About Manneken Press

M anneken Press is a fine art publisher producing original, limited edition and unique prints, portfolios and artist’s books by significant contemporary artists. Manneken Press was founded in 2000 by owner/operators Jonathan Higgins and Sarah Smelser and has established a reputation as a leading fine art press. We have worked with a range of American and international artists to create a unique body of contemporary prints that we offer to the public through exhibitions, art fairs and online platforms. Manneken Press currently represents more than 30 artists. While primarily focused on prints, our inventory includes drawings, sculpture and photography to better represent the full scope of our artist’s creative output. 

Invited artists create original works of art in intaglio, relief, lithography and monotype in our studio, located in Bloomington, IL USA. The artists work in close collaboration with master printer Jonathan Higgins on their projects which are hand-printed on an etching press, using traditional, time tested techniques and materials.

Manneken Press has exhibited these works at fine art fairs in Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, Boston, Baltimore, Houston, New York City, Palm Springs and in many galleries and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art.

Manneken Press has been the subject of several survey exhibitions: the Peoria Contemporary Art Center mounted Manneken Press exhibitions in 2011 and 2023; at Illinois Wesleyan University in 2005 and 2017; Full Circle: Prints from Manneken Press travelled to venues in California, Texas and Louisiana in 2007; and  Reviews of Manneken Press prints have appeared in such publications as Art In Print, Art In America, ARTnews, Grabado y Edición and Art On Paper.

All works of art shown on this website are for sale. For purchasing information, click here. Inquiries from collectors, curators, consultants, connoisseurs and the merely curious are welcome.

Visitors are welcome by appointment to view prints in our small showroom and tour the studio, which is located on the 2nd floor of an historic Art Moderne style building, a former Coca Cola bottling plant built in 1938.

Jonathan Higgins is Manneken’s Master Printer. A native of California, Higgins was first introduced to printmaking during his undergraduate years at Humboldt State University and subsequently began his career printing editions for several San Francisco Bay Area artists. Higgins moved to New York City in 1989 to pursue a Master’s degree at New York University and worked as a freelance printer at various print studios around the city, including The Printmaking Workshop. From 1992 – 1996 Higgins was employed by Vinalhaven Press, a print publishing workshop in Maine that operated during the summers, where he began collaborating with artists on platemaking. In 1995 Higgins co-founded Galamander Press in New York City which he operated with several partners until 2000. He also worked at the Brodsky Center For Innovative Editions, New Brunswick, NJ, ARTica Studio, Bilbao, Spain and the Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium before launching Manneken Press in 2000. Among the prominent artists Higgins has worked with are Robert Indiana, Alison Saar, Camille Billops, Komar and Melamid, Kiki Smith, Peter Saul, David Salle, Mel Chin, Brodsky and Utkin, and Jose Bedia. Higgins is also an artist and his work can be seen here. Read more about Jonathan here.

A ll images on this website are copyright protected and are jointly owned by Manneken Press and the artists.  Reproduction of any kind and for any purpose must be expressly approved by Manneken Press.