Editions 2018

Wednesday 7 - Sunday 18 February 2018

Curated by Keith Lawrence

  

Moving into our new premises in Collingwood, Editions 2018 is destined to be our biggest yet. With total gallery wall-space some 50% more than Abbotsford, we have invited a mind-boggling 55 Victorian-based printmakers presenting more than 200 works of art.

New for 2018 is the featured artist. Damon Kowarsky launches the inaugural focus on the work of a single artist and, in providing a single gallery for his work, provides the opportunity of a survey of work from the past 10 or so years. For Editions, the focus in on portraiture - work less seen as Kowarsky's oeuvre is generally identified with land- and cityscapes.

Now in its sixth year, Editions has become a go-to event for Victorian printmakers. The exhibition strives to celebrate the diverse aesthetic qualities inherent within printmaking media, a celebration of tradition whilst embracing contemporary innovations within the printed form. A now established exhibition of such scale provides a safe platform for artists ranging from emerging to more established to explore new and exciting print processes and approaches to image-making. That platform also provides the opportunity to exhibit multiple works from current practice, providing audiences a greater understanding and insight of where the printmaker is ‘coming from’. And having featured intaglio, relief and lithography in a range of substrates and printed on a range of surfaces covering diverse subjects, those audiences have been challenged in their understanding of what exactly is a ‘print’.

Editions juxtaposes traditional techniques expertly done (the absolute control of multiple plate printing by Damon Kowarsky, Kyoko Imazu or Hyun Ju Kim for example) alongside more innovative approaches (the explorations in the work of Megan McPherson and Andrew Weatherill, the photolithography of Sunny He and Ben Stephens). It’s that balance of a mix of the traditional and the contemporary that is being searched for. But ultimately Editions pushes the hand-constructed multiple in a digitally saturated world, celebrating the manual, the labour, the craft. Upon visiting the exhibition, we want visitors to be overwhelmed by the sheer sense of labour and time-spent that is worthy of celebration and respect. Editions celebrates the artist and the art.

Featured artist: Damon Kowarsky

Participating artists: Elizabeth Banfield, TJ Bateson, Peter Brown, Loris Button, August Carpenter, Antoinetta Covino-Beehre, Clive Dickson, Louise Donovan, Kasia Fabijanska, Kevin Foley, Peter Garnick, Silvi Glattauer, Jackie Gorring, Robert Hague, Liam Haley, Sunny He, Jodi Heffernan, Ying Huang, Kyoko Imazu, Lana de Jager, Michele Kershaw, Hyun Ju Kim, Carol Kite, Helen Kocis-Edwards, Kir Larwill, Anita Laurence, Dianne Longley, Ellie Malin, Malini Maunsell, Paula McLoughlin, Megan McPherson, Karen Neal, Rachael Ness, Marte Newcombe, Sharron Okines, Helen Oliver-Skuse, James Pasakos, Gaye Paterson, Jim Pavlidis, Bronwyn Rees, Libby Schreiber, Gwen Scott, Lisa Sewards, Beata Slifierz, Jennifer Smyth, Kerry Spokes, Ruth Stanton, Ben Stephens, Stephen Tester, Yvonne Torrico, Susan Wald, Peter Ward, Andrew Weatherill & Joel Wolter