Deep Cuts: Relief Prints By Manneken Press Artists

Seven contemporary artists utilize the world’s oldest method of reproducing imagery.

The artists included in the exhibition utilized a wide range of relief printing techniques to make their prints.

Jay Shinn combines the cool-detachment of geometric imagery with the warmth of an enagagement with materials. Shinn utilized a CNC router to cut his wood blocks; the images are realized in layers of white ink printed on color-dyed, handmade kozo and lokta papers.

Claire Lieberman employs multiple colors in her linoleum and wood cuts, and in a pair of monochrome prints the solidity of the image, printed in black, is supported by strong horizontal bands of fiber embedded in the handmade Korean paper.

Relief techniques were employed as one element in the monoprints  by Gary Justis and Kate Petley.

Jonathan Higgins’s Untitled series show the possibilities of reductive woodcut technique.

In his “Array” woodcuts Rupert Deese used Baltic birch plywood which he formed into perfect circles, then used a router to inscribe unique, mathematically derived tiling patterns into the smooth wood surface.

To make “davidelvisandi”, Jack Davidson utilized hand-cutting techniques and the flat areas of color and subtle grain which are characteristics of woodcut to abstract a familiar photograph of David Bowie in an outfit designed by Kansai Yamamoto.

This online exhibition can be viewed on Artsy through November 15th, 2021.

All the prints in the exhibition were produced at and published by Manneken Press. Inquiries and purchases can be made though Artsy or by contacting Manneken Press.