Bianca Pettis, Jonathan Herrera, Mike Marks
On View: May 18 - June 30, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, May 18, 6:30 – 9 pm, gallery talk with artists at 7pm
The residents in conversation with artist David Rathman
Please join Highpoint to celebrate the culminating exhibition of our 2017-2018 Jerome Emerging Printmakers: Bianca Pettis, Jonathan Herrera, and Mike Marks. With the generous support of the Jerome Foundation, the artists were provided nine months of access to Highpoint’s printmaking facilities, technical support, critiques with visiting artists and curators, and the opportunity to work in a studio environment that encourages experimentation and growth.
The show opens with a free public reception on Friday, May 18 from 6:30–9 pm. The artists will give a gallery talk at 7 pm and refreshments will be served.
The residency, funded with a generous grant from the Jerome Foundation, is open to emerging Minnesota printmakers — defined here as artists who show significant potential, yet have not received a commensurate amount of professional accomplishment or recognition regardless of age or recognition in other fields. Residents were selected on the basis of their dedication, interest, and potential in printmaking as well as the artistic merit of their work.
Bianca Janine Pettis’ prints are playful, colorful, and indeterminate. She approaches her printmaking practice as a performer - opening herself up to the moment, allowing the work to unfold before her. Through the processes of monoprinting and screenprinting, she brings to life idiosyncratic characters inhabiting a world of courageous anxiety. Pettis holds a BA in Theatre from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and an MFA in Art from the University of Minnesota.
Jonathan Herrera’s prints compress historical and ongoing legacies of bodily trauma and violence inflicted on migrants. He uses clothing and portrait frames to imply narratives left behind by others, while reanimating and suspending these objects in violence in a state of perpetuity through various print-based processes including collagraphs and xerox transfers. Herrera also works in a monochromatic color pallet to discuss the dehumanized method of analyzing bodies as data while revealing intricate details overlooked in objects used as evidence. Herrera holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Mike Marks’ prints reflect processes of change and loss within a landscape. Mike draws inspiration from the natural and constructed environments that he has observed, creating images that contemplate human influence on the geological record, and whether natural and artificial changes in the environment are becoming indistinguishable from one another. His prints emphasize physical manipulation of surfaces using collagraph plates, stencils, embossment, relief, and intaglio. Marks holds a BFA in Drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Delaware.
Highpoint would like to thank this year’s jurors Lamar Peterson (Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting, University of Minnesota) and Nicole Soukop (Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Project Coordinator at Mia) who selected this group of Jerome Emerging Printmakers.
Additional thanks to guest critics Kristin Lowe, Lamar Peterson, David Rathman, and Nicole Soukup and to Kristin Lenaburg at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for hosting the residents at the Herschel V. Jones Print Study Room and to Joe King and Annette Salazar for hosting the residents at the Walker Art Center.
Finally, Highpoint Center for Printmaking extends deep gratitude to The Jerome Foundation for its 15 years of support of this program. The Jerome Foundation, created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), seeks to contribute to a dynamic and evolving culture by supporting the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists. Based in St. Paul, MN, the Foundation makes grants to not-for-profit arts organizations and artists in Minnesota and New York City.
The 2017-2018 Jerome Emerging Printmakers Residency was made possible with a grant from the Jerome Foundation.
