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Art

Explore a range of impressions

The 15th Florida Printmakers National Competition headlines a trilogy of shows at Dunedin Fine Art Center.

By LENNIE BENNETT
Published February 1, 2007

DUNEDIN -- Recent months have brought us several fine exhibitions of prints, most from earlier centuries. Now at Dunedin Fine Art Center, we have a chance to see a range of contemporary interpretations of the printmaking process in the 15th Florida Printmakers National Competition.

They're all here technically: reliefs from wood or linoleum blocks; lithography; screens; intaglio such as etching and engraving; monotypes; even that upstart, inkjet printing.

Juror Joe Sanders, a respected printmaker and chairman of the Florida State University Art Department, received close to 300 submissions from throughout the United States and whittled them down to 61 on view here. A smaller show from the American Print Alliance accompanies it, along with one of prints by students and faculty at the center.

It's a nice package, mixing professionally organized shows with an obviously vibrant educational program.

Florida Printmakers is a not-for-profit group, founded in 1986 to promote a better understanding of fine prints - those that are made through classic processes done by hand in very limited editions. Sanders, as the judge, chose the group as well as a best in show and several Juror's Choice awards.

Jurgen Strunck's ink on Japanese paper took top prize, which may surprise visitors. It's a small print, unassuming compared to some of the bigger, brasher works. But CKK-5 presents color in a complex, nuanced way using geometric shapes that float and merge into each other.

Some of the most lyrical prints are in the intaglio family: Abner Jonas' bucolic Hayload and Victoria Goro-Rapaport's invocation of northern European Old Masters are etchings. Shawn Eisenach uses etching and drypoint also an intaglio technique but one that leaves softer lines to good effect in Holofernes, which portrays an aging man, looking as if he should have known better, giving a sideways glance to a graphic coil of hair impaled with a blade and looped to resemble a "J." (That's for Judith, who seduced, then beheaded, the tyrant in the biblical story.)

Rob Smith's Menaced Assassin is the most amusing. He pairs the silkscreen process with a campy narrative involving Mr. Potato Head. Two in the foreground brandish a peeler and masher while another Head listens obliviously to a gramophone. Nearby is a bag of french fries. More Heads stare through a window and in the distance, a mountain range looks like pureed potatoes.

Three shows, one goal

The American Print Alliance is another not-for-profit group with the same mission, and "Theater of the Mind," its small show in the back gallery, also displays a range of printmaking.

The Dunedin Fine Art Center student-faculty show is especially valuable in this context. Stephen Littlefield, who teaches in the program, submitted a lovely hand-colored botanical etching of an oak tree twined with giant philodendron. Joan Potter's delicately etched landscapes resemble 19th century works that eventually were supplanted in periodicals by photographs.

The gestural freedom possible in the monotype process was illustrated by Lin Carte and Kristi Leach. Monotypes are about as limited edition as a print can get; the artist "paints" the image on a plate (rather than incising it as in an etching, for example) then prints it once.

The faculty-student show also has many fine examples of relief printing, also known as block prints. Mark Potter's work stands out for its frenetic style. Mermaids, sail boats and elves inhabit worlds made up of undulating lines going every which way. The crisp, graphic boldness is perfect for the medium.

Lennie Bennett can be reached at (727) 893-8293 or lennie@sptimes.com.

If you go

The 15th Florida Printmakers National Competition, "Theater of the Mind: The American Print Alliance" and "Printmakers of DFA" are at the Dunedin Fine Art Center, 1143 Michigan Blvd., Dunedin, through Feb. 25. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. (727) 298-3322 or www.dfac.org.

[Last modified January 31, 2007, 09:51:10]