PRINTMAKING MAKES FOR MULTI-CULTURAL COLLABORATION: Japan/Dayton Print Exchange Showcases A Broad Community of Artists

DAYTON (October 17, 2015) – Dayton Visual Arts Center has announced the opening of Song: The Dayton/Kyoto Print Exchange, an international print exchange between the Dayton Printmaker’s Cooperative and the Gen Studio Group in Kyoto, Japan. The exhibition will open October 23rd and run through November 28th, 2015.

“This exchange brilliantly represents what artists are doing on both sides of the world,” said DVAC executive director Eva Butacavoli. “The types of printmaking and styles shared between these artists offer our community a unique opportunity to experience what is happening in printmaking today.”

The Dayton Printmakers Cooperative was founded in 1983 by Ray Must and Mary Campbell-Zopf at the Dayton Art Institute (DAI). When the DAI was renovated in 1994, the printmaking space was phased-out and the Print Cooperative searched for a new home, eventually finding a suitable location at 913 Keowee Street. All presses and equipment were moved and the members formed the new Dayton Printmakers Cooperative with the Dayton Visual Arts Center (DVAC) as their fiscal agent. The Keowee facility is over 1500 sq. feet of studio space, accommodatng relief, intaglio, stone lithography, silkscreen, and letterpress printing.

The Gen Studio Group came into being when the artists Sherraid Scot and Keiko Yuasa were looking for a place to do etching in Kyoto, Japan. A Kyoto Seika University graduate, Iwao Yamagen, had a studio and became their teacher. Both Scot and Yuasa became involved in the process and with their fellow students at the studio. They decided to call themselves the Gen Studio Group after their teacher YamaGEN.

In the 1990’s Scot became a full-time artist in Yellow Springs and Kyoto. She studied printmaking with Professor David Leach and Professor Kim Vito at Wright State University and in Japan with Yamagen at the Gen Studio. Later when Scot joined the Dayton Printmakers’ Cooperative in 2002 it seemed a perfect chance to start up an exchange between these two printmaking groups and the Dayton/Kyoto International Print Exchange Invitational was born.

Each year a theme is determined by one of the groups. This year’s exchange was themed Song, and Dayton artists are Danielle Arnold, Pat DeWeese, Gretchen Durst-Jacobs, Doug Fiely, David Leach, Annie Lee-Zimerle, Al Lochtefeld, Ray Must, Jamie Pacheco, Margrit Tydings Petrie, Kathry Pitstck, Sherraid Scot, Lisa Selvia Johnson, Doug Taylor, Kim Vito and Barb Weinert-McBee. Kyoto artsts are Honda Atsuko, Innami Yuko, Kousaka Shinnosuke, Matsukuchi Michiko, Naito Kiyoko, Suenaga Keiichi, Sase Tomoko, and Yamagen Iwao.

A Collector’s Preview for Song will take place October 23rd from 5-6 p.m. and an Opening Reception and Print Sale will take place October 23rd from 6-8 p.m. A Gallery Talk and Print Sale will take place November 6th from 5-8 p.m. All events take place at DVAC, located at 118 N. Jefferson St., Dayton, OH 45402.

The Presenting Exhibition Sponsor for Song is Ira and Susan Thomsen. The Education & Public Program Sponsor is Anne F. Johnson.

FREQUENTLY USED PRINTMAKING TERMS:

Intaglio: Any of the techniques in which an image or tonal area is printed from lines or textures scratched or etched into a metal plate (engraving, etching, drypoint, aquatint, lif ground, soft ground). The plate is covered with ink, then wiped clean, leaving ink in the incised lines or textures of the image. This plate is then printed in a press on moistened paper. The paper is forced down into the area of the plate holding ink, and the image is transferred to the paper.

Etching: A metal plate is coated with a varnish-like substance (known as the “ground”) that is impervious to acid. The artist creates an image by drawing through the ground with an etching needle, exposing the metal. The plate is immersed in acid, which bites grooves where the metal has been exposed. The ground is removed, and the plate is ready to be inked and printed.

Aquatint: Fine particles of acid-resistant resin or spray paint are deposited on the plate and heated so they adhere to the surface. The plate is immersed in acid, which bites into the metal in very small pools around each particle. The tiny depressions retain the ink and when printed give the effect of a soft grain similar to watercolor or wash.

Engraving: A form of intaglio printing in which lines are incised into a metal or wood plate with a carving tool called a burin. The characteristics of burin engraving differ from that of etching in that engraving, requiring considerable force, is done from the strength of the arm and eliminates the quavering autographic qualities of etching, which is done more from the fingertips like fine drawing. The hallmarks of engraving are often elegantly swelling and tapering lines.

Relief: A process where top surface of the printing plate or block are inked; recessed areas are ink free. Printing the image is therefore a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in firm contact with the paper.