SURFACE:

An exhibition of work by tutors celebrating ten years of The Curwen Print Study Centre CLARE HALL GALLERY, Clare Hall, Herschel Road, Cambridge. CB3 9AL. Tel. 01223 332360 30 April – 30 May 2010, open daily 9-6pm Opening  29^th April 6-8pm Exhibiting artists: Penny Brewill; Susan Jones; Jill Ogilvy; Jane Pryor; Susie Turner; Serena Smith Over the past ten years the Curwen Print Study Centre, founded by Stanley Jones and Sam Alper, has become a hub of activity for students of printmaking of all ages.  From professional artists seeking opportunities for creative development, to young children, all have been encouraged to explore the rich visual and tactile world of the printmaking studio.  Facilities available at the Curwen Print Study Centre include all contemporary and traditional print processes. However, far from being just a repository for equipment, integral to the Centre’s activities, is a team of experienced tutors who provide technical and creative support for an extensive educational programme.   It is the work of some of these artist-tutors, brought together by their shared practice as educators at the Centre that is the focus of this exhibition. A diversity of interests is presented in the work - through drawing, painting, printmaking and photography the artists investigate historical, environmental and philosophical notions of life today. What the artists share is the use of printmaking as a means to explore and develop their ideas. Alongside their practice as artists, the tutors also bring to their work a range of professional experiences from the various fields of illustration, photography, art therapy and fine art print production. Penny Brewill focuses light-hearted curiosity on the operation of machinery; using intaglio and screen print processes, her three-dimensional objects animate the world of model making with planned precision and detail.  By way of contrast Susan Jones, plays with the gestural and visual dynamics of monoprint techniques. Each print is like a painting - unique, the surface constructed over time using many layers.  Susan shares with Jill Ogilvy a fascination with the landscape and its objects, and similarly experiments with the use of a multiple processes to shape and create new landscapes; through drypoint, collograph and monoprint Jill investigates the use of hidden language embedded within the visual trace. The images of Jane Pryor emerge from the process and period of time in which the work is made.  Through painting, printmaking and photography, Jane explores the potential of the abstract image to evoke and reconfigure memory.  Concepts of time are also thematic to the work of Susie Turner; in capturing the transience of natural phenomena through the lens, Susie manipulates and fixes the moment within the production of an artefact. For Serena Smith, it is the poetic ambiguity within the systems and matrices of textual inscription that shapes the direction of her current work with stone lithography. Introduction by Serena Smith Rollaco Engineers, Intaglio Printmaker, Sapien IT and Curwen Print Study Centre have kindly supported this exhibition. For further details please see website: www.artists-surface.co.uk LUNCHTIME TALK Thursday 13th May 2010 - 1PM Meeting Room, Clare Hall, Herschel Road, Cambridge Susie Turner MA and Serena Smith MA from the Curwen Print Study Centre will talk on Technology and Art - the practices and processes of fine art printmaking "The image of the artist as a creative individual, working in the isolation of their studio, is one that has never matched the reality of the printmaker. Born from a relationship with technology, theirs is an industrial heritage founded within the space of the collaborative workshop. The work of the printmaker as such, evolves from a negotiated dependency on technology, resources, and inherited knowledge from a 'community of practice' that spans generations" (Serena Smith 2010). In their roles as educators, collaborators, and producers of printed artefacts, Susie Turner and Serena Smith reflect on technology and the 'work' of the artist-printmaker. PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP With Susan Jones MA and Susie Turner MA from the Curwen Print Study Centre For staff and students of Clare Hall Saturday 22nd May 2010 10am-1pm Anthony Lowe Building, Herschel Road, Cambridge