Tales from the Co-op: Jon Mahnke

Rebuild, polymergravure

I’ve been making prints since I was a junior in high school , where I fell in love with etching. I completed my bachelors degree at the University of Iowa, and my masters in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota. I enjoy printmaking as an artistic endeavor as well as a nice day job that pays the bills. My wife and I started an illustration and screen printing business that sells greeting cards and printed kitchen towels called Crankosaurus press. Despite printing thousands of products a year, I still have a deep passion for printing as my primary artistic medium.

I am working primarily in photopolymer gravure, a process I learned from Keith Taylor in a course taught at Highpoint. It allows me to take images drawn on the computer and transform them into intaglio prints. These works have been inspired by the overwhelming amount of construction in Minneapolis recently.

Primarily working at home for yourself can be a lonely endeavor, Highpoint offers me a wonderful social lifeline as well as a reliable well equipped print facility. It's wonderful to have somewhere to go with welcoming staff and co-op members. Working around other amazing artists has given me new ideas and definitely helped me improve as an artist.

Leslie Barlow MAEP Exhibition at Mia

Creator: Charles Walbridge | Credit: Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art | Copyright: © Minneapolis Institute of Art

Leslie Barlow’s MAEP exhibition “Within, Between, and Beyond” explores representation, race, family, and belonging. Comprised of both paintings and video interviews, the work shares stories of 16 Minnesotans who use the terms mixed race, multiracial, and/or transnational/transracial adoptee to identify themselves and their lived experiences. “Within, Between, and Beyond” invites us to hold space for, recognize, and reconsider our presumptions about race in Minnesota.

Within, Between, and Beyond is on view in the U.S. Bank Gallery from July 26, 2021 through October 31, 2021

Read more about the exhibition and related programming here!