About Manneken Press

Manneken Press is a fine art publisher producing original, limited-edition and unique prints, portfolios, and artists’ books by significant contemporary artists. Founded in 2000 by owner/operators Jonathan Higgins and Sarah Smelser, Manneken Press has established a reputation as a leading fine art press.

Our mission is to enable the creation of new works of art in print and to push fine art printmaking forward into the 21st century. We pursue this mission through a publishing program focused on contemporary artists who prioritize foundational acts of two-dimensional investigation over narrative. The works we publish are experimental, intellectually rigorous, and visually compelling, with a strong material and graphic presence.

We advance our artists’ work through public exhibitions, art fairs, and online platforms. Manneken Press is a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA).

We have worked with a wide range of American and international artists to create a distinctive body of contemporary prints and currently represent more than 30 artists. While our primary focus is printmaking, our inventory also includes drawings, sculpture, and photography in order to more fully represent the scope of our artists’ creative output.

All prints are created by the artists in close collaboration with Master Printer Jonathan Higgins and are hand-printed in our own workshop. In every project, we honor the timeless processes of printmaking, using only the finest papers and inks while maintaining a spirit of curiosity and experimentation.

Manneken Press has exhibited at numerous fine art fairs in Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, Boston, Baltimore, Houston, New York City, and Palm Springs, and in galleries and museums nationwide, including the Museum of Modern Art. Our publications have been reviewed in Art in Print, Art in America, Grabado y Edición, ARTnews, and Art on Paper, and featured in Hyperallergic and Business Insider.

Survey exhibitions of Manneken Press prints were presented at the Peoria Contemporary Art Center in 2011 and 2023, and at Illinois Wesleyan University in 2005 and 2017. Full Circle: Prints from Manneken Press traveled to venues in California, Texas, and Louisiana in 2007.

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

Visitors are welcome by appointment to view prints in our showroom and tour the studio, located on the second floor of a historic Art Moderne–style building—a former Coca-Cola bottling plant built in 1938.

Jonathan Higgins is Manneken’s Director and Master Printer. A native of California, Higgins was first introduced to printmaking as an  undergraduate at Humboldt State University, where he earned a BA in 1987. He subsequently began his career printing editions for several San Francisco Bay Area artists. Higgins moved to New York City in 1989 to study with Krishna Reddy at New York University, receiving an MA in Art in 1992. He freelanced as printer at various print studios around the city, including The Printmaking Workshop and Branstead Studio. 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.

All 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.