PRINTMAKING IN PACIFIC

Chair: Irena Kečkeš

Panel: Jonathan Goebel, Steve Lovett, Katlyn Sutherland

 

This panel will be formed around a dialogue on diverse ways how printmaking practices persist and/or flourish in Pacific Rim geographical area. The panel invites artists from different areas connected by Pacific, to discuss their practices and research. The discourse may also embrace the topic of how print practices are being formed in isolated or rural areas in Pacific that has a little access to progressive technologies. It is open to all printmakers and scholars who can in unique ways contribute to discussion on past and futures of print in these geographical areas: presenters are invited to share their experiences and diverse practices. The aim of the panel is to explore if and how such printmaking practices alter the landscape of past and present. What are risks, endeavors, improvisations, transformations, adventures and accomplishments in printmaking in Pacific? What is the representation through the contemporary work of artists living and working in these areas; how they form and renovate alter the landscapes of printmaking today? What tools, themes and influences it encompasses, and if and how today’s creative practices are informed by its natural environment and social settings.

 

ABOUT IRENA KEčKEš

Irena Keckes received PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Auckland, New Zealand (2015), MFA in printmaking from Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan (2005) and BA in art education, Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia (2000). Integrating theory and practice has been a key element to her research through which she has been exploring connections between eco-Buddhism and printmaking, extended forms of print and art/craft relationship. Her practice involves large-scale monochrome woodcuts and print installations. Irena’s artwork has been exhibited internationally in many group and independent exhibitions. She presented at SGCI Print Conference 2016 in Portland USA, IMPACT 9 International Printmaking Conference, China (2015), 4th International Printmaking Symposium at University of Auckland, NZ (2015), 2nd International Mokuhanga Conference at Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan (2014), and IMPACT 8 in Scotland (2013). She exhibited her artwork in many solo and group exhibitions, locally and internationally. Some among group shows include Homewards portfolio at SGCI Print Conference 2017 in Atlanta, International Print Biennial, Northern Print, UK (2016), and Festival of Pacific Arts in Gaum Museum and Isla Centre for the Arts (2016), to name few. In 2017, Irena curated UOG Poetry Broadsides, Homewards Portfolio and Collections exhibition in Isla Centre for the Arts, Guam, and International Exhibition of Contemporary Print UOG 2016 at Isla Centre for the Arts (2016). Since 2015, Irena is an Assistant Professor of Art at College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at University of Guam.

 

ABOUT THE PANEL

Jonathan Goebel is a professor at the University of Hawai’i in Hilo, Hawai’i. Steve Lovetts is the Printmaking Technician at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Katlyn Sutherland is an independent artist and graduate of the University of Guam.