Spudnik Press

Spudnik Press’ Residency Program provides the resources, equipment, and space for one artist per season to develop a body of print-based work. We hope to encourage and enable the production of high quality prints, and to contribute to the development of an emerging Chicago artist.

Spudnik Press will provide the Residents a $250 allowance for project-specific materials and unlimited general supplies (full list is available on our website) and access to the studio. At the conclusion of the residency, Spudnik Press organizes an exhibition of the work created during the 3 month period. This program is open to all experienced printmakers. Spudnik Press does not have the ability to assist with travel and housing, and encourages only Chicago residents to apply. One Residency position is awarded per season.

We aim to provide a residency that is catered to the individual artist. Proposals may be for a traditional edition of prints, artist books, or projects involving a less conventional use of prints. Artists that wish to work collaboratively may apply together.

For more information and the application, click here.

Wednesday, November 2 from 6:30 – 9:00pm | Price: $10, if able
at Spudnik Press
1821 W. Hubbard, Suite 302

Learn easy and unique ways to transfer your digital images onto various papers, fabrics and create acrylic based pieces. In this workshop we will use a variety of solvents and acrylic mediums to reproduce your images.
Materials: Please bring a variety of images printed from a laser printer or Xerox machine (Ink jet prints do not work for this method). Also, bring a variety of fabrics and papers to transfer onto. Note: print all images as a mirror image of what you’d like to see. Flip horizontally in Photoshop, etc. Solvents and matte medium will be provided.

Email brandy@spudnikpress.com to save a spot!

About the Instructor:
Laura Elayne Miller is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in Chicago and Paris. Her work has been exhibited in NY, LA, Chicago, and Europe. Most recently, her mixed media installation An Unquiet Mind: The Untold Story of Isabelle Cadiuex was at the Center for Book and Paper Arts in downtown Chicago. Laura has worked as an arts educator at 3rd Ward and the Stephen Gaynor School in NYC, and lectured at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

Fraser Taylor

Structural Intimacies

Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery
Moraine Valley College
Palos Hills,IL 60465-2478

Oct. 17-Nov. 10
Reception: Thursday, Oct. 20, 2-4 p.m.

This new series of monotypes printed in 2011 at the Spudnik Press in Chicago continues Taylor’s exploration into how the mono-tonalities of black can capture elusive emotions, tensions and shifts in weight, depth and consequence.

The artist’s combination of tonal surfaces with sinuous white line evokes the murky densities and intimacies of the body, the depths of psychic territories, the debris of human endeavor.

This Fall, Spudnik Press is offering our first printmaking class free of charge specifically for youth. Focusing on high school students in our immediate neighborhood, we hope to offer a safe environment in which students can gain faith in their ability to communicate through visual art. Our studio is seeking to connect with young artists who ready for independent projects and will benefit from time working in an intimate setting with a professional artist as their mentor. Our inaugural class will focus on screen printing. We will host an exhibition of student work in early 2012. This program is made possible by support from The Cliff Dwellers.

Please read the program specifics below, and contact Angee Lennard (angee@spudnikpress.com) with questions regarding the program.

To register, submit the YAP Registration and Permission Form to Spudnik Press. Students also may register by phone (312-563-0302) and bring the registration and permission form with them to the first day of class.

Course Description:
This is a Saturday morning class that explores all aspects of screen printing on paper! On the first day, students will work on original drawings that will be transformed into “cut stencil” screen prints. Students will the learn how the printed image can best work as a vehicle for their creative ideas by studying graphic design. The class will cover how to use hand-drawn imagery as well as using a computer to create photographic prints.
Assignments will be self-guided by the students, with everyone incorporating color printing and the practice of editioning into their projects.

Student goals and desired outcomes:
Students will be able to apply what they have learned in their art classes within their schools to technically ambitious projects beyond the scope of a typical classroom.
Students will be able to self-discipline and persevere, enabling them to create sophisticated works of art.
Students will gain confidence in their art-making abilities.
Students will create works of art appropriate for portfolios for college applications.

Requirements:
Students are in their Junior or Senior year of high school.
Students have means to get to and from Spudnik Press each week.
Students are able to commit to attending all 10 sessions.
Students need no printing experience, but should be comfortable drawing and interested in illustration and design.

Class will meet for 10 weeks beginning on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 10:30am – 12:30pm Spaces available: 8 of 10.

Current Artist-in-Residence: Nicole Kita

Nicole Kita’s work takes on a clinical aesthetic of the instructional diagram, through acrylic paintings, graphite drawings, silkscreen prints, and di-cut vinyl installations. By utilizing conventional signifier of self-preservation, survival, fear, mortality, and loss, including life jackets, inflatable rescue boats, water wings, and surgical masks for public health protection, Kita investigates the belief in these objects in contrast to the shortcomings of the actual, physical object. Kita writes, “Despite the fallibility of the objects in the event of true crisis, there is tremendous comfort in knowing that one is taking incremental measures against disaster; the life jacket under your plane seat actually is reassuring.” Kita is currently investigating the mimetic qualities, transactional symbols, and legitimizing practices of ritual, or symbolic healing.

During her residency at Spudnik Press, Kita plans to create a series of editioned screen prints in response to her investigations of Chicago’s: antiquated pharmacies, apothecaries, hospitals, medical centers, and botanicas. She intends to integrate the printed material into the public sphere through site -specific installations.

Kita was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and received her MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Kita has been both a screen printing instructor and printmaking technician at an interdisciplinary institution. She now lives and works in Chicago. A portfolio of her work is available at: www.nicolekita.com