M anneken Press is a fine art press publishing original, limited edition and unique prints, portfolios and artist’s books by significant contemporary artists. Manneken Press is owned and operated by Jonathan Higgins and Sarah Smelser. Since our founding in 2000 the mission of Manneken Press has gradually evolved, and in addition to prints we now include drawings, sculpture and photography in our inventory. Artists come by invitation to create original works of art in intaglio, relief, lithography and monotype in our studio, located in Bloomington, IL USA. The prints are made by the artists working in close collaboration with master printer Jonathan Higgins, and are hand-printed on our Takach etching press. We are committed to traditional, time tested techniques and use only the finest papers and inks to produce our prints. Manneken Press has exhibited these works at fine art fairs in Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, Boston, Baltimore, Houston and New York City, and in many galleries and museums.
Manneken Press has been the subject of several survey exhibitions: Manneken Press at Five Years at Illinois Wesleyan University in 2005; Full Circle: Prints from Manneken Press travelled to venues in California, Texas and Louisiana in 2007; the Peoria Contemporary Art Center mounted the exhibition Artists of Manneken Press in 2011; and Recent Prints and Projects from Manneken Press, Wakely Gallery, Bloomington, IL in 2017. Reviews of Manneken Press prints have appeared in such publications as Art In Print, Art In America, ARTnews, and Art On Paper.
