Participants will learn how to make unique blue cyanotype prints, from preparing the paper to exposing in light, then developing the image in water. This technique involves dried florals, fabrics, and other found objects to create a design.
Participants will use water soluble materials to paint directly on a screen, then apply a transparent base to create unique monotypes.
Drypoint is a form of intaglio printmaking. In this workshop, participants will scratch a drawing onto an acrylic plate with a sharp needle. Burrs that result from the scratching trap and hold the ink after the plate is wiped clean. This creates a soft, heavy line that is unique to this type of intaglio.
Grace Sippy (left), Fidencio Fifield-Perez (right)
Highpoint is pleased to present the 2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition. The exhibition features work created throughout their fellowship year, including an incredible collection of mixed media print-based work that incorporates lithography, collagraphy, collage, letterpress, embroidery, bookmaking, and more. Although the body of work each artist presents differs, both collections are filled with highly detailed, delicate, subtle, and personal imagery, documenting themes of loss, memory, home, and meditation.
About the artists:
Grace Sippy earned her BFA in Printmaking with Honors at the University of Iowa and her MFA in Printmaking at the University of Alberta. She has taught at the University of Alberta, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and Highpoint Center for Printmaking. Grace’s work explores dualities, often between mind and body, and combines traditional and contemporary, hand-based and digital printmaking methods. She has exhibited nationally and internationally across Europe and Asia, earning much recognition in her field.
During the fellowship year, Sippy dove deep into exploration through a series of collagraph prints transforming garments once worn by her two young children. Sippy says, “The transformation of the garment to a printing matrix is a paradox, destroying the garment in the process but creating something new, a remnant of what was there. My fellowship work presents a reflection of loss and grief: of hopes of having a child, of a child since grown, and the loss of a child.”
Fidencio Fifield-Perez was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, but raised in the U.S. after his family migrated. His current work examines borders, edges, and the people who must traverse them. In his work, Fifield-Perez’s interdisciplinary practice centers on the materiality of paper ephemera, everyday self-documents discarded after fulfilling their purpose. Fidencio Fifield-Perez received his BFA from Memphis College of Art and an MA & MFA from The University of Iowa. He has completed artist residencies at The Studios at MASS MoCA, Ox-Bow, ACRE, Crosstown Arts, and the Galveston Artist Residency, among others.
Over the last year, Fifield-Perez has begun to reintroduce the figure into his work. This began with a beautifully rendered stone lithograph depicting his chosen family. He said that previous works, “relied on protection through abstraction. Important documents were shrouded and obscured by the depictions of indoor plants. But in new works, the bodies are present, while often furtive, cut, and embossed.”
We are also excited to welcome Teréz Iacovino to moderate a conversation between 2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellows Grace Sippy and Fidencio Fifield-Perez on their practice, work, and other related topics. The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the artists and Iacovino during the conversation.
About Teréz Iacovino: Teréz Iacovino is the Assistant curator of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, operated by the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota. Her curatorial practice is continually shaped by the artists she works with, the students she mentors, and her experience as a Latina and first-generation graduate working in academia. Iacovino is the recipient of a Curatorial Research Fellowship Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and is a 2024 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute Fellow. Recent publications include “Unpacking the Portmanteau: Locating Diasporican Art” as part of Nuyorican & Diasporican Visual Art: A Critical Anthology (Duke University Press).
Highpoint would like to express our gratitude to the McKnight Foundation for their generous support of this program and Minnesota artists. thank Mike Cloud (visual artist and Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies at Northwestern University) and Rachel Skokowski (Director of Galleries and Turner Curator at California State University Chico) for providing their expert insight in reviewing the applications for the 2023 fellowship. We’d also like to thank Miguel Aragon (visual artist and Associate Professor in Printmaking at CUNY College of Staten Island), Emma Nishimura (visual artist and Assistant Professor at OCAD University in Toronto), and Xuxa Rodríguez (Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at Duke University) for taking time out of their busy schedules to travel to Minnesota to conduct studio visits with Grace and Fidencio.
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.
For this class, students will create a drawing on frosted Dura-lar with paint markers (positives). Screens are pre-coated with a photosensitive emulsion, and the positives are used to expose an image on the screen. The unexposed emulsion is washed out, leaving the image on the screen. This is the most common form of screenprint, as similar methods are used for commercial screenprinting.
Curious about how Mezzotints are made? What even IS a Mezzotint?! This demonstration by printmaker Douglas Bosley will dive deep into the labor-intensive process of creating dynamic, high-contrast prints.
In this workshop, participants will cut paper stencils and can use certain found objects to build an image. After inking the stencils and applying them to a plexiglass plate, it is run through an etching press to create a unique, one-of-a-kind print.
In this workshop, participants will build designs using Lego dots and baseplates. The image will be printed from inking the legos with water based ink.
In this workshop, participants will carve away the areas they want to remain white on a soft, easy-to-cut block. The image will be printed from the raised surfaces left on the block after carving. Relief printing is the oldest form of printmaking, and these prints are characterized by their bold contrast between light and dark areas.
In this workshop, participants will cut a simple design into contact paper (the adhesive vinyl used for lining shelves) and adhering it to a screen to create a stencil. This technique is great for bold and graphic designs.
This introductory course offers students a hands-on exploration of traditional intaglio printmaking, where they will learn to create detailed and textured prints.
ON VIEW: January 17 - February 22, 2025
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, January 17, from 6:30-9 PM
Highpoint Center for Printmaking is pleased to present a selection of new mezzotints from printmaker Linda Whitney. Opening on January 17th, the exhibition will feature over 20 new prints. Come view these incredibly detailed, textural, and awe-inspiring mezzotints. The exhibition and event are free and open to the public.
Students will learn mono print methods using collagraph techniques, non-traditional objects, textures, and recycled materials to create imagery on a professional intaglio press with oil-based inks.
Build your own plates and learn about the unique and versatile form of printmaking called collagraphy, where the printing plates are made by hand.
Opening Reception: December 13, 6:30-9 PM
Exhibition Dates: December 13–January 11, 2025
Opening Reception: December 13, 6:30-9 PM
Exhibition Dates: December 13–January 11, 2025
Create a 1-2 layer screen print edition.
Students will learn to make carborundum collagraphs and create multi-color prints using watercolors mixed with gum Arabic.
This free workshop will cover the basics of applying to artist opportunities such as residencies, open calls, and fellowships: looking for opportunities, developing personal criteria for which to apply to, tracking deadlines, organizing application materials, and - most crucially - navigating rejections and cultivating resilience to keep applying. Following a presentation, participants will be invited to discuss and share their own methods, experiences and questions.
Carve a relief block and hand print multiple painted colors.
Print drypoint plates using relief roll color techniques.
Use recyclable plastic plates, water washable oil based inks, water soluble crayons, and an etching press to make drypoint monoprints.
This is a four week introduction to creating surrealist drypoint prints using recyclable plastic plates, water washable oil based inks, and an etching press.
Work reductively with water soluble oil based inks to create rich monotypes using an etching press.
Unsettled Horizons: The Expanded Prints of Nicola Lopez
Unsettled Horizons: The Expanded Prints of Nicola Lopez
Use carving tools to carve a relief block, learn the basics of pin registration, and print 2-3 layers by hand.
This course covers advanced methods of working on copper to create fresh, dynamic intaglio prints with compelling mark-making. Techniques will include: multi-plate color, timed bites, “soap” ground, sugar lift, soft-ground textures and more.
Use water soluble media to create painterly screen prints.
Learn how to make prints using the cyanotype process, which produces rich blue prints with brilliant highlights.
© Highpoint Center for Printmaking
