The Lake Country Art Gallery is pleased to present Paper Exchanges - An Exhibition of Local & International Printmaking from March 20th to April 28th 2013.
Paper Exchanges is an open juried and invitational printmaking show curated and organized in partnership between the Lake Country Art Gallery and UBC Okanagan Associate Professor in Printmaking Briar Craig. Inspired by the idea of bringing international printmaking work for his students to see in person, this group show will showcase the prints of 10 regional artists and 9 international artists. Okanagan-based artists include: Marnie Blair, Colleen Couves, Ila Crawford, Lucas Glenn, Heather Leier, Rhonda Neufeld & Rodney Konopaki, Camille Selhorst, Lacia Vogel and Laura Widmer. International artists include: Renaud Allirand (France) Danielle Burns (US), Magdalena Duda-Patraszewska (Poland), Olena Gaidamakas (Poland), Inge Lise Westman (DK), Dennis McNett (US), Wen Mujiang (China), Bronwen Sleigh (UK) and Sebastian Speckmann (Germany).
Bringing together the work of 19 artists from all over the globe has been an interesting challenge for Lake Country Art Gallery Curator Katie Brennan.
“Finding the Okanagan artists was the easy partʼ, says Brennan, “Then there was the challenge of tracking down the international ones. The most challenging artist to track down one has been Chinese artist Wen Mujiang. I had to really hunt for a way to contact him. Luckily through Briar Craigʼs connections, I was able to get a phone number, only to find out he only speaks Chinese! Thankfully I was also able to find a helpful UBC Okanagan student, Cici Wang, who was willing to translate for me. Without her help, we wouldnʼt have been able to bring Wen Mujiangʼs work to Canada”.
For UBC Okanagan Associate Professor in Printmaking Briar Craig, all the coordination will be well worth it.
“When my students and I look through international exhibition catalogues, there are always pieces that fascinate us because of their content and sometimes because we can't quite figure outhow the artist made the work”, says Craig. “That is one of the main problems with experiencing artwork through reproductions - so much of the materiality of the work is lost. With this exhibition, we'll get to see the work first hand. We will be able to learn from different artist's techniques and hopefully discover something new about printmaking that we never knew before. The idea for this kind of exhibition has been mulling in my head for a while. It's great that through this collaboration with the Lake Country Art Gallery, we're finally able to make it a reality and see local artists and international artists showing together."
Paper Exchanges - An Exhibition of Local & International Printmaking will open on Wednesday March 20th with an opening reception from 6 - 8pm with many of the Okanagan artists in attendance. On Saturday April 30th at 3pm, there will be an artist panel discussion on print making. Artists Briar Craig, Heather Leier, Lacia Vogel, Laura Widmer, Camille Selhorst and Rhonda Neufeld will be participating. LCAG will also launch the exhibition catalogue during the panel. On Saturday April 13th, Heather Leier and Laura Widmer will be offering an “Intro to Printmaking” workshop which will cover basic stencils, linocuts and silkscreen prints. Please contact the gallery to register. Lastly, on Wednesday April 17th, Briar Craig will give a talk on the history of printmaking and its techniques.