A PRINT IS FOR LIFE: 1-19 Dec 2021
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Helen Baines’ practice explores ideas around memory, sense of place and our relationship with the natural world. She draws from a broad range of cultural, historical and literary references to inform her work, with nature writing and poetry giving shape to her thoughts. This process is an organic one that evolves through the lengthy proofing stages and their inherent combination of chance and accident. By knitting together observed elements with remembered and imaginary forms, Helen hopes to articulate something more elusive or unexpected.
Liz Collini’s prints, drawings and installations embody attempts to create a ‘perfect’, idealised text. Through processes of construction and dissolving, she is looking for the point at which the meaning of written language overlaps with its physical form and structure and where text and image converge. She approaches all surfaces as forms of pages, even where language itself may not be present. The screenprints shown here are based on handwritten lists; one of botanical names for varieties of irises, another with the first and last lines of songs about the sea, and one with quotations about truth washed out and redacted with red ink.
Previous projects have included large-scale installations for the International Text Festivals at Bury, Greater Manchester, and a site-specific commission for the V&A’s Prints and Drawings Study Room in 2011. The British Museum acquired a work for its collection in 2018. She has written essays for a number of magazines and books.
Liz lives and works in London. She is a member of East London Printmakers and has a studio in Wood Green.
Abandonment, decay, erosion and changing light conditions; all processes of transformation of the landscape, objects, buildings and interiors, provide a starting point for Peg Morris’s work which is rooted in observation. A multi-disciplinary artist, she draws, paints, makes etchings, collagraphs, lithographs and artist’s books. The subject matter dictates how the final piece will be made. This changes and evolves and multiple processes may be used. The transformation from observation through drawing and the complex processes of printmaking may result in an abstracted version of what she first observed but all her work has foundations in observation.
Peg works at Kew Print Studio where she teaches etching. She has recently had work selected for the Mall Galleries and the Woolwich Print Fair. Her work is held in the V&A archive and the Printmakers Council Archive at the Scarborough Art Gallery and in private collections across the UK and abroad.
Richard Peacock is an artist working with screen print and woodcut. His imagery combines elements of geometrical abstraction and pop art.
In his screen prints the image is constructed using the building blocks of colour, shape, rhythm and pattern. The negative space between the elements is often an important part of the composition.
The stencils for the screen prints come from a variety of sources. Sometimes Peacock uses basic geometric shapes, but often he uses pieces of packaging folded flat to form his stencils. He likes this element of recycling: using discarded cardboard to form the basis of an image seems appropriate in a throw-away world.
A key element of “handmade” work is that images are never perfect – there are imperfections and random elements in Peacock’s work and unexpected colours are sometimes discovered as the result of two or more layers of ink. This is something he embraces.
His woodcut prints also contain an element of recycling: he likes using weathered wood as the basis of this work. In particular, discarded builders cable drums rescued from skips form the basis of his circular woodcuts. When Peacock prints from these surfaces and the paper picks up scratches and scuffs, as well as the grain, as well as the new image, the history of the wood is exposed.
http://www.richardpeacockprints.com/
Sumi Perera is an interdisciplinary artist, academic and curator who cross-links various skills & materials to create interactive site-specific artistbooks and print-installations.
She draws upon her background working as a doctor, scientist(virologist) and artist. She obtained a MA at Camberwell College of Arts UAL in 2004, and has taught at Middlesex University MA Printmaking and the Royal Academy.
She has held many international residencies in China (Beijing 2007 & Yinchuan 2019), Italy (Venice 2017), France (Marcilhac-sur-Cele 2017) & London 2016 Mercers Hall.
Her work has won many international prizes/awards: Prix de Print USA, Gold Medal in Seoul, Best Work in Show DRAW 14. She has work in collections worldwide: Tate Britain, Victoria & Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Royal Collection, British Museum, British Library & Yale Centre for British Art USA etc.
She has curated many international touring exhibitions: 15 to 1(CAFA Beijing); Wish You/We Were Here/There in Liechtenstein October 2021.
Yoonjung Shim’s work is all about geometry. Grids, diagonals, and tessellations are a frequent feature of her compositions, which are often inspired by the patterns in fabrics and buildings. Although her work is resemblant of contemporary minimal design, it is created through the process of traditional intaglio ‘etching’. This ancient practice prohibits perfection. Precise lines and clear backgrounds are a near impossibility on an etching plate. Therefore, it is through this mismatch – this fusion of old and modern – that Yoonjung explores the paradoxes of geometric composition and the imperfections of human strokes.
Yoonjung Shim (b. South Korea) is a printmaker based in London and a member of Southbank Printmakers and Printmakers Council. Her works have been selected for a number of major exhibitions including the RA summer exhibition, the National Original Print Exhibition and Woolwich Contemporary Art Fair.
Cynthia D’Souza is a British visual artist, whose studio practice is based in North West London. Contemplating a change in career direction, to get back to her creative roots, she returned to education in 2019 and gained a Masters in Printmaking from Middlesex University.
D’Souza uses her camera to capture fleeting moments, objects and places, frequently focusing on natural elements alongside urban reflective materials. The camera is her visual sketchbook and feeds her imagery, which translates into her distinctive approach to print.
Experimenting with printmaking techniques, D’Souza works with an unconventional approach, spontaneously creating painterly abstract layers. The dominant theme being the never-ending colour harmonies, investigating compositional balance and exploring the qualities of ink.
Her artistic practice embraces chance and the spontaneous random event, developing themes and motifs. Each series of work is a journey of discovery, often risking everything on the ‘happy accident’. The resulting unique small limited editions have subtle variations.