In Gallery 2, Western Exhibitions presents three new prints by gallery artists, Adriane Herman, Miller & Shellabarger and John Neff produced at the printmaking studio Fresh Hot Press in Madison, Wisconsin. Fresh Hot Press publishes small editions and unique prints in collaboration with visiting artists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Art Department. During the fall semester of 2008, Fresh Hot Press invited these three alumni of the UW Art Department to print editions, in conjunction with Western Exhibition’s show at The Project Lodge in Madison. Adriane Herman, Miller & Shellabarger, and John Neff each brought unique conceptual approaches to printmaking, but interestingly, all three produced work with a similar concern for subtleties in the print’s surface. Each piece encourages an intimate experience of its topography and an appreciation of the inimitable qualities of a hand-pulled print.
Adriane Herman’s print, “Necco Census No. 1: Scratch-Off, Scratch ‘N Sniff Alignment”, a silkscreen with hand cutting and perforation, is literally a scratch ‘n sniff piece printed from a solution that matched the fragrances of Necco wafer’s eight flavors mixed in same proportion as they appeared in the pack. This print was featured in the exhibition “New Prints 2008/Autumn” at the International Print Center New York. She also made the prints “Checklist” and “Checklist Deluxe” at Fresh Hot Press, re-producing a list she found at the Maine College of Art made by a beginning art student, a list of all the things one needs to include in order to make good art. Herman figured if she made a print from it, it would automatically be good art since it inherently contains all the items on the list.
Miller & Shellabarger have embossed a silhouette of themselves with their beards tied together to make their striking, black-on-black untitled print. This piece is a continuation of their Conjoined Silhouette series, which typically take the form of black cut paper silhouettes mounted on white paper. This body of work was mostly recently seen in a solo presentation by Western Exhibitions at the NADA Art Fair in Miami this December.
John Neff’s screenprint, “Vexations”, representing the score of Erik Satie’s infamous 20-plus hour piano composition “Vexations”, has 840 layers of ink on the paper’s surface. “Vexations”, as conceived by Satie, is a short chordal passage and a bass line which is repeated twice in each repetition of the piece, to be repeated 840 times, thus Neff’s correlation of 840 layers of ink. Western Exhibitions will also show this print as part of its solo presentation of Neff’s work at The Armory Show in New York City in March.
Fresh Hot Press is the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student-run print club dedicated to promoting student, faculty, and community involvement in all forms of print media. In addition to organizing exhibitions of student work, they regularly host and print editions with regional and national artists. They not only aim to maintain UW’s involvement in the national printmaking community, but to share resources and generate interest in print media at a local level.