Exhibition on view: March 8 - April 26, 2024

Opening Reception: Friday, March 8; 6:30 - 9pm

public conversation moderated by special guest Casey Riley: Thursday, April 4; 7 - 8pm

The 2023 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship concludes with the fellowship exhibition at Highpoint. Beginning on March 8, Carolyn and Natasha will welcome visitors into the galleries to view the fruits of their fellowship year. This is an annual highlight on Highpoint’s exhibition calendar, appointment viewing if you will.

Between the outset of the fellowship in and now, a lot has happened beyond simply time spent in the studio. Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Highpoint brought the poet, artist, and critic John Yau to Minnesota for indivdual studio visits with Carolyn and Natasha. Then in late January, author and art educator Sarah Urist Green braved the Minnesota deep freeze to do the same. Both of these special guests were identified earlier in the fellowship by Carolyn and Natasha as two people that they would like to meet and converse with. 

In September, Carolyn and Natasha were honored alongside all the other 2023 McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellows during a special celebration at McKnight Foundation HQ. in the past 12 months, they have also had the opportunity to attend numerous visits to local museums and guided tours of special exhibitions including In Our Hands at Mia and Paul Chan: Breathers at the Walker Art Center.

Here’s what the fellows have been working on:

Using the large intaglio press in the co-op, Carolyn has been making some massive monotypes. She has also been taking advantage of the screenprinting setup. Carolyn said she was enormously inspired by John Yau’s visit which gave her new ideas and encouragement. She is putting the finishing touches on about a dozen works which will be in the exhibition. The series includes some self portraits and images of her family and pets. Recently Carolyn also spent two months as artist in residence at the Northeast Sculpture Gallery Factory, this is where her visit with Sarah Urist Green took place. At the Northeast Sculpture Gallery Factory she had the room needed to spread out to complete her large work on paper inspired by a trip to the Boundary Waters. 

She’s been working mostly within screenprinting and monotype, but Natasha is awfully  excited to be incorporating her newly acquired papermaking skills into her practice. In the exhibition, she will showcase several distinct series of work that have been in development. Natasha offered this about her fellowship experience: “Over the fellowship year, I have been steeped in an exploration of what home means and where it resides, pulling from my personal experience of eviction. Inspired by the lottery tickets my mom regularly bought and the impromptu fridge collages my Dad forms from real estate ads and images of domestic life, I am seeking to develop a visual lexicon and material sensibility, through handmade paper and printmaking, that allows me to hold onto something while letting go of the things that cannot be changed.” Natasha is also excited to experience a fully-funded artist residency following the fellowship. This benefit is provided to recent fellows by the McKnight Foundation through a partnership with the Artist Communities Alliance. 

Don’t forget to join us for a special event on Thursday, April 4 featuring special guest Casey Riley. Casey will be moderating a conversation between Carolyn and Natasha on their practice, their work, and any other related topics that organically arise. The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the artists and Casey during the conversation. Seating is limited but this event is free, free, free.

Casey RIley oversees Mia’s department of Global Contemporary Art and the research, exhibition, and publication of the museum’s renowned collection of art after 1970. Her curatorial practices are rooted in collaboration and informed by the principles of inclusion and equity. Recent projects at Mia include “Objectivity: Metaphorical and Material Lives of Photographs,” “Dayanita Singh: Pothi Khana,” “Hindsight: American Documentary Photography 1930-1950,” “Vision 2020: Jess Dugan,” “Just Kids,” and “Strong Women, Full of Love: The Photography of Meadow Muska.” In partnership with Mia colleagues and a curatorial council of fourteen artists, scholars, and knowledge sharers, she is co-organizing a survey of works by First Nations, Metis, Inuit, and Native American photographic artists, opening at Mia in October 2023.

Highpoint would like to once again thank Andrea Carlson (visual artist) and Alexis Lowry (Curator at Dia Art Foundation, New York) for providing their expert insight in reviewing the applications for the 2023 fellowship. We’d also like to thank John Yau (poet, critic, artist) and Sarah Urist Green (curator and art educator) for taking time out of their busy schedules to travel to Minnesota for meetings with Carolyn and Natasha

The McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are open Minnesota artist/printmakers who are at a career stage that is “beyond emerging” — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Fellows are selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and contributions to Minnesota’s arts ecosystem.

Threshold Gallery

On view April 8 - June 28, 2024

Reflected Impressions, Endless Possibilities features the new work by members of Highpoint’s Teaching Artist Learning Community (TALC), including Lynda Acosta, Constanza Carballo, Zamara Cuyún, Boniat Ephrem, Meher Khan, and Whitney Terrill. Th prints in this exhibition draw inspiration from personal teaching philosophies and reflections on participating in TALC.

About TALC: TALC is a paid program for early-career Minnesota-based BIPOC artists interested in growing their teaching and studio practice in printmaking. Over 10 weeks, the cohort met weekly with Nancy Ariza, Highpoint’s Artist Education Programs Manager and Isabel Arevalo, Teen and Adult Programs Intern, for printmaking instruction and discussions on pedagogy and professional practice skills of being a teaching artist in order to develop their own printmaking workshops. Additional engagements included visiting Mia’s Print Study Room to expand their knowledge of contemporary printmakers, and meeting guest artist and educator, Melodee Strong who shared feedback on their teaching philosophy statements and professional advice. This spring the cohort members will be leading their workshops between February and May at Highpoint and offsite at partner organizations.

Join us on Wednesday, June 5 from 6-8pm for Ink and Insights: Conversation with Highpoint’s Teaching Artist Learning Community to meet the artists and celebrate their achievements.

About the Artists:

Lynda Acosta is a visual artist from Colombia whose artistic work has inspired her to create various workshops to share her knowledge about linocuts and engage in conversations about environmental and social issues. She received the Creative Response Fund 2023 grant for EnVulvArte, a project to create art and a safe space for Latina women to reconnect with their bodies.

Constanza Carballo turns acrylic paintings, murals, linocuts into voice pieces that highlight the marginalized. Inspired by her own bicultural and bilingual upbringing as an immigrant in the south Minneapolis Philips community, Constanza began painting murals at the age of 13 and has since been recognized as a statement maker. She has brought fellow women artists together internationally and locally through community events that bring attention to the inequalities women face in all sectors of society including economic, political, workforce, healthcare, and education.

Zamara Cuyún is a self-taught Guatemalan-American artist and educator based in Minneapolis. As a painter, she grounds her work in Maya history, iconography, and worldview. As a teaching artist, she believes that making art can be a powerful tool for processing and expressing our identities, histories and memories through intergenerational storytelling and maintaining ancestral connection.

Boniat Ephrem is an Oromo-American artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As she builds her artistic practice, Boniat centers the belief that art allows us to connect to the world, each other, our history, and ourselves in interesting ways. She seeks to investigate, experiment, and playfully create around those nuanced connections. 

Meher Khan is a multimedia artist with training in printmaking, graphic design, and communications. She is a 2024 candidate for the Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s Master of Fine Arts program, and works as a graduate teaching assistant with MCAD faculty. Her current studio practice centers around identity and her second generation American experience.

Whitney Terrill is a multidisciplinary Minnesota-based artist focusing primarily on printmaking, photography, and painting. In her work, she addresses topics important to her, such as environmental justice and African heritage. Whitney also enjoys engaging in public art, especially murals, to raise awareness about environmental justice and to facilitate community meals and engagement for placemaking and placekeeping.  

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

ACCESS/PRINT & LOOK/SEE Exhibitions
AND Free Ink Day & Doors Open 2024

All are happening at Highpoint on Saturday, May 18, 2024

Join us for a Saturday full of printmaking – there will be live demonstrations, refreshments, and kid-friendly activities! Visitors will have the chance to tour Highpoint’s facilities and get a behind-the-scenes look at our artist co-op, print study room, and Highpoint Editions Studio. You can watch live printing demonstrations within the gallery, create your own prints during Free Ink Day festivities, and learn more about printmaking and our programmatic offerings!

Activities Overview:

Highpoint participates in Doors Open 2024, tour our space, 10 - 5 pm

“Doors Open Minneapolis is your chance to explore the buildings that tell our city’s story. From theaters to business hubs, sacred spaces to private clubs, sports complexes to engineering wonders, historical gems to not-even-open-yet buildings, Doors Open Minneapolis will give you a FREE behind-the-scenes look at dozens of exciting venues.” –Doors Open

We are one of many organizations participating that weekend – get an insider's view into buildings like the Scottish Rite Temple, American Swedish Institute, Star Tribune, and more. See all activities, event details, and accessibility here!

ACCESS/PRINT & LOOK/SEE Student Show, Main Gallery, 12 - 4 pm
Exhibition on display: May 18 – June 1, 2024

ACCESS/PRINT, our teen mentorship program, artists include Tamsin Beveridge, Nana Boynton, Finn Emerson, GiGi Lahr, Kamarah Maynard, Ray Maynard, Kaya Molt, Sofia Rice, and Jasper Slichter. *Read more about student projects and the programs below. Come see what the students have created over the program and watch live screenprinting demonstrations by students and instructors. 

LOOK/SEE: featuring work made by Hennepin County 5th-graders as part of the Creative Clean Water Stewardship Program. Each year, HP engages 250 5th-graders in a year-long interdisciplinary environmental education program designed to teach students about clean water initiatives, rain gardens, and pollinators and create artwork around sustainability. Students hail from Burroughs Community, Ella Baker Global Studies and Humanities Magnet, Nellie Stone Johnson, and Whittier International Elementary Schools. This program is generously supported by the Hennepin County Gree Partners Education Grant.

Free Ink Day, Highpoint Co-op, Classroom, and Rain Garden, 12 - 4 pm

Free Ink Days (family days) are free, engaging, and printmaking fun for all! Come create water-soluble monoprints, learn about print techniques, and enjoy environmental programming. We’ll have several special environmental guests, including Erin Rupp from PollinateMN and information from Hennepin County Green Partners.

Zero-waste snacks and refreshments are provided! The student exhibition and Free Ink Day are generously supported by the Hennepin County Green Partners Grant. 

More about the ACCESS/PRINT program and exhibiting artists:

ACCESS/PRINT is a teen mentorship program that supports creative youth with over 50 hours of studio time, printmaking tutorials, technical assistance, and support as they work to create a body of work. 

ACCESS/PRINT ARTWORK HIGHLIGHTS:

Saint Paul Conservatory of Performing Arts junior Nana Boynton is working on a final project combining a screenprinted photo collage and a watercolor monotype. They are exploring themes around gender, sexuality, and LGBTQAI+ representation, working to integrate personal narrative and universal experience in their work. Nana plans to center the physical body in their work.

Gigi Lahr’s final project, inspired by the political history of printmaking as a tool for dissemination, will be a series of large-scale screenprinted posters. She will focus on messaging, commentary, and education related to the COVID-19 pandemic, medical science, and masking. Gigi plans to experiment with materials, such as hand sanitizer, to make marks in her work; these marks serve as metaphors for what we experienced during the pandemic (physical disinfection, what was wiped away/given up).

Ray Maynard’s project includes a large-scale drypoint. They explore ideas of variation within symmetry. They will combine their interest in sewing and textiles into their project by printing on wearables in addition to paper.

EXHIBITION ON VIEW: June 21 - July 20, 2024

OPENING RECEPTION (with artist remarks): FRIDAY, June 21; 6:30 - 9 PM

Please join Highpoint Center for Printmaking in celebrating the 2023-2024 Jerome Early Career Printmakers at their culminating exhibition. Artists Mei Lam So, Izzy Shinn, and Gidinatiy Hartman will present a new work created during their residency, including a collection of intaglio, relief, and lithographic prints. 

Mei, Gidinatiy, and Izzy each investigate identity and personal experience through their distinctive styles of figuration. The work is remarkable, thoughtfully imaginative, and skillfully executed. 

Fundamentally, a print is an image transferred from a matrix onto a substrate, and in that sense, much of the work featured in this exhibition employs traditional printmaking techniques. However, this work was not made without risk and discovery – Gidinaitiy learned stone lithography, arguably one of the most challenging printmaking techniques, Mei eschewed the customary copper or zinc plate in favor of a material called Cintra for her series of drypoint prints, and Izzy incorporated carefully cut, colored paper additions into their intaglio prints.

Read on to learn more about each artist and their work:

Mei Lam So 

Mei is excited to share a new series of work that represents a directional change in both style and technique. While drypoint is not new to Mei, this series she presents utilizes a different material as the matrix. By incorporating monotype layers into the background, Mei’s work features a dynamic application of color, directing the viewer’s attention throughout the print. Mei will also showcase lithography, ceramics, and a print installation in the exhibition. Mei says the residency, especially the past few months, “have gone by fast. I’ve gained valuable feedback from co-op members through community critiques and short catch-ups in the studio and have incorporated them into my practice.”

Mei Lam So (she/her) is a Minneapolis-based visual artist whose medium includes printmaking, textile printing, and ceramics. She received her MFA in Printmaking and Ceramics from the University of Iowa and her BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Originally from Hong Kong, Mei examines the acculturation process of bicultural Asian immigrants, covering topics such as memory, identity, separation, and time. 

Izzy Shinn 

Izzy has been busy finishing prints while simultaneously fleshing out the concepts behind their work. Izzy said that throughout the residency, they often found themself occupied with ideating, planning, and potential, “I've been keeping to what I know concerning printing technique and processes, but utilizing that knowledge to the best of my ability, especially amongst such amazing resources and community found at Highpoint." 

Izzy Shinn (they/he/she) is a butch Twin Cities-based printmaker and comic artist specializing in intaglio etching and ink illustration, having earned their BFA from the University of Minnesota. With a focus on butchness, lesbian life, and history, their work is tied intimately with themself and their own experiences, showcased through characters and archetypes, exploring the sexual and social stigmatization of women, the body, and the queer subject.

Gidinatiy Hartman
Gidinatiy will be presenting multi-block color relief prints that depict words from Deg Xinag (their Native language), including images from an ongoing series of “bug prints”. In another work, Gidinatiy recreates the visual effect of Athabascan beadwork by meticulously carving hundreds upon hundreds of individual dots onto a linoleum block. The effect is incredible, and it needs to be seen firsthand.

Gidinatiy Hartman (they/them) has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Their artwork creates visual representations of Deg Xinag and other Native languages. It is centered around a desire to reclaim their family’s Athabascan language, which was taken from them due to colonization. United by a sense of whimsy and wordplay, their art seeks to make it easier for people to learn Deg Xinag and other Native languages. They aspire to have multiple modes of representation, including visual art, making language revitalization more accessible to people.

About the Jerome Early Career Printmakers Residency – Highpoint’s Jerome Residency was established in 2003 with generous funding from the Jerome Foundation. The program serves early-career Minnesota printmakers who show significant potential yet have not received a commensurate amount of professional accomplishment or recognition in the field. Jerome artists are selected based on their dedication, interest, and potential in printmaking, as well as the artistic merit of their work.

Highpoint would like to thank this year’s panelists Tamara Aupumaut and Heidi Goldberg.

Tamara Aupaumut is a multidisciplinary artist and independent curator living on Mni Sota Makoce, also known as Minneapolis. She works in a variety of media, including printmaking.

Heidi Goldberg earned her BA from Hamline University and MFA in printmaking and works on paper at The University of Michigan. She taught studio art at Concordia from 1995-2022. Her works have been exhibited in local, regional, national, and international juried exhibitions. She lives and works in the sand hills near the National Sheyenne Grasslands in North Dakota. 

Special thanks to guest critics Suyao Tian, Regan Golden McNerney, Tamara Aupaumat, and Hedi Goldberg for visiting with the artist and providing feedback at various intervals during the residency.

The Jerome Early Career Residency is in its 21st year of programming and is funded with a generous grant from the Jerome Foundation. The program is open to early-career Minnesota printmakers — defined here as artists who show significant potential yet have not received a commensurate amount of professional accomplishment or recognition, regardless of age or recognition in other fields. You can find details about the program, application process, and creative benefits on our website.

About the Jerome Foundation –  Created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), The Jerome Foundation seeks to contribute to a dynamic and evolving culture by supporting the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists. Based in St. Paul, MN, the Foundation makes grants to not-for-profit arts organizations and artists in Minnesota and New York City.

Please join Highpoint in welcoming the 2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellows Grace Sippy and Fidencio Fifield-Perez! Panelists Mike Cloud and Rachel Skokowski were tasked with reviewing a record number of applications (nearly double our previous high). Their initial evaluation was followed by in-person studio visits with the finalists after which they ultimate determined to award the fellowship to Fidencio and Grace.

When asked what excites them about the fellowship and what they think they might accomplish, Grace offered this: “I am excited and grateful to have the resources and mentality to be able to pursue my practice to an extent I have not had before. It feels validatin I am excited and grateful to have the resources and mentality to be able to pursue my practice to an extent I have not had before. It feels vaildatiing.”

“I have had a completely new and separate vein of work spark up in the last year or so, and I still need to decide if I will pursue its creation for the fellowship, or if I will continue to push and evolve what I have been working on for many years.”

And Fidencio said this: “I'm excited about printing in a studio that draws community members and printers from all over the area. Based on my experiences teaching and exhibiting with Highpoint, I knew I wanted to be a part of this community. It's unlike any other print shop I've been in. I'm most excited about printing and taking classes taught by other printmakers in the upcoming year. 

Undoubtedly, this fellowship will enable me to print new work as well as components that will be incorporated into other collaged works. The prize, facilities, and working alongside others during workshops will spur new directions, techniques, and processes. My studio practice is one driven by material curiosity and learning new processes.”

For updates on the progress of the artists and other fellowship happenings, stay tuned to Highpoint’s website and social media.

Highpoint would like to thank the panelists Mike Cloud and Rachel Skkowski for the thoughtful review and consideration of all the applicants.

About the panelists:

Mike Cloud is a painter, writer, and educator.  His work and research in the field of painting is anchored in the contemporary life of reproduction, symbolism and description. Cloud’s paintings “aestheticize their subjects and function on social and political terms that go beyond the stakes of authentic expression.”

Cloud earned his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art and his B.F.A. from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a concentration in art education. Cloud has lectured extensively on his work and contemporary theoretical art issues at the Jewish Museum, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Yale University, the Cooper Union, Bard College, New York Studio School, Kansas City Art Institute and the University of New Orleans.

Mike is associate Professor of Art, Theory, Practice at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Dr. Rachel Skokowski is the Curator of the Janet Turner Print Museum at California State University, Chico. She has worked with museum print collections in the US and abroad, including at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the University of Sydney, and the Ashmolean Museum. She received her PhD from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and holds a Masters from Oxford and a BA from Princeton University. Her research interests include 19th century French print culture, text and image studies, and women printmakers.

The McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are open Minnesota artist/printmakers who are at a career stage that is “beyond emerging” — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Fellows are selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and contributions to Minnesota’s arts ecosystem.