HI Art Magazine - Pacific Biennial National Print Exhibition



		Dan Hoskins on the Pacific Biennial National Print Exhibition

Using technologies originally created for industry, which have largely been superseded, are difficult to master, and even harder to gain substantial access to, printmakers are a unique breed. My old engraving & etching teacher claimed that printmaking was a ridiculous and anarchic way of making art.
Maybe he was right. Maybe printmakers are rebelling against logic – creating needless barriers and problems to overcome, when they could otherwise just paint or draw.

I like to think that there are three categories of printmaker: the above mentioned anarchist, the fetishist and the aesthete. The anarchist simply enjoys the perverse awkwardness of the medium. The fetishist masters technique, for the joy of doing something nobody else can, is meticulously fussy, and probably is a member of many clubs and societies. The aesthete is someone who knows how to decode printed imagery in our everyday lives, someone who enjoys a certain "look" of professionalism.

The best printmakers are all three.

The Pacific States Biennial National Print Exhibition contains several prints of that stature.

Juried by New York based artist Tomie Arai, this year’s exhibition features forty-five prints, by thirty-seven artists, from twenty-three states, including Hawaii (begging the question "what constitutes a Pacific State?) First impression was the array of imagery, so different from entering a painting exhibition. Even the scruffiest of prints appear disciplined and smart, inviting closer inspection, opposed to a comparable exhibition of wild, untamed paintings which blow you back in awe.

My initial focus falls upon a cliché of epic proportions, the modern-day Ché, the bad-artist's muse, Barack Obama. Despite my initial sick feeling, somehow Na`a Leroy Makekau manages to avoid the traps, and create an obvious, succinct image that made me think. "What do you see?" is an 8-color screen-printed portrait in the style of a Color-blind test. The green background is paired with a brown face (not red). Everybody can see the image: Makekau isn't prejudiced against the color-blind!

Nick Canbere's "Footbridge" is the first of many of this year's more "nostalgic" images. A wonderfully well printed, architectural, comic-book etching in sepia tones, Canbere throws many subtle techniques into this print. Chine Collé – the collage of thin Asian papers, multiple etching plates, and wiped with a delicate vignette – a juxtaposition of desert and construction, scenery and furniture, presented in the form of old plans, or a treasure map.

UH Hilo landed an excellent purchase: "Coincidence or Co-existence" is nostalgic sci-fi, powerful, well orchestrated, and technically superb. Zach Stenson is a "printmaker's printmaker", in the same vein as UH Mānoa professor, Charlie Cohan.

There are three digital printmakers featured, a controversial addition with which I have no personal issue on a theoretical level. Digital is, of course, a matrix which can produce a multiple, unlike monotypes, which I believe to be far more contentious. I do take exception to digital prints that are badly made technically. There are several pitfalls to be avoided when printing digitally. A fundamental one is the pixilation, & digital artifacts present in printing too big; More criminally, an image that would have looked much better printed using a manual technique, simply tries to copy traditional printmaking.

However, Sunghee Pae's diptych of a cold, morning park – silver, etched trees and green, screen-printed grass is an image that wouldn't work if it had been made any other way. Watercolor isn't that gentle, pencil isn't that brittle, and pastel isn't that detailed, and digital, well, it doesn't have the physicality of an etched plate. This print has mistakes, but that isn't the point. It works.

Ben Moreau's "Mighty Farce" wrestler is a hand-drawn lithograph with a powerful use of space. Chun Woo Nam's "Individual Space IV" won a juror's award, and hints at the epic. One image split into three sections, it is an abstract narrative, comprised of evidence. Is it a visual haiku? Is it a crime story? It is dynamic and technically superb.

Marilee Salvator won a Juror's choice award, with a messy wallpaper of imagery that I actually consider purchasing. I think it is beautiful, quirky and irreverent.

A number of these works attempt to evoke nostalgia, not as much by sepia, as by reference to children's books, and wartime propaganda posters. There is the 3D house that Elizabeth Klimek built.

The peaceful autumn memories of helicopter seeds fly to the ground, in Julie Niskanen's "Rejuvenating Journey." It is an intaglio that shows supreme ability and patience. The labor it takes to create a mezzotint – a technique with unparalleled velvet-blacks – will have taken her about 15 hours just to prepare the plate, before she even started "drawing".

"Fair Weather Family" by Andrew Blanchard flecks violence in the movement of autumn wind and wholesome activities. Blanchard's prints are captivating, and deserve the Jurors award, as well as the State's purchase awards they received.

There are examples of dilettantism, and in the case of the digital prints, technical naivety, but on the whole, this show oozes variety, nostalgia, propaganda, delicacy, and power. This show is a MUST SEE for any art fan, not just printmakers, and is an education and introduction into the vast world of printmaking.

Daniel Hoskins is a printmaker and graphic designer who lives in Keaau with his wife and son, and works at Island Giclée in Keaau, as a digital artist.