in many public collections including the Arts Council of Ireland; Aughinish Alumina; Bank of Ireland; Blackrock Clinic; Contemporary Irish Arts Society; Córas Iompair Éireann; Guinness plc; Irish Life; Irish Management Institute; Jury’s Hotel Group; Kilkenny Art Gallery Society; Lambert Collection at IMMA; Museum of Art and Design Chernobyl; Office of Public Works; Royal Hospital Donnybrook; Limerick City Art Gallery and the National Self-Portrait Collection. Born in Galway, Paula Henihan studied Fine Art at the Galway Institute of Technology and completed a Masters in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Art, London. She now lives and works in Dublin. Henihan became a member of the Black Church Print Studio in 2006 and creates conceptbased works in mixed media prints. Using mainly screenprint, digital print and collograph, she explores ideas of universal origins and personal history as subject matter for visual and theoretical investigation. Her work plays with the medium of print in an innovative manner and attempts to push the possibilities of print past the two-dimensional framed paper piece. Selected solo exhibitions include ‘The Big Round’ at Westport Customs House (2006); ‘Corplár’, Ballina Arts Centre (2005) and ‘Peripheral Consciousness’, Galway Fisheries Tower (2004). Henihan has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions in Ireland and abroad, including ‘Within and Without’ at the Original Print Gallery, Dublin; ‘The First Book of Ideas’ at the Art Scene Warehouse in Shanghai, China; ‘Arrivals’ at the Solander Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand and ‘Originals’ at the Mall Galleries in London. Most recently Henihan curated and exhibited in ‘Inheritance/Impermanence’, a three-person exhibition at the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar in 2007. Public collections include Limerick City Gallery; Dundarave Print Gallery, Vancouver; Irish Government Buildings; the National College of Art and Design and the National University of Ireland, Galway. Henihan was awarded a scholarship to study at postgraduate level in London by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK and her work was chosen for a purchase prize at ‘Impressions ‘06’ at the Galway Arts Centre. I BIOGRAPHIES Her subject matter betrays a predilection for stone, and is mainly figurative drawn from landscape and archaeological sites where she lives, but with departures into exploration of images dealing with issues of social conscience. Degree Show in 1995 and the Open section of Íontas, Sligo in 1994. In 2002 she was commissioned by Irish Hospice Foundation to design the Queen of Spades playing card for ‘Art:pack’. She has screened art videos at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin and the Irish Film Centre, Dublin. Solo shows include Brunneby, Ost Gotland and Galleriesander, Linkoping, Sweden and recent group exhibitions include Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2007); ‘Impressions’ Open, Galway (2006); Limerick Printmakers Open and Lorg Printmakers Open, Galway (2006, 2005). Awards include Exhibition & Materials Award, Galway County Council (2007, 2005, 2004); Artist in Residence, Fundacíon Valparaiso, Mojacar, Spain (1998); Artist in Residence, Joensuu Print Workshop, Finland (1995) and ‘O’Sullivan Graphics Award for Work of Distinction, Print’, RHA Annual Exhibition (1995). Public collections include Allied Irish Leasing, Dublin; Aer Lingus; City of Boston Public Libraries MA, USA.; Department of Foreign Affairs; Galway County Council; Galway City Council; Mayo County Council; Office of Public Works and the Smurfit Art Collection. Kelly has had three solo shows to date, in the United Arts Club, Dublin (2003); the National Concert Hall, Dublin (2003) and Habitat, St. Stephen’s Green (1995). She has also participated in a number of group exhibitions including most recently the Rathmines Festival, Dublin (2006); the Irish Art Exhibition, Omaha, Nebraska, USA (2004) and in Gallery 411, Hangzhou, China (2004). She is also a regular exhibitor at the RHA Annual Exhibitions since 1995. ------------------------------------------- Frank Kiely Frank Kiely grew up in Co. Kildare and later Dublin. He studied at the Galway Mayo Technical College, National College of Art and Design, Dublin and the Royal College of Art, London. Kiely is a member of the Black Church Print Studio and has served on the Board of Directors from 2005 to 2007. He is a member of the Royal Society of Painters and Printmakers, London since 2006 and sits on their council. On moving to London to study at the Royal College of Art, he was confronted with a multi-cultural society in stark contrast to the one he had left behind. Kiely began to make screenprints of street scenes of London with isolated areas of colours, typically the red bus or the phone box. This body of work dealt with his experience from the perspective of a minority, exploring his ‘Irishness’ laterally. While exploring existential loneliness and a search for identity unattached to nationality, these iconic prints of familiar London cultural symbols frequently contain hidden visual puns. Alongside this work, Kiely is recently combining portraiture to his cityscapes. There are many subtexts to these works, taken from literature, his imagination and Irish mythology, which he reinterprets in a contemporary setting. K ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Sara Horgan Born in Dublin, Sara Horgan was educated in Montreal, Switzerland, Paris, The Hague, Dublin and École des Beaux Arts, Tours, France. In 1980 she graduated with a degree in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, where she specialised in the area of printmaking. In the same year, having served as Secretary to Graphic Studio Dublin for over seven years, Horgan was very 126 Margaret Irwin ------------------------------------------- Born in British India, Margaret Irwin grew up mainly in Delgany, Co. Wicklow. From the age of 10 she received regular painting lessons in Dublin from Lilian Davidson RHA. Firmly discouraged from attending art school, she was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where she obtained an honours degree in languages and literature, as well as a Diploma in History of European Painting. She eventually studied painting at the Studio Andre L’Hote in Paris and qualified as an Art Teacher from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in later years. In the late 1950s she lived in Scotland and England, returning to Dalkey, Ireland in 1968. She took up printmaking under the tutelage of John Kelly at Graphic Studio Dublin, Upper Mount Street. She became a full-time Art Teacher at Dun Laoghaire VEC in 1974, transferring to the Art School after some years and finally to NCAD in 1982, where she was full-time lecturer in the Faculty of Education until 1991. She became a member of the Black Church Print Studio in 1983/1984. She now lives in Connemara, where she has her own print studio, but remains a member of the Black Church. All Irwin’s work is intaglio; mostly etching with some dry-point and carborundum. Born in Ballymun, Dublin, Catherine Kelly attended college for the first time as a mature student in 1991. She graduated with a BA in History of Art and Fine Art Painting from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1995 and subsequently with an MA in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking in 1999. In 2005 she completed a Higher Diploma in Computer Science from University College Dublin. Kelly became a member of the Black Church Print Studio in 1995. As a fine artist she works in a variety of media, including printmaking, video production and bronze casting, but screen-printing is her preferred medium in printmaking. Kelly’s work has concerned itself with relationships and preconceived perceptions about certain imagery such as Punch and Judy, playing cards and so on which are often manipulated and used to convey a particular message to the viewer. Kelly was awarded a place on the Second Random Access Training Symposium by the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland in 1997, and received bursaries to travel to New York in 1995 and Japan in 1997. She won the KPMG Stokes Kennedy Crowley purchase prize at the NCAD Catherine Kelly Kiely has exhibited widely, his solo exhibitions include ‘City Life’ with Anvari Art, London (2006); ‘Memoirs of a London Journey’ at Mark Jason Gallery, London (2004); ‘Solo Show’ in the Mezzanine, National Concert Hall, Dublin (2003) and ‘I Must Not Talk Between Classes’ at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, Dublin (2000). He has also exhibited in many group exhibitions in Ireland, Britain, Europe and the USA. Kiely’s works are featured in public and private collections worldwide. 127 Milestones Print Studio and worked mainly in the area of screenprint. Lynch’s work is inspired by her interest in the many aspects of womanhood and the choices that women make in relation to their work and domestic life. L Solo exhibitions include ‘No Title’, The Bourn Vincent Gallery, University of Limerick (2001); ‘Portraits’, Charlevoix Art Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (1999); ‘New Work’, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (1997); ‘Prints’, Original Print Gallery, Dublin (1997); ‘Decanos’, Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast (1995) and ‘A Return From Enchantment’, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork (1994). In 1991 she was a participant of the Arts Entrepreneurial Business Course, sponsored by the America Fund for Ireland in conjunction with the Arts Council of Ireland. Her work is included in many public collections, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Office of Public Works. ------------------------------------------- Elaine Leader Born in Dublin, Elaine Leader graduated from the College of Marketing and Design in 1995 and became a member of Black Church Print Studio in the same year. Leader draws upon a number of sources in the construction of her prints, including field guides, mapping and botanical illustration to investigate how the self orientates and navigates a world in constant flux. Her work sensitively, yet unsentimentally, addresses themes of care, nurture and dependency. Selected exhibitions include ‘Insideout’, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin (2006); RHA Annual Exhibitions, Dublin; ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (2005); ‘Hand Pulled Prints’, San Antonio, Texas (2004); ‘Contemporary Irish Prints’, The Gallery of Graphic Art, New York (2004); ‘Ireland France‚ Paris 2001’, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and Grafiska Sallskaet, Stockholm (2002). Awards include Arts Council Travel Awards (2000, 1996); RHA Annual Print Award (1998); Arts Council Art Flights (2001, 1997, 1994); Arts Council Studio Grant (1996); Arts Council Materials Grant (1995), as well as an Office of Public Works Per Cent for Arts Scheme Commission for the National Library, Dublin. Public and corporate collections include the National Library of Ireland, the RHA Collection, AIB, the Office of Public Works, Dublin Institute of Technology, Intel, KPMG, Dublin Castle, Office of the Ombudsman, Jury’s Doyle Hotel Group, and the Irish Medical Organisation. ------------------------------------------- Anthony Lyttle Anthony Lyttle was born in Kisumu, Kenya, where he lived until the age of eight. His family then moved to Ethiopia until 1973, before coming to live in Co. Carlow. He was educated at St Columba’s College in Rathfarnham and then at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, where he studied Fine Art Painting from 1979 to 1982 and 1983 to 1984. The subject matter of his earlier work is inspired by elements of landscape and how we contain and separate space; the themes of enclosures, borders and areas of concentration are common in his work. In recent work the subject matter has evolved into an exploration of transitional states of change. He joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1987 after taking a night class in etching given by Andrew Folan. His main area of interest is etching. Exhibitions include ‘Estampe/Print’, Galerie Michele Brouta, Paris (2001); ‘The Holy Show’, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (2002); ‘Composites’ (large format print), Original Print Gallery (2003) and ‘Insideout’, Graphic Studio Gallery (2006). Lyttle received the Éigse Open Award in 2004. His work is included in the collection of the Office of Public Works and many private collections. ------------------------------------------- Catherine Lynch Born in Co. Cork, Catherine Lynch graduated from the Crawford College of Art, Cork with a Diploma in Painting in 1988 and a postgraduate in Printmaking in 1989. She then pursued a Masters degree in Fine Art at The Royal College of Art, London, graduating in 1991. From 1992 to 1993 she attended the Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA where she participated in the print training programme and specialised in the area of lithography. In 1996/1997 Lynch joined the Black Church 128 BIOGRAPHIES interested in Florentine portraits and her subject matter included images of women’s heads. More recently she works with both Irish and Italian landscapes and her latest work comprises a series of journals related to time spent in Italy. M ------------------------------------------- She has exhibited at Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Academy, Royal Ulster Academy, Claremorris Open, Íontas, ev+a, Éigse, Impressions, Gateway to Art, Taispeántas Ealaíne An Oireachtas, Independent Artists; as well as print exhibitions in Japan, UK, Netherlands, China, USA, Germany, Spain, Australia, Germany, Cuba, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden. She won prizes at the Royal Ulster Academy (2003, 2001), Royal Hibernian Academy (1989) and the Claremorris Open (1988). In 2005 she had a residency at Cill Rialaig, Ballinaskelligs, Co. Kerry. Her work is represented in a number of public collections, including Office of Public Works, National Self Portrait Collection, Dáil Éireann, Stormont Castle, St Luke’s Hospital, Microsoft Ireland, Contemporary Arts Society, BP Oil (Europe) Brussels, Boyle Civic Collection, Butler Castle Collection, Guinness Peat Aviation, Durrow Castle and Craig Gardner & Associates. Colin Martin Born in Dublin, Colin Martin studied painting at the College of Marketing and Design, Dublin graduating in 1994, and he completed post-graduate studies in printmaking the following year. He joined Black Church Print Studio in 1995. Martin’s practice cross-references the stillness of European genre painting with the expectant uncertainty of lens-based narrative. He creates a staged familiar reality in scenes of recreation and leisure which hint at wider narrative themes that are beyond what is actually represented. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally including: ‘The Night Demesne’‚ Ashford Gallery, RHA, Dublin and West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Cork (2006/2007); ‘Insideout’, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin; RHA Annual Exhibitions; ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’‚ Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (2005); ‘Contemporary Irish Prints’, The Gallery of Graphic Art, New York (2004); San Antonio, Texas; ‘Ireland France, Paris 2001’; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Grafiska Sallskaet, Stockholm (2002); ‘Contemporary Irish Printmaking’‚ Kelowna Art Gallery, Vancouver (2000) and the 22nd International Biennale of Graphic Art, Slovenia (1997). Recent awards include the Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary (2004); the Hennessy Craig Scholarship (2005) and the Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship (2005). Public and corporate collections include ESB, McClelland Collection, AIB, Chester Beatty Library, Office of Public Works, Dublin Institute of Technology, Microsoft Irl., AIG, Dublin City University, Ace Europe and Iona Technologies. ------------------------------------------- Fiona McDonald Born in Co. Louth, Fiona McDonald graduated with a BSc in Biological Chemistry from Coleraine University of Ulster before attending the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. In 1996, during her final year at college, McDonald began experimenting with an alternative method of etching plates called electrolysis. In 2001 she received an MA in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design and a MSc in Multimedia Systems at Trinity College Dublin in 2006. McDonald joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1997. She is a printmaker (specialising in electrolytic and other non-toxic etching methods) and an installation artist. ------------------------------------------- She has exhibited her work in many shows nationally, including group exhibitions at the Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, ev+a, Limerick and the Lab Gallery, Dublin. She has also participated internationally in exhibitions in Canada, Copenhagen, Paris, New York and the Cologne Art Fair, Germany. Her work is included in the AIB and UCD collections. Marie Louise Martin Born in Dublin, Marie Louise Martin attended the National College of Art and Design where she studied Fine Art (painting and printmaking) from 1978 to 1983. Martin joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1983 and later served as a Board Director. In 1999 she established a print studio for the Airfield Educational Trust, Dublin. Martin has always worked with etching and embossing. In the early years she was very 129 Milestones O’Brien has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has won numerous awards for her work from various funding bodies including The Slade School of Fine Art, London, the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council and AIB. Solo shows include ‘The Long Goodbye’, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda (2007); ‘Sea of Unknowing’, Pallas Heights, Dublin (2005); ‘No Man’s Land’, West Cork Arts Centre (2004) and ‘Dirty Trash’, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda (2002). N ------------------------------------------- Silvia Nevado Roco Born in Barcelona, Spain, Silvia Nevado Roco studied a degree in Fine Art Print at the University of Fine Art, Barcelona from 1987 to 1993. In 1991 she attended the Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA where she studied lithography and engraving. The following year she received an Erasmus Scholarship to study etching in Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, Italy. From 2001 to 2004 she completed a Masters in Art Therapy, Metáfora, University of Barcelona and became a member of the Spanish Association of Art-therapy in 2006. She initially joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1995 and remained a member until 2001, when she returned to Spain. She rejoined the studio when she returned to Ireland in 2007. ------------------------------------------- Eamonn O’Doherty Born in Derry, Eamonn O’Doherty studied a degree in Architecture at University College Dublin, graduating in 1965. He was Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Design in Harvard, where he was able to access the printmaking facilities in the Carpenter Centre under printmaker Peik Larsen. He was offered a one-year residency at the Graphic Studio in Mount Street in 1967 and continued to make prints there, and subsequently at the Black Church Print Studio under the tutelage of Patrick Hickey and John Kelly until 1983. She was the winner of the Engraving Prize at the 12th Plastic Art, Generalitat di Catalonia, Spain (1993) and has also been awarded an Arts Council Scholarship (2001) and an Arts Council Travel Award (1999). Her work is included in many public and private collections in Ireland and Spain. O'Doherty works in all media but prefers the ‘magic’ of lithography. He is best known for his large-scale public sculptures. More than thirty of his public sculptures stand in Ireland, Britain and the USA. These include landmark works such as the Tree of Gold at the Central Bank and the James Connolly Memorial in Beresford Place, the Hooker Sails in Eyre Square, Galway and the Great Hunger Memorial in Westchester, New York. In 2006 he won the prestigious Selvaag/Peer Gynt international sculpture competition and the resultant four-metre high bronze is now in Oslo. O’Doherty is also a painter and photographer and has won awards at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, the Claremorris Open, the Arnotts National Portrait Competition and the RHA. His photographs have recently been exhibited at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA, the University of Virginia, the Glucksman House of New York University. Throughout his career O’Doherty has supported himself as an academic and was for many years a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He has also taught at the University of Jordan, the University of Nebraska, and the École Speciale d’Architecture in Paris, and has been external examiner at the École Superieure D’Arts Graphiques, Paris and the Dun Laoghaire School of Art. He relinquished teaching for good in 2002 to concentrate on artwork and now lives and works in Ferns, Co. Wexford, where the adequate studio space has enabled him to re-engage in printmaking. O ------------------------------------------- Margaret O’Brien Margaret O’Brien graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Limerick School of Art in 1995 and completed her MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 2004. O’Brien is a lecturer in Fine Art at Crawford College of Art and visiting lecturer at a number of third level institutions, including the National College of Art and Design. She is currently based in London. O’Brien joined Black Church Print Studio in 1998, specialising primarily in photographic screenprint. Her practice has expanded over the last few years from printmaking to site-specific installation involving a variety of materials and media. Her works refers to a psychological in-between space, one that exists between the private and public self, and the self and others. She draws inspiration from the everyday, the familiar and the domestic environment. In recreating objects or spaces that we encounter on a daily basis, she replaces their normally functional or benign fundamentals with an element of malfunction or mishap. 130 BIOGRAPHIES Solo exhibitions include ‘Clearing’ in St John’s Art Centre Listowel, County Kerry (1999) and ‘Elemental’ in the National Concert Hall, Dublin (2005). Her work has been selected for many group shows nationwide, including ev+a; RHA; RUA; Íontas; Oireachteas; Sculpture in Context; Claremorris Open; Monaghan Open; Éigse; Daniske Grafikere, The Association of Danish Printmaking Artists, Copenhagen; Henrietta Street Artists Group show and the Black Church Print Studio Members group shows. She recently had a two-person exhibition called ‘Paradigms’ with Belgian artist Ronald Ceuppens at the Original Print Gallery, Dublin. Peat received an ev+a award in 1998, and in 2000 she won the Douglas Hyde Gold Medal and Arts Council Award for painting. Her work is held in many private and public collections. ------------------------------------------- Sinéad O’Reilly Born in Cavan, Sinéad O’Reilly studied Printmaking at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin before completing a Higher Diploma in Art and Design Teaching at the Limerick College of Art and Design, graduating in 1999 with first class honours. She became a member of the Black Church Print Studio in 2001 and currently teaches art at Dominican College, Drumcondra, Dublin. O’Reilly specialises in the area of etching. Through her etchings, which combine the real with the mythical, a playfulness emerges that seeks to endow the everyday with an air of the fantastic and questions, among other things, our relationships with nature, conservation and beauty. She has recently returned from India, where she studied printmaking techniques under Professor Kashinath Salve in Mumbai. ------------------------------------------- Alison Pilkington Born in Sligo, Alison Pilkington graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking from Sligo Regional Technical College in 1989, and with a BA honours degree in Fine Art Painting from the National College of Art and Design in 1990. She completed an MA in Film and TV Studies in Dublin City University in 1994. Pilkington joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1997 and has worked in a broad range of printed techniques. The areas of printmaking that she specialises in at the Black Church are relief and lithography. She primarily concentrates on an etched lino technique to produce graphic work, which echoes the strong painterly qualities that she has become known for. Pilkington draws inspiration for her graphic work from her paintings. The work is process-led and this ultimately determines the outcome of the image. She has produced large-scale print installations that combine print, video and painting. She has received Arts Council travel and publication awards and project bursaries. She is co-editor of The Fold with fellow artist Cora Cummins, which is a publishing platform for invited artists to consider various themes. She is a founding member of Jeco Sword artists' collective and her work has been selected for numerous group shows, around Ireland and is represented in many private collections. Recent exhibitions include ‘Hung, Drawn and Quartered’ at the Original Print Gallery, Dublin (2007) and ‘Íontas 07’ at the Sligo Art Gallery. P ------------------------------------------- Louise Peat Born in Dublin, Louise Peat attended the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology, graduating with an honours degree in Painting in 1993. She is a painter and fine art printer, and is a member of the Black Church Print Studio since 1990. Peat works mainly in the area of screen-printing, as she feels this is a technique that mirrors her cerebral approach to print-making. It is a process in which one part is added to another, so that the image is built up from the surface in a development of superimposed strata. There is a real sense of play, improvisation and experimentation in the gathering and arrangement of the images and the possibilities that they invite. She has been selected for group shows in Ireland, Scotland, England and America. She has had solo exhibitions in the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick; Sligo Art Gallery; the Basement Gallery, Dundalk; The Workroom, Dublin and the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Office of Public Works, Univeristy College Dublin and Bank of Ireland. 131 Milestones R S ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Piia Rossi Naomi Sex Piia Rossi was born in Finland, where she studied Jewelry Making and Scandinavian Design. In 1992 she moved to Dublin to study printmaking in the National College of Art and Design. She graduated in 1996 with BA honours degree in Fine Art, and in 2007 she completed an M.Litt in NCAD. She has been working as a printmaker in the Black Church Print Studios since 1996. Rossi has always drawn inspiration from architecture. She is interested in the concept of how people construct buildings in an orderly manner seeking control over their surroundings. Through her prints, Rossi creates mysterious and evocative buildings and environments. These are fictional, anonymous places with unknown histories, composed so that they connect with each other. These prints reflect the many roles and attributes of buildings throughout the ages such as strength, order, power, control, protection, identity and beauty. A strong sense of order is obvious in Rossi’s monoprints. Her work is about cultivated compositions and refined mark making. Most of Rossi’s prints are monoprints and therefore unique and not editionable. She uses a technique of combining chine collé and mono-printing on hand-made paper, reinforcing the uniqueness of each piece. Born in Co. Cork, Naomi Sex grew up in Dublin. She attained an Honours BA degree in Fine Art Print in 1999 from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, where she is currently completing her Masters studies. She joined the Black Church Print Studio in 2000 and subsequently became a member of the Board of Directors in 2006. Specialising in etching, her prints encapsulate the essence of particular times and places. Exhibiting these pictorial descriptions of personal slices of history allow the viewer to access a glimpse of a private version of events, akin to finding a stranger’s lost diary, ripping out random pages and reading them. These snippets of a life can then be experienced and reinterpreted in a public domain. As a result of her Masters studies her practice is now expanding; continuing to use print and its diverse technical vocabulary, while encompassing a wider language of materials and media conveying concepts informed by relevant concerns in contemporary living. Since 2000, Sex has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. In 2001 she was part of a two-man show in the Original Print Gallery. That same year she was funded by the Arts Council to travel to New York, where she took part in a workshop at the Bob Blackburn Print Studio in the Lower East Side. In 2002 She was awarded a residency by the Newfoundland/Ireland artist program, with the award she worked at St Michael's print studio in St Johns, Newfoundland for a month. In 2003 as part of the ‘percent for arts scheme’ she was awarded a commission by the Office of Public Works to produce a series of ten etchings documenting the restoration of the Great Palm House in the National Botanical Gardens. In 2005 she had a solo show at the Printmakers Gallery, Dublin. Her work is part of numerous state collections including the Office of Public Works, AXA insurance, the Aviation Board of Ireland, A & L Goodbody Solicitors, Chris Ryan, KMD and O’ Dowd and Herlihy & Horan Architects. She has also lectured on a part-time basis at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Rossi has held two solo exhibitions to date, ‘Dream Travel’, Lambay Art Gallery, Howth (1997) and ‘History/Order/ Space’, Original Print Gallery, Dublin (2002). Group exhibitions include RHA Annual Exhibitions; Taispeántas Ealaíne An Oireachtas; Tokyo International Mini-print Triennial and New York Etching Week. Public Collections include AIB, Microsoft Irl., Embassy of Finland, Trinity College, County Councils and Dakota print. Blanchardstown Art Centre purchased her work for presentation to President Mary McAleese at the opening of the Centre. 132 BIOGRAPHIES ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Vincent Sheridan Rob Smith Vincent Sheridan studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology. He has been working as a full-time artist since 1981. From 1989 to 1998 Sheridan lived and worked as an artist in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada. He returned to Dublin in 1999. In 2007 he graduated with an Honours degree in Fine Art, specialising in Video. He joined the Black Church Print Studio in 2000 and is currently a Director of the Board. Birds (especially crows and starlings) continue to feature largely in Sheridan’s work. He is concerned with the social behaviour, flight dynamics and subliminal ‘brushstroke’ patterns of birds in flight. His images often mirror human group dynamics, modes of communication and social interactions. Rob Smith was born and educated in Wolverhampton, England. As a teenager he apprenticed to a crystal glass engraver for five years before entering Wolverhampton Polytechnic to study fine art. He continued his studies at Manchester Polytechnic and was awarded an MA in Painting in 1974, before moving to Ireland to take up a position as Assistant Lecturer in Painting at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Smith was an extremely private man, for whom art provided a means to explore inner worlds beyond the mundane. He constantly challenged the everyday presumptions, striving untiringly to go beyond ordinary understandings. This uncompromising inner search for meaning fed richly into his imagery as an artist as he strove to create visual representations reflecting realities including chaos and order, beauty and humour. He often juxtaposed awkard styles, scale and media in his endeavour to create metaphors for the Absolute. Printmaking, in particular the etching press, was a constant resource, and provided a medium through which a style could evolve facilitating the strength and surety of mark making, which had earlier enabled his success as a glass engraver. He worked and reworked the plates, as he would a canvas, overlaying imagery and re-engraving until he was satisfied, which was seldom. Smith joined the Black Church Print Studio in the early 1980s and continued to work there until his death in 1990. Residencies include West Baffin Eskimo Printshop, Arctic Canada; St Michael’s Print Shop, Newfoundland; Cill Rialaig Art Centre, Kerry and Annaghmakerrig, Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Awards include First Prize (graphics), Claremorris International Exhibition (1989); Best Graphics Award, RHA Exhibition (1992); Ernst & Young Purchase Award (1992) and Image Now Award, Best Use of Multimedia in Fine Art (2007). Sheridan has had solo and group exhibitions in Ireland, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Poland, Germany, Peru and the USA. ------------------------------------------- He had two solo shows during his lifetime and regularly exhibited in group shows in Ireland and abroad. A posthumous retrospective was held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1994. He was also a member of the Irish Living Art Committee and the Dublin Visual Arts Centre. Collections include the Arts Council of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Office of Public Works, RHA Gallery and Contemporary Irish Art Society. Paki Smith Born in New Zealand, Paki Smith studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, graduating in 1987. It was there that he learned to etch from Coilín Murray and John Kelly. He joined the Black Church Print Studio in late 1987, etching there until the day he arrived to find the Studio burned to the ground. Smith has exhibited widely, his last one man show was ‘The Holy Shiver’ in the Taylor Galleries in 1999, when Mermaid Turbulence published his artist’s book The Rose Hedge. ------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Stanley Born in South London, Jacqueline Stanley studied at Beckenham School of Art and the Royal College of Art, Kensington under the tutelage of John Minton and Francis Bacon, where she was awarded First Prize in Painting and a shared first prize at the Young Contemporaries (Louis le Brocquy was one of the selectors). Stanley taught at Walthamstow, Croydon, Hornsey and Byam Shaw colleges of Since 1993, Smith has become increasingly involved in film, carrying out production design on several movies, most recently including Ferris Wheel in Canada in late 2006, starring Charlize Theron and Dennis Hopper. He also set-decorated films including Veronica Guerin and Batman Begins. In 2003 Smith directed a short film called God’s Kitchen which was selected for competition at the Venice Film festival that year. In 2007 he worked on James Coleman’s as yet untitled project, which is to be shown at Dokumenta 2007 in Kassel, Germany. 133 Milestones He has exhibited widely both in Ireland and abroad, his work is included in private and public collections including Iona Technologies, British Telecom and the Office of Public Works. art and the Cyprus Summer School. She also studied printmaking at Morley College with Birgit Skiold. She moved to Ireland in 1975 and currently divides her time between Dublin and West Cork. Stanley’s work in London was city-based (markets and shopping centres), but has moved towards landscape. She joined the Black Church Print Studio in 1982 as a Founder Member specialising in etching and monoprint. She served as a Director of the Board and represented Black Church as a Director of the Board of Graphic Studio Dublin for several years. She taught part-time at NCAD (1975 – 1987). She is a member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) and founded and co-organised Arnotts National Portrait Awards (1985 – 1999). V ------------------------------------------- Stephen Vaughan Born in Kilkenny, Stephen Vaughan attended the Grennan Mill Craft School, Co. Kilkenny in 1989 and subsequently the Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork where he received a Diploma in Fine Art in 1993, and then an Honours BA in Printmaking in 1994. He works from his studio in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny and at the Black Church Print Studio in Dublin, where he has been a member since 1997. His work examines the varied landscapes and environments both internal and external that mankind inhabits. He works with large plates using all the techniques of intaglio to create highly textured images. He likes to think of this as ‘building’ plates and, in this sense, there is a sculptural aspect to the work. At times his prints have also approximated the characteristics of paintings. This transformation within the medium is of considerable interest to him. His work is multifaceted culminating in the convergence of ideas, experiences and events both current and historical. Anecdote plays a significant role in his work. The whole gamut of humankind's trials and tribulations, successes and failures, are explored. She has exhibited regularly in the UK and Ireland including Royal Academy, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Angela Flowers Gallery in London and the RHA, Catherine Hammond, Éigse, Vanguard Gallery and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (‘SIAR 50’) in Ireland. She has held a number of solo exhibitions at the Hallward Gallery, Dublin. Biennales include Japan, Germany, Egypt, Hungary, Belgium and Italy. In 2002 she held a fifteen-year retrospective at the West Cork Art Centre. Public collections include AIB, NIB, Smurfit plc, Guinness Irl., Office of Public Works, Arts Council of Great Britain and the Guildhall, London. T ------------------------------------------- Michael Timmins Born in Dublin, Michael Timmins graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1999 with an Honours degree in Fine Art, specialising in the area of printmaking. He joined the Black Church the same year and subsequently became part-time studio technician. He has worked in all print media, but has recently concentrated on the medium of lithography. In 2003 he travelled to St John’s in Newfoundland on an exchange with St Michael’s Print Shop, where he worked for an intensive three-week period making lithographs. In August 2007 he travelled to the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico, where he commenced their prestigious printer-training programme. Solo exhibitions include the Michael Gold Gallery in New York (1999, 1998); Galeri Helle Knudsen, Stockholm (2001) and more recently, at the Original Print Gallery, Dublin (2004). Vaughan has also participated in numerous group exhibitions in continental Europe and the USA. In 1997 he was awarded the Graphic Studio Award for Printmakers: In Memory of Mary Farl Powers. His work is included in many collections, including AIB, Office of Public Works, Chester Beatty Library, the New York Public Library Print Collection, Upsala University and University College Dublin. 134 BIOGRAPHIES W ------------------------------------------- Annraoi Wyer Born in Dublin, Annraoi Wyer studied at the Dublin Institute of Technology and National College of Art and Design, taking an honours degree and diploma. He currently lives in Co. Wicklow. Wyer’s initial contact with the Black Church Print Studio was in 1985, when he undertook a course in lithography. The following year he became a Studio Member. The technique of photo silkscreen and more recently of digital manipulation have been key areas in the production of his studio work. In the late 1980s Annraoi produced a polemic series, revolving around the Iran Contra affair and the illegal sale of weapons. From the mid 1990s abandoned structures and interiors reemerged as a theme in his work. The wreck of the SS America on the west coast of Fuerteventura continues to inspire him. In 1986 Wyer worked with the late art critic Dorothy Walker on the GPA Emerging Artists Exhibition at Kilmainham. In 1995 Paraclete Press published his first book Blackrock College 1860-1995, a selection of archival photographs. His graphic work has been included in numerous international shows. Selected exhibitions include Mednarodni Grafic Biennale, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia, (1997, 1993, 1989); Taipei Fine Arts Museum (1987-1988); Portrait Gallery, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina (1990); Museum of Modern Graphic Art, Egypt (collection 1992); First Maastricht Biennale The Netherlands (1993); Varna Arts Museum Bulgaria, (1995, 1993, 1991, 1989); Highlights of the Taylor Awards 1878-2005 at the National Gallery of Ireland (2006). Awards include Irish Exhibition of Living Art (1987); Douglas Hyde Gold Medal; Cultural Relations Committee Department of Foreign Affairs (3 awards); Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Montreal, and The Taylor Prize (1986, 1985). His work is included in the following public collections: Sharjah Art Museum, United Arab Emirates, Museum of Graphic Art Giza, Egypt, Dundrum College, Ireland and a number of private collections. 135 GLOSSARY OF TERMS Glossary of terms Kate Betts ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Artist’s proof Chine Collé Having completed the plate, the artist will then experiment with the inking up and printing of the image until completely satisfied by the result. This first perfect proof is marked A/P, artist’s proof or e/a, épreuve d’artiste and is used as a reference to which the rest of the edition is matched. There are usually one or two artist’s proofs, in addition to the numbered prints in any edition, and when a print is highly sought after, a good-condition artist’s proof may be the most valuable print in the edition. Meaning glued tissue in french, this refers to the addition of an extra layer of lightweight paper to the main paper support. It is often used to add colour to a print, or to show finer details that the heavier support paper may not pick up. This method is popular in Europe and the West because Western printmaking papers are traditionally very heavy. Eastern printmaking papers by contrast, particularly those from Japan, are very fine and lightweight. Check out: Joan Gleeson, Piia Rossi. ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Aquatint Collograph The invention of aquatint meant that broad areas of tone could be achieved by anyone in less than an hour, as opposed to the days required by master craftsmen to engrave a similar effect. Artists such as Thomas Rowlandson (1756 – 1827) abandoned engraving for this new technology. Ease and speed of production led naturally to more spontaneous images and, importantly, to more frivolous subject matter. More risks were taken and social commentary, caricature and satire began to flourish. A fine dusting of resin granules is bonded to the metal printing plate using heat. The plate is then etched in acid, giving a rough texture made up of the acid-bitten pits in the surface and the raised dots, which were protected from the acid by the resin. This rough surface holds ink so that broad areas of tone can be achieved. Aquatint is very adaptable, but it particularly lends itself to dramatic chiaroscuro and wonderfully rich blacks. Check out: Mary Farl Powers, Goya, Colin Martin, Rembrandt, Vincent Sheridan. Like the term chine collé, the word collograph comes from the greek word collo meaning glue. It is a print made from a plate which is literally glued together; usually made of card and other textured materials. A wide variety of effects can be achieved without the need for acid or any other toxic chemicals. Check out: Peter Wray. ------------------------------------------- Digital Any image generated on a computer printer may be called digital. See also: giclée. Check out: Lynda Devenney, Dermot Finn, Emma Finucane, Andrew Folan, Paula Henihan. ------------------------------------------- Drypoint Any pointed tool is used to scratch into a metal plate, for example a nail. This creates a groove in the metal, as well as a raised ‘burr’ to one side of the groove which will hold extra ink. Marks made in this way print up as blurry edged lines. The simplicity of the technique, as well as the force required to scratch the metal mean that it lends itself well to lively, expressionistic, angular drawing. Check out: German Expressionist portraits, e.g. Ludvig Kirchner and Max Beckmann, who is considered the Master of drypoint. For contrast take a look at Lars Nyberg, who achieves incredible delicacy and detail in this medium. Also: Mary Fitzgerald, David Lilburn. ------------------------------------------- Carborundum Tiny grains of silicon carbide are mixed with PVA glue. The texture of this mixture is such that it can then be brushed onto the plate in a very free way, and will even retain the characteristic marks of the brush as it dries. Once dry, this rough surface will hold ink in a similar way to aquatint. This medium has the advantage of being less toxic than aquatint, and unlike aquatint it needs no complicated equipment so the plate can be worked away from the printmaking studio. Check out: Margaret McLoughlin, Louise Meade, John Graham. 139 Milestones ------------------------------------------- Edition There are physical limits to how many prints can be taken from one plate. However, it is more in the interest of preserving a ‘rarity value’ that artists limit and number their prints. The edition information is conventionally noted in pencil at the bottom left-hand corner of the image. The notation 1/25, for example, tells us that this is the first print in an edition of twenty-five. ------------------------------------------- Electro-etch A form of intaglio whereby instead of using acid, the metal plate is etched by placing it in a bath of electrolytic solution along with another piece of metal. The plate is attached to a positive electric charge (thus becoming an anode) whilst the other piece of metal is attached to a negative electric charge (thus becoming a cathode). When an electric current is passed through, ions migrate from the anode through the solution to the cathode. The same technology is used for gold-plating. It was invented in 1832 by the self-educated Cockney and first Fullerian Professor of Chemistry, Michael Faraday. It was not utilised in printmaking, however, until many years later. Check out: Fiona McDonald. sixteenth century onwards there was a separation of the ‘art’ from the ‘craft’; craftsmen were employed to engrave the images drawn or painted by artists. They achieved almost photographic reproductions of images created in other media, but this artistic remove resulted in some very dull images. By this time most artists making their own prints had understandably moved towards the new, easier, more spontaneous medium of etching. Nontheless, the uniquely clear and fluid line which engraving allows, which cannot be achieved by etching or any other means, has led a small number of extremely patient artists to persist. Check out: Albrecht Dürer, Pitteri, Evan Lindquist. ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Meaning cut in italian, intaglio is a generic term, which covers all kinds of printmaking where the ink is held below the surface of the plate in grooves, scratches or tiny holes. The paper used must be well soaked so that when rolled through the press with the plate, it will be forced into the grooves to pick up the ink there. Drypoint, etching and engraving are all forms of intaglio. Etching An image is created on a metal plate using a ‘resist’ such as wax. The resist acts as a kind of stencil, which protects some areas of the plate while exposing others. The plate is then put into a bath of acid or other mordant (such as the less toxic ferric chloride), which bites into the exposed areas of the plate. The resulting rough areas of the surface will hold ink, giving black and grey tones, whilst the smooth areas, which were protected from the acid, will not hold ink and will provide the highlights or pale tones of the image. Damp paper is laid on top of the inked up plate and both are rolled through a press, which looks something like a mangle. The pressure forces the paper into the bitten areas of the plate where it picks up the ink. Etchings can be identified by their characteristic emboss and plate mark – the indentation around the image which marks the edge of the plate; a subtle reminder of the 180 lbs per square inch of pressure required to create the image. Check out: Jaques Callot, Cora Cummins, Mary Farl Powers, Patrick Hickey, Anthony Little, Naomi Sex, Antoni Tapiès ------------------------------------------- Emboss When damp paper is laid on a plate and rolled through the great pressure of the press, the outline and texture of the plate is imprinted on the paper. This is an emboss. A print made in this way, without ink, is called a ‘blind emboss’ and often has sculptural/architectural qualities. Check out: Eduardo Chillida, Marie Louise Martin, Lina Nordenström, Maria Simmonds-Gooding. GLOSSARY OF TERMS laws governing printmakers and publishers and in 1832, Honoré Daumier, a political caricaturist, was imprisoned for publishing lithographs critical of King Louis Philippe. Later in France, Toulouse Lautrec and others produced iconic theatre posters in this medium. Check out: Claire Carpenter, Honoré Daumier, David Du Bose, John Kelly, Nancy Spero, Michael Timmins. Hard ground Hard ground refers to the hard wax which is melted and rolled onto the metal plate. Once cooled, lines can be scratched into the wax exposing the plate, which is then etched in acid or another mordant. Hard ground gives a sharp edged line and lends itself to line drawing and cross-hatching. It is usually used in conjunction with other methods, such as aquatint. Check out: Niall Naessens. ------------------------------------------- Mezzotint Giving soft, velvety images with incomparable blacks, mezzotint is often used for dramatically lit still-lifes. It was invented in the seventeenth century by Ludwig von Siegen, a professional German soldier. No chemicals are used, only elbow grease, and a lot of it. The artist starts by abrading the whole surface of a copper plate with a hand-held tool to give a rough surface, which when printed will give the black. The artist then burnishes away parts of the surface to give mid-tones and white. The plate is then inked up and printed in the same manner as an etching or any other intaglio print. Check out: Konstantin Chmutin, James McGreary, Robert Russell. ------------------------------------------- Intaglio ------------------------------------------- Lino Cut Picasso was amongst the first artists to cut into this cheap, mass produced floor covering to create a plate for a relief print, and he did so in very innovative ways. Because of its texture, linoleum is relatively easy to cut and lively spontaneous marks can be achieved. As well as being cut into, lino can also be etched using caustic soda. This results in a different kind of mark; fluid, looking something like a wash. Check out: Caroline Byrne, Picasso (cut), Alison Pilkington (etched). ------------------------------------------- Monoprint Also referred to as monotype, this is a unique print. Only one exists; there is no edition. There are many different ways of creating a monoprint; one such way is to ‘paint’ an image onto a very smooth surface such as glass or metal and then transfer that image onto paper. This technique has been around since the seventeenth century. Alternatively the artist may roll up a smooth covering of ink onto glass or metal, lay a sheet of paper over the top and draw on the paper. This will result in a printed image on the reverse. These are just two popular examples, but monoprint techniques are as varied and inventive as the mind of the artist. Robert Rauschenberg’s Tyre Print is a great example. Check out: Gráinne Dowling, Tracey Emin, Louise Peat, Robert Rauschenberg, Piia Rossi. ------------------------------------------- Lithography ------------------------------------------- Giclée ------------------------------------------- Giclée is in fact the french word for inkjet. A print at the press of a button has understandably attracted many contemporary artists to work in this medium. (See also: digital) Check out: Barbara Freeman. Engraving A sharp tool called a burin is used to cut grooves in a metal plate. The sliver of metal displaced comes away from the plate. This results in a line which is fluid, sharp edged and, by necessity, very controlled. The plate is inked up and printed in the same way as an etching (see across). Engraving is enormously time consuming and an extremely difficult skill to master, requiring years of practice. Consequently from the 140 The image is created using greasy crayon or ink on a stone or specially surfaced tin plate, and as such a lithograph often has the line and tonal qualities of a drawing. The complex and lengthy chemical process which is then used to preserve the image on the stone was invented by Senefelder, a German chemist, in 1798. The first image-based printmaking medium to be mechanised, lithography led to democratisation of the image, and indeed can be said to have spurred on democracy itself. At a time when illiteracy was the norm, the impact of the new mass produced images was taken very seriously by those in power. During France’s revolutionary period there were strict 141 Milestones ------------------------------------------- emulsion; and at this point screenprint became the eminently flexible medium that it is today. Many screenprint artists remain true to its roots, however, using it to create bold compositions in vibrant colours. Interestingly artists have also returned to using its original name. Perhaps this was under the influence of Warhol and the Pop Art movement, which relished its links with ‘trades’ such as signwriting and graphic design. Check out: Michael Craig Martin, Aoife Dwyer, Terence Gravett, Frank Kiely, Lichtenstein, Louise Peat, Robert Rauschenberg, Warhol. Photo-etch The earliest recorded photo-etching was made in 1827. It is also sometimes known as gravure and photo-gravure. A lightsensitive resist is applied to the plate. An image is then laid on the plate and the plate is exposed to light. The resist, once developed (a bit like developing a photograph), can be inked up as it is, or may be used to etch the plate. The electronics industry picked up on this method and it is now used to produce circuit boards. Check out: Janine Davidson. ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Woodcut À la Poupée When Japanese woodcuts started to reach Europe in the 1860s an artistic sea change ocurred. European artists, particularly the French Impressionists, were inspired to break previous conventions of composition. Artists of Die Brucke seized on this medium too. For them the visible gesture of cutting into the wood with force conveyed something of the artists’ inner state and served the needs of the art they were creating – later termed Expressionism. An image is carved into a plank of wood which has been cut along the grain. Ink is applied onto the flat raised surface. Paper is layed over the top and pressure applied, which transfers the image to the paper. Check out: Polly Apfelbaum, Jim Dine, Albrecht Dürer, Hiroshige, Hokusai, Caroline Byrne, Anita Klein, Fang Lijun, Edvard Munch, Kou Yanming. Poupée means dolly in french, but in this case it refers to a tightly rolled piece of scrim, which is used to apply different colours of ink to different areas of the same intaglio plate. Check out: Kate Betts, David Hockney’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’ series; the concept for which was inspired by William Hogarth’s (1697 – 1764) series of etchings of the same name. ------------------------------------------- Relief A generic term which refers to prints made by applying ink to the raised surface of the plate (not rubbing it into grooves below the surface as in intaglio). This is the most ancient form of printmaking. Woodcut, linocut and wood engraving are all forms of relief printmaking, as is a finger print. ------------------------------------------- Wood engraving ------------------------------------------- Similar to woodcuts, except that by using a piece of hardwood cut across the grain it is possible to achieve much finer detail. Check out: Thomas Bewick, Monica Poole. Screenprint The medium as we know it was first patented in Manchester in 1907 and used in the signwriting trade. These early screenprints were made by painting an image in negative onto silk, which had been stretched taut across a frame. The paint would harden when dry and act as a stencil. Ink was then pushed through the mesh screen onto paper or other support using a squeegee. This lent itself to bold, clearly-defined areas of flat colour. By the 1930s artists had adopted the medium and rechristened it serigraphy, clearly to distance themselves and their work from the signwriting trade. By the 1940s the stencil was being transfered to the screen photographically, using a light-sensitive ------------------------------------------Artists’ names underlined are or were Black Church Print Studio members. 142 ----------------------- ----------------------- ----------------------- B I P Bangoura, Aïda Betts, Kate Byrne, Caroline 38-39,121 40-41,121 42-43,121 72-73, 126-127 Irwin, Margaret Peat, Louise 98-99, 131 Pilkington, Alison 100-101, 131 --------------------------------------------- C K R 44-45,122 Kelly, Catherine 74-75, 127 Kiely, Frank 76-77, 127 ----------------------- ----------------------- Cummins, Cora D L 46-47, 122 48-49, 122-123 Dowling, Gráinne 50-51, 123 Dunne, Barbara E. 52-53, 123 Dwyer, Aoife 54-55, 123-124 Leader, Elaine Lynch, Catherine Lyttle, Anthony Davidson, Janine de Fouw, Jan Artist index ----------------------- ----------------------- F Finn, Dermot 56-57, 124 Finucane, Emma 58-59, 124 Fitzgerald, Mary A. 60-61, 124-125 Folan, Andrew 62-63, 125 ----------------------- G Garland, Jane Gleeson, Joan ----------------------- H Henihan, Paula Horgan, Sara S 78-79, 128 80-81, 128 82-83, 128 ----------------------- M Martin, Colin 84-85, 129 Martin, Marie Louise 86-87, 129 McDonald, Fiona 88-89, 129 104-105, 132 Sheridan, Vincent 106-107, 133 Smith, Paki 108-109, 133 Smith, Rob 110-111, 133 Stanley, Jacqueline 112-113, 133-134 Sex, Naomi ----------------------- T ----------------------Timmins, Michael N 114-115, 134 ----------------------- 90-91, 130 V ----------------------Vaughan, Stephen O O’Brien, Margaret 92-93, 130 O’Doherty, Eamonn 94-95, 130 O’Reilly, Sinéad 96-97, 131 68-69, 126 70-71, 126 102-103, 132 ----------------------- Nevado Roco, Silvia 64-65, 125 66-67, 125 Rossi, Piia 116-117, 134 ----------------------- W Wyer, Annraoi 118-119, 135