Editioned prints
Jonathan Higgins, co-founder and Master Printer of Manneken Press, is also an accomplished visual artist whose practice centers on drawing and printmaking. His work grows out of a sustained engagement with facture—the physical act of making—and with the ways materials record time, touch, and process.
Printmaking and drawing provide Higgins with a rich field of technical and conceptual possibilities. He is drawn to processes in which small, incremental actions accumulate into complex images, and where the behavior of materials can never be entirely predicted or controlled. The inherent slowness of these mediums, the repeated gestures and layered decisions they require, all become part of the content of the work, not just its method of production.
Transformation is a central theme in Higgins’ research. He is fascinated by the subtle changes that occur as materials age and react: the way a silverpoint line gradually oxidizes, shifting from a cool, metallic trace to a warmer, more atmospheric tone; the optical and conceptual inversion that takes place when an etching plate is printed in reverse; the delicate reticulation of lithographic tusche as it dries, breaking apart into intricate, organic patterns. Each of these phenomena serves as both subject and metaphor—evidence of time passing, of images emerging from and dissolving back into material.
Born in Oakland, CA, 1962
EDUCATION
1992 MA in Studio Art, New York University, New York, NY
1987 BA in Studio Art, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
COLLECTIONS
Amity Art Foundation, CT.
Ballinglen Museum of Contemporary Art, Ballycastle, Mayo, Ireland.
K. Caraccio Etching Studio Archive, New York, NY.
The Carlyle Hotel, New York, NY.
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA.
Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA.
Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium.
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA.
New Jersey State Council for the Arts, Trenton, NJ.
Neiman Marcus, Dallas, TX.
Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Corporate Art Collection, Pleasantville, NY.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium.
University of Mississippi, Southern Graphics Council Archive.
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE.
University of Texas, Austin, TX.
Viceroy Anguilla Hotel, Anguilla, British West Indies.
Vinalhaven Press, Vinalhaven, ME/New York, NY.
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.