Jane Kent

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Posit Editor

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Artist’s Statement

Printed images, to me, are built from the ground plane forward. Layer over layer. I begin with an object using drawing to uncover the oddness of everyday things. For this new work, I am using mirrors. Loosely drawn ovals and rectangles are placed over a backdrop of wallpaper; graphic shorthand of diagonal stripes represents reflective surfaces which become fields of color.

Previously, I have worked with unfolded cardboard boxes, shower heads, clock faces and
drafting lights. Now, I am looking at the distinct configurations of reflection — looking at subject as an invitation to look at looking itself.

Jane Kent makes drawings, prints and artists’ books. She has been working on an artists’ book project since 1999 and has just completed her 6th collaborative project in this series, Little Albert. Working with a previously unpublished prose poem by Joyce Carol Oates, Little Albert, published by Grenfell Press, will be released in May 2023. Kent’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Print and Rare Book Division, Beinecke Library, among others. She has previously shown at the Brooklyn Museum, Mississippi Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, International Print Center of New York, among others. She has been awarded grants from the Lower Eastside Printshop, NY (publishing residency), 2022; Barbara and Thomas Putnam Fellowship, MacDowell Colony, Artist Residency Fellowship, 2012; The Corporation of Yaddo (artists’ fellowship), 2017, 2004, 1995; National Endowment for the Arts (individual artists’ grant), 1990; among others. She lives in New York City and teaches at the University of Vermont.

Soledad Salamé

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Posit Editor

Garden of the Sacred Light (1994) — Grotto (1994)

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—images courtesy of Goya Contemporary and the artist—

Artist’s Statement

My art is a conceptual and visual exploration of the intersection of science, technology, and social justice issues defining the age in which we live. Engaged with the political implications of environmental issues, my recent work maps vulnerable marginalized communities suffering the greatest consequences of natural disasters.

Working in glass, silk, and paper effectively extended my visual vocabulary, incorporating textual relief elements to underscore collective negligence regarding climate change, including rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice caps. Climate change has triggered people’s migration from areas affected by rising water and unstable weather. In the USA, Border security policies intensify the social impact of migration, exacerbating unsustainable environmental practices.

Our world is in a constant flux and transformation. The way we communicate our actions’ consequences has been transformed. We once created a tactile object – a newspaper — providing a richly physical interaction made from plant-based paper; today, with the slow death of print media, we interact with world news through digital reporting, easily distorted or manipulated.

I wish to record this change as a call to action to protect both the earth’s precious natural resources and its people, while pointing to the fragile beauty surrounding us. By magnifying the pleasures inherent in natural materials — paper, textiles, and even sand-based glass – my work seeks to remind us of the magnificence and splendor that may be lost if we do not protect the environment.

Soledad Salamé, American, was born in Santiago, Chile in 1954. She currently lives and works
in Baltimore, Maryland, where she directs Sol Print Studio, an experimental space for artists to develop and refine their printmaking skills.

From 1973 to 1983 Salamé lived and studied in Venezuela. During this time she was exposed to the rainforest, a pivotal experience in her artistic development. As an interdisciplinary artist, Salamé creates work that originates from extensive research of specific environmental and human rights topics. In the pursuit of new ideas, she has conducted intensive field research in the Americas, and Antarctica.

Her work has been presented at multiple venues, Baltimore Museum of Art, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD. Milwaukee Art Museum, WI; Denver Museum of Art, CO; Miami Art Museum, FL; El Museo Del Barrio, NY; The Women Museum, Washington DC; and the Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile.

Salamé’s work is represented in private and public collections internationally, including The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, The Baltimore Museum of Art. Her work is included in The Contemporary Museum, 20 Years, by Irene Hoffman, Latin American Women Artists of the United States, by Robert Henkes and Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century, by Edward J. Sullivan.

Teresa James

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Posit Editor

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Artist’s Statement

Printmaking and making art in general have been a part of my life since I was a small child. I grew up in a family of artists and my father and mother were very supportive of this calling I had. The moment I new I wanted to make prints was after seeing an exhibit of Whistler’s etchings at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I was intrigued by the process and once I got my hands in the ink and was mesmerized by all the beautiful papers there was no turning back.

My studio White Wings Press is located in Chicago’s historical Logan Square, where periodically guest artists are invited to collaborate on print projects. I specialize in multiple color etching, photogravures and cyanotype prints but also create unique drawing collages with hand painting. My interest in combining many techniques and processes has lead me to a new series involving found engravings.

Still keeping ties with my printmaking background, these works require cutting out old impressions of birds and collaging them onto vintage book covers, allowing me a space for my drawn winged hands. These hands remain a dominant motif in my work, chosen for their uniquely expressive and creative powers while the wings connote mobility between worlds. Juxtaposing these images and blurring distinctions with technique, creates an unseen realm coexisting with the physical world to remind us that our corporeal life is the fragile one.

Teresa James has been a printmaker in Chicago for almost 30 years. In 1991, while studying at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, she was approached by artist Tony Fitzpatrick to assist with his studio, Big Cat Press, and soon became the workshop’s master printer. In 2002, she left Big Cat to establish her own print atelier, White Wings Press, where she continues to make prints and her one-of-a-kind drawing collages. She is represented by Hofheimer Gallery in Chicago.

Posit

A journal of literature and art

Tag Archives: prints

Jane Kent

Soledad Salamé

Teresa James

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