Ink, Paper, Print
Exhibition: March 2 – June 25, 2020
in the Community Center’s Sierra Room
851 E William Street, Carson City, Nevada
Click here to take a virtual tour of the exhibition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn3Ehqbb9No
Mary Kenny, Lonesome Travel, screen print, 2020
The Capital City Arts Initiative (CCAI) presents Ink, Paper, Print, an exhibition with work by eleven regional artists in the Community Center’s Sierra Room, 851 E William Street, Carson City. CCAI is grateful to Carol Brown for guest curating this show. The exhibition runs from March 2 – June 25, 2020. Due to public health concerns, the artists’ reception planned for April 3 was canceled and the building is closed to the public until further notice.
Ink, Paper, Print focuses attention on the variety of printmaking processes the artists use including etchings, linoleum blocks, screen prints, mezzotints, letterpress, moku-hanga, and monoprints. Each one of these techniques requires a delicate touch and years of experience to achieve mastery. The exhibition presents prints by Carol Brown, Galen Brown, Katherine Case, Teal Francis, Mary Kenny, Eunkang Koh, Jim McCormick, Cathryn Powell, Phyllis Shafer, Mick Sheldon, and Rachel Stiff.
Making mezzotints requires long hours of painstaking and repetitive mark-making to create images of exquisite quality such as Galen Brown’s. The Nevada Museum of Art said about his work, “Brown’s painstaking and often obsessive practice results in works that demonstrate his commitment to erasing the boundaries between art and everyday life.”
Rachel Stiff teaches drawing, printmaking, and painting at Western Nevada College. Her monoprint compositions evoke imagined and changing spaces within the construction and deconstruction of the Western landscape. Monoprints allow her to combine structure with the intuitive painterly way she works.
Carol Brown uses the ancient moku-hanga process to make original woodblock prints with Japanese tools and papers. Japanese design, culture, and views of nature influence her images. In addition, she creates artist books and makes hand-made paper.
Teal Francis, Guthrie and Salt Flats, intaglio with chine colle, 2017, 5.75″x7.75″
Teal Francis’ artworks of animals and human-made objects come to life through her intaglio, linocuts, and screen printing processes. Through playful images, she questions viewers’ expectations and basic ways of operating in the world. Teal is a MFA graduate candidate at UNR’s Art Department.
By combining collage, printmaking, drawing, and painting techniques, Mary Kenny builds images to explore narratives that challenge viewers’ expectations of how the world works. Kenny is an Associate Professor of Art at Sierra Nevada University, Incline Village, NV.
Eunkang Koh’s colorful and imaginary etchings present “the world as an illusion and believes that what we actually see is a perception that is programmed through mainstream cultures.” In her work, she depicts interactions between human/animal hybrid creatures to address this subject matter. Koh is an Associate Professor and head of Printmaking at UNR’s Art Department.
From her Meridian Press studio in Reno, Katherine Case creates images by hand-setting metal type and printing on an antique Vandercook proof press. She bases her work on “the diverse and abundant landscapes of the Reno-Tahoe area.”
Cathryn Powell’s relief prints focus on her experiences as a plein air painter and emphasize composition and color theory. Powell is an active member of the Lake Tahoe Art League and Open Studio Tours and a student of Phyllis Shafer’s at LTCC.
Mick Sheldon issues limited editions of 12 for each of his large linoleum block prints. His complex compositions and labor intensive processes span a wide range of topics including fast food, tools, and still lifes with discarded pots. Sheldon shared an unprinted linoleum block with the exhibition. Sheldon has retired as a faculty member from American River College, Sacramento, CA.
Painter Phyllis Shafer makes portraits of the natural environment including in this relief print of Fallen Leaf Lake. Her composition includes species specific botanical details. Shafer teaches painting and printmaking at Lake Tahoe Community College, South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Jim McCormick, (1936 – 2017), artist and print-maker extraordinaire, taught in the University of Nevada Reno’s Art Department from 1960 – 1992. He continued his contributions to northern Nevada’s art community as Professor Emeritus for many years. About fifteen years ago, Jim founded Printmakers’ Conspiracy, an informal group of regional artists. Jim served as CCAI’s founding board president (2003 – 2004) where his knowledge, insights, and contacts helped forge the direction and success of Carson City’s new contemporary visual arts organization. This group exhibition reminds us of his warmth, wit, and wisdom that touched so many of the artists represented in this exhibition.
The Sierra Room is currently closed due the Covid-19 pandemic. Normally it is open to the public during Carson City official meetings including the first/third Thursdays, 8am – 5pm, and many afternoons, Monday – Thursday, 5pm – 8pm. For Sierra Room access, call 775.283.7421 or check meeting schedules online at www.carson.org/government/meetings-and-events
The Initiative is an artist-centered not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.
CCAI is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Arts Council, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, U.S. Bank Foundation, and its sponsors and members.