#1st Print Exchange - Curating project - The Printing Girls

The First TPG Print Exchange

2021 a project catalogue by The Printing Girls

TPG#1 PRINT EXCHANGE

The Printing Girls (TPGs) is an informal group of South African female artists who work in the specialised medium of printmaking.

We are a dedicated professional community, collaborative in nature, offering each other support and technical help with a spirit of generosity. We are beginning to exhibit widely and are sparking interest on the local art scene.

What is an original print?

When an artist makes a series of original prints, she creates a matrix - a surface that she has made marks on. Then, by applying ink to the surface of the matrix, she transfers the ink to the paper – this is sometimes called an impression.

By applying the ink and transferring it to the paper in the same way each time, she will create a number of near-identical impressions. Remember making potato prints as a child? It’s pretty much the same principle! Though a lot more technically sophisticated …

By limiting the number of impressions, she creates a limited edition of prints. Once that edition has been documented as such, she is not allowed to pull any more of these identical impressions from that matrix.

What is a print exchange?

Printmaking is the only art medium that allows artists to swap identical original works of art with each other! And printmaking – internationally and within South Africa - has a rich tradition of Print Exchanges.

There is often a theme or technical limitation, such as everyone using the same technique. Here the limitation was that each TPG artist use a relief printmaking technique – a way of applying the ink to the matrix with a roller. But, we conceded, it could be combined with other techniques too …

A print exchange is a formal swapping process, usually arranged by a university, college, printmaking studio or collective. This Print Exchange was organised by Mandy Conidaris, one of The Printing Girls’ admin team members.

Here, 17 artists from The Printing Girls each created an edition of 8 prints, kept the A/P (Artist’s Proof) for herself, packaged up all the rest, and posted them to Mandy. Mandy will take the first 5 prints of each artist’s edition and randomly create 17 collections of 5 prints ... so each participating artist will receive back a small pack of 5 prints by fellow TPG artists to which she can add her A/P – what a treat!

Print number 6 in the edition is retained for The Printing Girls’ print archive. The remaining prints in the edition (numbers 7 and 8) are held by The Printing Girls for future exhibiting opportunities. This catalogue shows the beauty of the different TPG artists’ imaginations, and the diversity in the ways that they embraced this technical limitation!

Allison

Amy

van den Bergh

Cloudia

Emma

Georgina

Korien

Kristen

Mandy Conidaris

Marelise van Wyk

Mariette Momberg

Natasha Norman

Nellien

Roxy

Yolanda

Catalogue and copywriting by Mandy Conidaris

Watch this space!