Printer and Publisher of Contemporary Prints
Hot off the press
George Whitman
2013-01-18untitled (landscape)
Center Street Studio is pleased to announce its first print publication of 2013. George Whitman's untitled etching plate was on his drawing board for nearly two years before he brought it to the studio to etch. It is filled with the extraordinary detail and graphic ingenuity prevalent in all of his work. The plate measures 28 x 22 inches and is currently being printed with a Kozo chine collé in an edition of 35. It is available at a pre-publication price during printing. Please contact Director James Stroud for details.
Bill Thompson
2013-01-04Jig
Center Street Studio is pleased to announce the publication of a new aquatint by Bill Thompson. Like his last project entitled Gyro, Jig is printed from a shaped copper plate that is first inked with one color, then surface rolled with another imparting a richness of color and texture suggesting a three dimensional object more than a two dimensional shape. Thompson's new paintings continually cross the border into sculpture. His prints reflect the same dialogue.
The artist comments on the project:
With works on paper, I attempt to do things that would be difficult or impossible to realize as sculpture. This approach represents a liberation from the practical considerations of object-making and allows me to be more creatively agile with ideas. “Jig” is a perfect example of this freedom, depicting what appears to be a sculpted object that in fact, wouldn’t make any sense if it were. I am drawn to the physicality of printmaking – for this edition, the plate for “Jig” had to be hand-cut and the edges sanded to perfection. The pronounced impression in the paper, combined with the cor-ten color and darkening of tone around the edges of the shape, also contribute to the sculptural object allusion. Aiding my impulse to embrace impracticality when working on a print project is Jim’s willingness to try anything to achieve an objective. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard him say, “No, I don’t think that’s possible.”
Bill Thompson, Boston 2012
Jig was printed in an edition of 35 plus 5 artist proofs, on Rives BFK 400g/m2 paper measuring 30 x 22.5 inches. Contact Director James Stroud for price information and availability.
2013 marks the 20 year anniversary of CSS print publications with Bill Thompson. A major retrospective of these collaborations is in the works. Stay tuned for further information.
Rachel Perry Welty
2012-07-02None of these things is quite like the other
Center Street Studio is pleased to announce the release of a new etching by Rachel Perry Welty. Entitled 'None of these things is quite like the other,' it is a photo etching of 89 plastic bread tabs, carefully placed and composed by the artist. Etched deeply into the copper plate, the white ink used to print the image stands up from the paper giving each tab a physical, sculptural presence. The artist writes:
'Bread tags, price stickers, tin foil and answering machine messages: these leftovers form a language of modern life. Through ritual and repetition I collect, accumulate and re-present the forgotten reminders of consumption.
For this print project, I selected one of every different kind of bread tag from my collection, forming a taxonomy of plastic tabs organized by my own system, where none of these things is quite like the other.
In choosing to work with these materials, I am documenting the world in which we live, mapping out environments in the hope of finding the beauty, humor and joy in everyday life.' RPW, New York, 2012
Printed on Rives BFK 400m/2 paper with a Japanese Kozo chine collé in an edition of 30, the print measures 24 x 18 inches (image), 30 x 23 inches (sheet). Please contact James Stroud for price information. Click here to see a detail of the print.
Jeff Perrott
2012-06-11Dervish Monotypes
Having seen Jeff Perrott's 'Random Walk' paintings at his last exhibition, master printer James Stroud just knew Perrott would take to a new watercolor monotype process he has been tweaking at Center Street Studio over the past few months. So he invited Perrott to the studio to pursue a series of prints related to the paintings. Specially prepared water color painted on vellum, left to dry and then passed through the press under great pressure renders images of extraordinary fluidity and intensity.
Perrott writes about the process: "The monotypes are an extension of the Random Walk process into printmaking. Each of the 'Dervish' works employs exactly the same random process - a chance direction of line paired with a pre-determined color, length of mark, number of marks, and width of mark — with vastly different results. The serial nature of the project, the diverse outcomes, and the ecstatic color underscore the issues of contingency and irony at the center of my work today."
Each image is unique and measures 24 x 19 inches. Please contact James Stroud at the studio for availability and pricing. Click here to see a slide show of the first 17 prints.
Laurel Sparks
2012-05-10Luminous Procuress
Center Street Studio is pleased to announce a new print project by Brooklyn based artist Laurel Sparks. Known for her abstract paintings often referenced by Venetian chandeliers, Rococo jewelry and Christmas trees, Sparks' images 'shape shift between identity and abstract materiality.' And this is no less true for her very first etching made here at Center Street Studio. Sparks was 'all in' when it came to process: 3 copper plates, 11 colors, and three custom chine collé shapes cut from Nepalese paper, not to mention several hand additions of gouache, glitter and marble dust suspended in acrylic emulsion applied to each print pulled by master printer James Stroud. All this adds up to a print rich in image, surface and materiality.
Printed in an edition of 20 with 5 artist proofs on Hahnemühle Copperplate paper, Luminous Procuress measures 28 x 22 inches (image), 37 x 30 inches (sheet). For price information, please contact James Stroud, Director at jstroud@centerstreetstudio.com.
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