Manhattan Graphics Center

We have one spot available for our online class Photoshop for Artists starting this Wednesday morning, January 27. Guided by artist and MGC member, Orit Tenzer, students will explore the artistic possibilities of layering images in Photoshop to create original digital prints or color separations for digital plate preparations. Head to our website to grab the remaining spot today... www.manhattangraphicscenter.org/produ/photoshop-for-artists #manhattangraphicscenter #winteratMGC #mgconline #MGCfromhome #photoshop #printmaker #culturefromhome #printmaking #membermonday

Here's some Sunday afternoon reading for you in the form of IMPACT Printmaking Journal, a peer-reviewed academic publication from the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) at the University of the West of England. Released twice a year, it's chock full of deeply interesting and innovative essays and projects relating to all things printmaking. Original submissions are welcome: the deadline for Issue 4 is 30 March 2021. Visit the Submit page on their website for guidelines: www.impactprintmaking.com/submission-guidelines/ #IMPACT #printmaking #printmakingjournal #artistsubmission

Learn the medium of reductive screenprinting! Our online class with Sajeev Visweswaran begins February 2nd. Reductive screenprinting is a method of printing multiple colors using one screen. In this process, each color is attained by printing one color and then blocking successive portions of the screen using screen filler. With each successive session of inking, the screen filler is used to block out more and more of the screen until all the details of the image emerge. #mgconline #onlineprintmakingclasses #screenprinting #serigraphy #mgcfromhome #nycstrong #culturefromhome #NYCCulture #printmakingstudio #dailyprintmaker #megaprintmaker

An upcoming opportunity to get excited about from our friends at Awagami Factory.

These reciprocal relief classes are the start of a new and exciting partnership between MGC and The Center for Book Arts. Stay tuned, more details to be announced in February! . . . . Handmade Rubber Stamps with Elizabeth Castaldo, CBA Tuesday, January 26th, 2-4 pm EST... Join Center for Book Arts and instructor Elizabeth Castaldo for an introductory online workshop on handmade rubber stamps, a form of relief printmaking that can be done at home! Students will learn how to make a two-color design and registration for printing a two-color stamp accurately. Tuition is pay-what-you-can, with a suggested donation of $40. For all skill levels. Register at centerforbookarts.org/classes/handmade-rubber-stamps . . . . Linoleum Cutting with David Barthold at MGC Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6-7 pm February 16 - March 4 Join MGC instructor David Barthold in a series of 6 one-hour online classes. Students will be exposed to various strategies for drawing up, cutting and printing, and will be advised on tool choice. The class will also study historical and contemporary relief art, and how classical effects can be reproduced in a home studio. For intermediate-advanced students, $150. Register at www.manhattangraphicscenter.org//linoleum-cutting-online-w #manhattangraphicscenter #centerforbookarts #reliefprinting #streetart #linocuts #linocutting #linocutart #rubberstampart #onlineartclasses @ecastaldo_artandbooks #mgcfromhome #mgconline

Today we’d love you to meet board member, Suzanne Nicholas, a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, educator, and arts administrator whose practice spans filmmaking, installation, drawing, and printmaking. She worked at the International Center of Photography from 1988 to 2020, most recently as Director of Continuing Education. Her interest in printmaking began in the early 1970s and miraculously resurfaced in 2008, when she took her first lithography class at Manhattan Gr...aphics Center (MGC) with Arnold Brooks. Over the past decade, her focus has been on how the unknown manifests within the lithographic process, allowing for a range of nuances via the motion of hand gestures that drift and float across the surface of the plateleading to a finished work that reflects the effects of both randomness and chance. "During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, I stepped down from my full-time position as Director of Continuing Education at the International Center of Photography, where I had been on staff for more than three decades. The departure was indeed jolting, but offered a perfect segue into jumpstarting and reinventing my artistic practice. For the first time in years, I had the freedom to stay with an idea or to wrestle with its permutations, leaving room for connections to be made or points of reference to arise. Surprisingly, the pandemic opened a door to reexamining how I approach making work and thus offered me the opportunity to grapple with how thoughts and ideas can incubate and take shape over time. Created between April and early December 2020, my new drawings in progress include the tentatively titled sheltering, skin and/or sitting for impermanence, an internal investigation into what has evolved and resonated with me during the pandemic. The ability to recognize the impermanence and fragility of my day-to-day existence has transformed the way I navigate my practice: things aren’t always what they seem or appear to be, and one can’t foresee what’s going to happen next. In short, things are always in a state of flux. Yet the self and the studio can serve as creative laboratories. Here, information and ideas unfold, enabling untapped resources that lie somewhere among life’s quirks and misdirections to reveal themselves when the impulse to create abstract drawings or visual assemblages arises. I have served on the board at MGC since 2014 and look forward to rejoining its vibrant community of printmakers and imagemakers once the pandemic has lifted. See more of Suzanne’s work at www.suzannenicholas.com and @suznicho on Instagram

Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day. We at MGC honor his legacy and continue the work to fully realize his lofty goals for social justice and equality. This moving tribute to the fallen leader by Romare Bearden reminds us that work remains to be done. The work's title and imagery evoke Dr. King's renowned final speech "I've Been To the Mountaintop," delivered in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated. As elucidated by the National Portrait Gallery, Smiths...onian Institution: "King warned the crowd to anticipate 'difficult days' and declared, 'But it doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop [and] I've seen the promised land.' He continued, in language that seems, in retrospect, prophetic, 'I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.'" Image: Romare Bearden (American,1911 - 1988), Martin Luther King, Jr. - Mountain Top (1968), screenprint, edition unknown, 29 15/16 x 19 5/8 inches. 2019 Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. http://n2t.net//65/sm4b9936b90-8903-4b20-81ed-c1494a0bc5b4 #martinlutherking #MartinLutherKingDay #manhattangraphiccenter #civilrightsmovement #socialjustice #romarebearden

Always exciting news to hear about the latest edition of New Prints from our friends at International Print Center New York. Congratulations to MGC artist, Kaitlin Santoro for being one of the 40 artists selected for Mapping Territories: New Prints 2021/Winter, juried by members of Black Woman of Print.

Join Tressa Jones for her Street Ephemera Class beginning Saturday November 14. This course will introduce students to transitory and print-media based approaches to street art. Beginning with a survey of printmaking and ephemera street art, students will be encouraged to share with the class street art from their own neighborhoods. With this new knowledge as inspiration, the class will embark on its studio component, which will cover instruction on relief carving, hand printing, wheat pasting, stencils, home-made chalk paint, and rain activated spray. All skill levels are welcome; no prior experience with printmaking is required. Sign up today at the link below! #manhattangraphicscenter #mgconline #fallatmgc #mgcfromhome #mgcclasses #printmaking #printmakingstudio #streetart #nycstrong #nycculture

TOMORROW! Don't miss the 4th webinar in our Black Women of Print Speaker Series with Angela Pilgrim. Register at our website to receive the zoom log in. As always, our talks are free and open to all. We look forward to you joining us. #angelapilgrim #blackwomenofprint #manhattangraphicscenter #mgconline #printshop #printmaker #printmaking #mgcathome #culturefromhome #artisttalks #nycculture

Happy Friday! Today, we'd love you to meet Will Kaplan, a member of our board who came to MGC originally as one of our scholarship artists. "I approach printmaking and art with a loose sense of narrative. While my personal life filters into my work, I'm more interested in how others interact with, and read into the art. I find an animating effect when mixing language with vibrant colors, and I hope that these devices provide entry points for viewers to immerse and explore. I ...love printmaking for its emphasis on multiplicity and transference. As importantly, I love printmaking for its sense of community. I serve on MGC's board as a way to give back to this organization, while expanding it. I moved to NYC when I won the Manhattan Graphics Center's scholarship program. I felt immediately welcomed by the membership; in a city of 8 million, this sense of belonging was as valuable as the studio itself. I have joined the board in hopes that this organization can continue being a home to as many people who need it. "

MGC member Elizabeth McAlpin's piece 'Separate Together' is included in the juried show "Works Created During Lockdown" at the Williamsburg Arts & Historical Center. The exhibition opens this Saturday November 7 from 4-6pm and runs until December 13. Image: Elizabeth McAlpin Separate Together ... Upcycled Envelopes, Original Drawings, Embroidery 2020 See more

Our current online exhibition "Beyond The Print: A Retrospective" is full of stunning prints such as these pieces made by Liz Marraffino, Candy Le Sueur, Elaine Housman and Edgar Hartley. Each piece was created using techniques developed and taught by Nandini Bagla Chirimar in her class Beyond the Print at Manhattan Graphics Center. Head over to our website to view the exhibition at www.manhattangraphicscenter.org/beyond-the-print-retrospect... Many of these wonderful works are for sale making a great gift for that someone special. PLUS, because a small percentage of each sale goes to MGC, it’s a great way to support both the artist AND your favorite printmaking organization! #manhattangraphicscenter #beyondtheprint #onlineexhibition #mgconline #printmaking #supportart #supportprintmakers #experimentalprintmaking #awagamifactory #printcollector #supportprintmaking #mgcfromhome #mgcathome #nycculture #artattheheartofnyc #NYCStrong

Today is our official Grand Re-opening! We are so excited to be welcoming printmakers back to the studio, like Elizabeth Daggar, who signed up for an open workshop session during our soft opening period last week and shared these photos with us. She let us know how great it was to be back and thanks to the strict protocols we've set in place, she felt very safe. To make your reservation, visit our website. We can't wait to see you!... www.manhattangraphicscenter.org/open-workshop #manhattangraphicscenter #nycstrong #whatsnewatMGC #mgc #printmakingstudio #NYCprintmaking #printmaking #artattheheartNYC

MGC Winter Scholarship Artist, Tarun Sharma was one of 5 emerging artists to be selected for the exhibition On the Threshold of Time 8: Unseen from September 25 to November 30 in New Delhi, India. The show, now in it's 8th iteration, was held at Art Heritage, a gallery founded in 1977 in New Delhi by Ebrahim and Roshen Alkazi. You can read more about the exhibition in this review of the show by Aakshat Sinha of Artamour at www.artamour.in/post/on-the-threshold-of-time-8-unse...en. Tarun also has two pieces included in the English Riviera Winter Open 2020 at Artizan Gallery in Torquay, UK. See the work online at www.art-hub.co.uk/ex/erwo20 #membermonday #manhattangraphicscenter #drawtarun #onthethresholdoftime #artheritage #artheritagegallery #erwo20 #englishrivierawinteropen #artizangallery #artamour #artizantorquay #artexhibition #exhibition #contemporaryartist #indianartist #prints #printmaking #artatheartnyc

Beth Ganz is our featured #membermonday artist today. She tells us about her most recent body of work "Axis Mundi". "Axis Mundi, refers to the belief in a world center, often conceived of as a remote mountain: a place where communication between higher and lower realms is possible. This ongoing body of work, based on satellite images of sacred mountains around the world, depicts places where heaven and earth are thought to meet, a concept found across cultures. This ongoing... body of work is a search for such a center in a world of decentralization and fragmentation. So far, I have identified 30 such mountains in the Eastern Hemisphere sourced through Google Earth. I made my selection based on their visual dynamics and prominence. For each mountain I made a copperplate photogravure at Manhattan Graphics Center in late 2019-February 2020. During this Covid-19 crisis, with time on my hands, I printed editions for all 30 plates. As a parallel project, I pixelated the image data and created Sumi ink drawings on kozo, sometimes dying the paper with persimmon juice. This entire work is meant to be a large installation. I look forward to making another 30 gravure plates for the Western Hemisphere very soon!" See more of Beth's work at her website www.bethganz.com Manhattan Graphics Center EFA Studios Awagami Factory #membermonday #mgcmembership #mgcfromhome #isolationart #NYCprintmaking #printmaking #artattheheartNYC #copperplate #photogravure #cloroxdrawing #maps #mountains #artinthetimeofcorona #covidartwork, #sumiink #kozopaper, #persimmondying #printmaking #editioning

Keep Art at the Heart of NYC! We have prepared the studio for everyone’s safety and look forward to welcoming artists back to MGC. Starting Tuesday, November 3, we will be in full operation under our new guidelines and pricing structures. Come work in comfort and under the highest standards for safety in MGC’s completely restructured Open Workshop program! Membership is no longer required to use the studio, but we encourage you to learn more about MGC’s enticing membership b...enefits and join or renew today. Visit our website to learn more and make your reservations! https://www.manhattangraphicscenter.org/open-workshop #manhattangraphicscenter #nycstrong #whatsnewatMGC #mgc #printmakingstudio #NYCprintmaking #printmaking #artattheheartNYC

Happy Friday! Today, we'd like you to get to know Ruth Moscovitch, co-President of MGC. "When I arrived in New York in 2005, a transplant from Chicago, I didn’t know anyone, and I was unemployed. I found the Manhattan Graphics Center -- it smelled right to me -- and gradually built a new life here in the East. After spending a few years making prints of Chicago streetscapes and midwestern barns, I moved on to New York streetscapes and abstract constructions. I also estab...lished a new non-art life as a labor arbitrator, and more recently I’ve been painting as well portraits and landscapes. I have treasured MGC, not just as a good place to work but as a place to learn and collaborate. I find my fellow artists to be kind and supportive; there’s always someone or something to learn from. Because of my legal background, I was asked to be on the Board in 2008 and have been on that body ever since, serving variously as President, co-President and Board Secretary for the past 9 years. Currently I am happy to have Claire Gilliam as my able co-President, to share the tough decisions we have faced since the onset of COVID. During what my grandsons call Germ Time, I’ve mostly been painting plein air watercolors in New Hampshire. But I’m happy to have been able to return to MGC now to print, too." See more of Ruth's work at www.ruthmoscovitch.com

We'll be making an exciting announcement tomorrow so we are sharing our board member feature a day early. This week, we'd love you to meet Joan Greenfield. "I have been a member of MGC since the late ’80s and it’s been quite an experience to watch the scrappy little collective grow to the organization it is today. In that time, the landscape of the city has changed radically and MGC has had to adapt to it. This moment - the Time of the Pandemic - is a particularly dynamic tim...e to be on the Board. The pause button of lockdown provides an opportunity to map out a sustainable future for the organization and its mission. Art and design are defining themes of my life. The visual world speaks to me in a vital and deep way. Techniques, themes I’m all over the map and express whatever is on my mind using whatever material is at hand. A career in graphic design fostered a particular interest in type, but everything I see conjures meaning below the surface." See more of Joan's work at www.joangreenfield.com and on Instagram (joangreenfield.nyc).

Don't miss our Executive Director, Sarah Kirk Hanley in conversation with artist Jenny Schmid this Thursday, October 29 from 6-7pm hosted by The Print Center. This special evening is to launch Schmid’s new portfolio of 6 lino prints titled "Pandemic/Pandemonium", published by The Print Center. The webinar is free and open to the public, email [email protected] to register and receive the Zoom link. #Artisttalk #ThePrintCenter #printmaking #ContemporaryArts #artcollector #originalartwork #instaartwork #MuseumfromHome #ArtCanHelp #ArtKeepsGoing #relief #reliefprint #jennyschmid #artinthetimeofcovid19

During the pandemic MGC Member, Abby DuBow began a series of paintings entitled Corona Diary after finding herself stuck inside and isolated from her family at her home in the Berkshires, Massachusetts. The act of painting helped me to see and deal with my feelings and emotions from March through June reflecting the chill of mud season to the rebirth of spring. I had an exhibition of these works on paper at the Lauren Clark Gallery in Great Barrington. That was in July. ...What followed, was a mix of more paintings, in addition to making a series of small sculptures. They are heads created out of an assortment of found pieces that I have collected over time and take up space in my studio. I paint them and try to have fun making them. Abby is currently in two group shows: one at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA called Art of the Hills: Narratives juried by artists Amy Myers and Seung Lee and on view January 2021. The second is the Members Exhibition at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, Vermont. It opened on October 10th and will remain on view until January 3rd, 2021. www.abbydubow.com www.berkshiremuseum.org/portfoli/art-of-the-hills-narrative #membermonday #abbydubow #mgcfromhome #artinthetimeofcorona #artinthetimeofcovid19 #manhattangraphicscenter #printmakers #mgcmembership #nycstrong #nycculture so.vtarts Lauren Clark Berkshire Museum

Artist Jennifer Mack-Watkins gave an online artist talk as part of our Black Women of Print speaker series earlier this month. If you weren't able to join the live event, we are pleased to let you know it is now available to watch anytime on our YouTube Channel. #jennifermackwatkins #blackwomenofprint #manhattangraphicscenter #printshop #printmaker #printmaking #mgcathome #culturefromhome #artisttalks #nycculture

We welcome Robin Sherin back to MGC as one of our new Scholarship Work Exchange Monitors. Many of you may know Robin through her work helping to organize our exhibitions. In her position as monitor, she will ensure the safety of printmakers and smooth sailing during our open workshop sessions. A Brooklyn native, Robin currently lives and creates in New York City. She earned a BS from New York University in studio art with a concentration in printmaking. Her prints, drawings a...nd instant books have been in exhibited locally, nationally and internationally. Recent shows include Along the Nerve, Curious Matter, Jersey City and Made Here, Guttenberg Arts, Guttenberg, New Jersey. Her work is in a number of collections including the New York Public Library; Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia and Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers Archives for Printmaking Studios, Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey. She has been awarded a Manhattan Graphics Center scholarship in New York City and a Gutenberg Arts Residency, Guttenberg, New Jersey. www.robinsherin.com #manhattangraphicscenter #mgcstudio #whatsnewatmgc #MGCscholarship #printmakingstudio #printmaking #printmaker #fallatmgc #artinthetimeofcovid #nycstrong #nycculture

Happy Friday. Today, as we continue our series of introductions to the MGC Board members, meet Claire Gilliam, one of our Co-presidents. Claire is a practicing artist working primarily with photographic and print based mediums that draw upon her personal experience of disability to explore the human body, and most recently, language and communication. She became a member of MGC 6 years ago when she decided to take a class in etching with Vijay Kumar. She joined the board in 2...017, becoming Co-president in 2019. She is also part of the MGC social media team and hosts the Wednesday afternoon online members group IAC Comes Together. In these months at home in isolation, with such dislocation from our usual routines, our connection from others untethered and the constant stream of misinformation and noise coming at us from the highest office, the nature of language and how we communicate seemed even more consequential. The words we choose really do matter. As I watched the Coronavirus Taskforce meetings and Governor Cuomo’s daily press briefings, I took to writing the latin alphabet over and over, forwards and backwards, with both my dominant and non-dominant hand, trying to make sense of this widening gulf between fact and fiction. These loop of letters, foundational elements to communication, began to form a different kind of language altogether, familiar in one sense to many and yet totally incomprehensible to most, seeming to reflect our current times. Little did I know when I first walked into MGC, what a huge and enriching part of my life it would become. It is a community of creativity and friendships, deepened by my connection to the wider print world through my work and outreach with our social media. It is an honor to serve alongside Ruth Moscovitch, my co-president, my fellow board members, Sarah Kirk Hanley, our Executive Director and Erica Criss, Director of Operations to help steer MGC through these challenging times, so it can remain a vibrant, welcoming place for artists of all diversity and backgrounds to explore their love for printmaking. www.clairegilliam.com

Today, meet Diego Briceno. We welcome him to MGC today as he begins working as one of our new Scholarship Work Exchange Monitors, overseeing the safety and smooth running of the studio during open workshop hours. Diego was born in Chile in 1989 and completed Technical High School with an Associate Degree in Painting. In 2013, he graduated from UNSAM in Buenos Aires, with a BFA in Contemporary Dance and in 2014, joined a work-study program at Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, ...WA. In 2016, he moved to New York City, where he enrolled in printmaking classes at The Art Students League. In 2019, he was awarded the Adolf H. and Ada Aldrich Merit Scholarship at The League and became a council member of the Society of American Graphic Artists. He is currently part of Fig House Studios, museum-quality frames and art supports company. For the past two years, he's shown his work at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Artlink Contemporary Gallery in Fort Wayne, IN, and The Phyllis Harriman Gallery at The Art Students League. www.diegobriceno.com #manhattangraphicscenter #mgcstudio #whatsnewatmgc #MGCscholarship #printmakingstudio #printmaking #printmaker #fallatmgc #artinthetimeofcovid #nycstrong #nycculture