« Previous | Next »
OPEN DOORS 21, 22, 23 MAY 2009
Warren Editions: 20 months since conception
May 2009 marks Warren Editions’ 20th month in existence.
To celebrate this, Warren Editions will host an ‘Open Doors’ event for three days; 21 and 22 May from 10am to 7pm and, 23 May from 10am to 5pm. All are invited to visit and view Warren Editions studio in operation, explore prints on site and possibly purchase a few of these prints and engage with the studio practice as prints are pulled.
During May Warren Editions collaborates with Cape Town based painter Tom Cullberg. The editioning of his etchings will take place during the period of the Open Doors event. Moreover, Tom Cullberg along with master printmaker and director of Warren Editions, Zhané Warren will each present a talk on Saturday 23 May 2009 at 10:30. Tom Cullberg will talk about his work and the collaborative experience, and how the etchings that he made at Warren Editions in 2008 and in May 2009, operate within his body of work. Zhané Warren will describe how Warren Editions functions, what a print-collaboration is and the role it plays in contemporary South African art.
Warren Editions was established by Zhané Warren in October 2007 and came into operation in January 2008. Warren spent 5 years in Belgium where she attended the University of Antwerpen in Antwerpen, Belgium, to further her specialisation in printmaking on a scholarship affiliated to the Erasmus Programme. Thereafter, she worked on print-collaborations with artists from Europe and South Africa, also alongside printmakers from Europe, U.K and U.S and her own art practice at the Frans Masereel Centrum for Printmaking in Belgium. Warren Editions as a professional printmaking studio, prints and/or publishes fine art prints by emerging and established South African artists who are not primarily printmakers; the focus primarily on the etching and monotype techniques. A collaborative working method is used in the development of the artists’ images. Thus far Warren Editions has worked with the following South African artists: Hentie van der Merwe, Tom Cullberg, Michael Taylor, Anton Kannemeyer, Liza Grobler, Georgina Gratrix, Brett Murray, Justin Fiske, Ruan Hoffmann, Sanell Aggenbach and Amicollective Illustration Studio.
Fine art prints are multiple originals, not reproductions. A testament to fine art prints being originals - forming part of an edition - is that each varies slightly; being darker or lighter due to the fact that the matrix (metal plate) is hand wiped. In fine art or original printmaking, the matrix is made by an artist, or under an artist’s direction, without the intention of reproducing a previously existing work of art. What is avoided at Warren Editions is technique for its own sake. Instead, there is an endeavour for a balance between content and technique. Meaningful content, skill and technique are used as a vehicle to communicate deep convictions and serious play.
Many artists have made some of their most significant works through the medium of print. Fine art prints fall into the middle market bracket, which is important to the art market as a whole and in the end benefits many artists. Many collectors have begun collecting with a fine art print by a known artist. This suggests that if you want to discover contemporary works of art you need to look to the printmaking medium first.
For further information and to reserve your seat for Saturday’s talk at 10:30 please contact we@warreneditions.com by Wednesday 20 May 2009. Likewise, join Warren Editions on Facebook.
Focus on schools
Students and instructors benefit from the Open Doors event in that they experience first-hand, a working printmaking studio. Additionally, awareness of printmaking as a contemporary medium rather than an outdated technique is emphasized in that the medium has experienced a revival. As such, its role is vital in current visual art practice and communication in that it offers artists the freedom to realise and originate ideas in multiple form. Warren Editions hopes to host scheduled workshops with student-groups so as to foster a rich and renewed South African print tradition.
The printmaking process embraces a wide and varied scope of media and methods that enable visual arts practitioners to participate in the dialogue of contemporary art and culture. The aim of future workshops is to encourage students to explore the multiple possibilities of print to develop an individual and sustained pathway as an artist, whether printmaking is the core practice or the support for other processes.
Warren Editions’ Open Doors event offers the opportunity to discuss further skills-development in the form of workshops to be hosted at Warren Editions.