Current Exhibition: 

 

Lands to Travel Through

Trio by Martha Street Studio
Vague Démographique  by l'Atelier Press Papier

July 9th - August 27th, 2021

Printmaking has a history of both inter-artist and inter-geographical dialogue. Within its tradition, collaborative making where printmakers partner with other artists, disciplines, and communities is commonplace. Print artists rely on one another everyday because most of us must access equipment through publicly accessible print shops and artist-run centres. It is no surprise that print artists have a long tradition of sharing our work with each other through exchanges and collaboration because the centre of printmaking culture is community-focused based on this need to share resources. Print artists and organizations often facilitate contemporary exchanges between artists through both local portfolios and inter-geographical exchanges. As part of the “Lands to Travel Through” artist-run gathering, Alberta Printmakers (A/P) proposes to highlight alternative forms of knowledge dissemination and creative exchange through the exhibition of “Trio” and  a portion of 'Vague démographique : mouvance des cultures'' in our Main Space Gallery. 

“Trio” is an exchange portfolio of print works organized by Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg that includes pieces by their members as well as students from the University of Manitoba and Brandon University.  Exchange portfolios like “Trio” include a set number of artists who each produce and edition of prints equivalent to the number of artists involved. The prints are then exchanged between the artists, allowing each person to collect a full set of impressions.

Printmaking exchange portfolios are an integral aspect of the contemporary printmaking landscape that are centred on the artists and function as a form of artwork dissemination that allows for the exchange of contemporary discourse and community building between artists. Because prints are typically made on paper, they are often small in scale and light-weight, which makes them easily transportable in comparison to some other forms of work. Because of this, print exchanges often cross national and international borders, generating relationships amongst diverse populations. 

Martha Street Studio and Alberta Printmakers are furthering the concept of exchange by additionally exchanging complete portfolios. At a similar time that Alberta Printmakers will be hosting “Trio,” Martha Street Studio will be presenting “Futurology,” a print portfolio exchange created in celebration of the 30th anniversary of A/P. 

'Vague démographique : mouvance des cultures'' is a project that was created by artists from l'Atelier Presse Papier and First Nations artists from several regions of Québec. Each artist duo worked in collaboration with their counterpart to illustrate the movement of cultures. As part of the “Lands to Travel Through” gathering, Alberta Printmakers will share an artist book that is composed of works from each collaborative duo. Though space does not permit for the exhibition of this entire project within our Main Space, A/P hopes to aid l'Atelier Presse Papier in finding potential partner venues to share the rest of the project during “Lands to Travel Through.”

Through our participation in “Lands to Travel Through” Alberta Printmakers aims to draw attention to “exchange” as not only a valid way of sharing cultural products but as a method of reciprocity amongst artists and communities of makers. When we make work that is for, and with each other, hierarchies of creative economy begin to be dismantled. We aim to draw attention to the benefits of resource sharing as exemplified through community printmaking studios such as our own and seek to share ways of generating collectivity across lands and between communities.

Our Partners: 

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Lands to Travel Through - An online artist run gathering  occurring from August 3rd - 8th, 2021.

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Martha Street Studio - Located in Winnipeg, they are Manitoba’s only printmaking artist-run centre, studio and gallery.

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l'Atelier Presse Papier - Located in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, they are a workshop for artists practicing all printmaking techniques.

Past Exhibition: 
 

Alberta Printmakers in partnership with the Collectors' Gallery of Art present:

In Conversation with John Snow

May 22 - July 2, 2021
Curated by Sheryl Spencer 
Featuring work by local emerging artists:
Tasia Selimos, Westbury Jordan, Stephany Victorine and Rosemary Allan

 
 

Past Exhibition: 

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Sara Norquay / 

Citizen of the World​

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October 2 - November 20, 2020

“Citizen of the World is an exhibition of 6 x 6 inch linocut portraits portraying 300 individual members of our human collective (society) in an extended present tense. It is a portrait of humanity but the individual portraits reveal diversity within the collective. As our identities are bound up with our ideas of difference and uniqueness, these prints challenge the viewer’s biases. Even though a photograph is often considered to be “more true” than a picture in another medium, all mediums contribute their own visual quality to the interpretation of a subject. Some viewers have said the portraits capture more than physical features and the subjects themselves had a say in how they were portrayed as they chose or approved of the photograph used to make the linocuts.

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The interpretive nature of the viewer’s relationship to each subject adds to the discussion of what these portraits mean together and individually. We see the work through the lens of our personal experiences, ideas and culture. For me, the portraits bring forth memories and emotions attached to each of the subjects. Each is someone I know or have spent time with, even if only for a single conversation. It is my interaction with each individual that I think about while cutting the plate. To be thought about by others is a kind of blessing. I hope the accumulative acts of making and viewing contributes to the energy of goodwill in the world.”

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Sara Norquay - Born in Edmonton, raised in Toronto, and employed as a free-lance Opera Equity Stage Manager during her twenties while living in Alberta, Sara attended the Alberta College of Art in the mid-70s. After receiving a B.A. in English from the University of Toronto and a B.Ed from Queens University in the 80’s, she married and went to live in Santa Barbara, California. There she raised children, taught, and exhibited prints and artist books before moving back to Edmonton in 2009. She is known in Alberta for her Lino portraits, large woodcuts, and artist books. 

Her website URL is: http: //slnorquay.com