Opening 37th National Print Exhibition and Jan Krist-Finkbeiner

37th National Print Exhibition
Friday, March 31st, 2017 from 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Juried by Patrick Flaherty, President & Executive Director of the Indianapolis Art Center

We are extraordinarily proud to continue this exhibition into its 37th year and look forward to its evolution in the years to come. Although printing for most of us is often as immediate as Ctrl+P, the tradition of hand-pulled prints persists. This traditional and often times tedious artform has not faded with the dawn of the digital age, instead printmaking has continued to inspire a new generation of printmakers who seek to augment traditional practices with new techniques. These techniques, rolling out an ink slab for a lithograph or wiping the surface of a copper plate etching with the palm of the hand, become ingrained in each artist. One should not forgot the time each artist spent in their studio, the number of proofs and editions that led to this exhibition. This exhibition, juried by Patrick Flaherty, features contemporary printmakers from around the nation.

Jan Krist-Finkbeiner
“As an artist I create both decorative works that explore composition and craft, and narrative works that explore the ways our common innate tendencies, positive and negative, affect us as individuals within a society.

My current work combines ceramic relief, tile and mosaic, and draws inspiration from tile traditions of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late nineteenth, early twentieth century, and from the 15th century Renaissance ceramic reliefs of Luca and Andrea della Robbia. These two artistic movements are linked through the work of William De Morgan, who designed ceramic tiles for William Morris’s renowned Morris and Company. In developing his designs De Morgan found inspiration in his study of the work of Luca and Andrea della Robbia.

It is my aim to create works that represent the dichotomies of hope and fear, desolation and bounty, strength and fragility, and compassion and aggression, which so often coexist.”