New Member Ro Murray

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Ro Murray, One Thousand Metre Contour, lino print on pianola rolls, 2025

Ro Murray is a multi-disciplinary artist, who moves between Mt Victoria, Sydney and Killcare. Her art practice is influenced by a career in architecture and later attending the National Art School. Since 2018 her practice has focussed on lino printing, both with uncarved blocks of colour and with carved blocks. She builds series of unique and repeated prints. Ro has enlarged her prints into wall paintings and wall constructions. Her recent lino prints on pianola rolls connect narrative and place in a landscape journey. They combine personal experiences of the location with topographic and historical research.

Ro has staged many solo exhibitions and been selected for many art prizes and awards. In the last year her printed rolls were selected for the Canberra Art Biennial, Arte Laguna Prize Venice, and Artist Book Awards Manly Library, and acquired by the State Library NSW.

She is part of the mountains-based collaboration Murray and Burgess making installations about the environment, and a committee member of Modern Art Projects Blue Mountains.

www.romurray.com.au @romurray

Ro Murray, Where the River Meets the Sky, lino print on pianola rolls, 2024
Ro Murray, Brief Statement of Facts, lino print on pianola roll reproduced in vinyl, 2024

Introducing a new Member: MJHarvey

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MJHarvey, Collar Down, pulp print made from artist recycle black shirt, 42 x 30cm

Recycled Dreams: My Journey with Paper and Pulp

I have recurring dreams that infiltrate my life and influence my practice. One of these dreams is of endless hills of discarded clothing, and the quality of the dream is that I must find homes for every item. A heavy weight to bear. Coupled with growing up on a remote dairy farm with an acute awareness of resource limitation, I vividly remember my mother repurposing old cloth to make new clothes for me. These experiences are some of the reasons why recycled cotton pulp medium is at the forefront of my practice, alongside my concern for the environmental issues that fast fashion causes.

I am also drawn to and affected by undulating textural elements in my lived environment. When I traverse the cityscape, I photograph and mentally absorb surfaces for future reference in my studio. Textures of hard mottled concrete, brick and bitumen surfaces sprayed with paint by graffiti artists, council and construction workers hold my attention.

My pulp medium is made from a cutting, tearing, and mechanical beating process of cotton clothing and domestic cloth. I receive donated used cloth from my immediate community, holding the accompanying story of each item along with my own experiences to retell stories through the medium of pulp prints and objects that are meticulously layered with delicately sprayed textural surfaces.

I am constantly developing my practice and learning new techniques. I find traveling and visiting artists’ studios an important part of my practice. Most recently, I was accepted as an artist-in-residence at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, USA, where I had a month to explore my practice using top facilities and to share and learn new techniques.

While I was in America, I visited New York City and Dia Beacon gallery where I was deeply inspired. One artist who particularly moved me was Senga Nengudi, for the way they use weight and color in their sculptures. Another significant influence is Katharina Grosse, whose immersive, large-scale painted installations challenge conventional relationships between architecture and painting. Grosse’s bold approach to color and texture resonates with my own explorations in pulp medium, inspiring me to push boundaries between materiality and space.

Through my work with Sydney Printmakers, I hope to continue exploring these themes of sustainability, texture, and storytelling, bringing my unique perspective on recycled materials to our collective exhibitions and sharing my techniques with fellow artists in the community.

www.melissajharvey.com

www.instagram.com/melissa_j_harvey

MJHarvey, Silent Pool, installation, Lismore Regional Gallery, Pulp sprayed large paper works made from recycled sheets and jeans.

Callout for New Members of Sydney Printmakers

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Sydney Printmakers Exhibition ‘Origin‘ at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery now.

There’s still a couple of weeks left to get your Application for Membership of Sydney Printmakers in. We organise a number of large exhibitions of members work each year, so as a member you will have plenty of opportunities to exhibit.

Expectations And Application Requirements:

  • Active Engagement: Attend quarterly meetings and contribute to organizational tasks.
  • Deadline: August 1, 2024.
  • Submission Materials:
  • 200 words on your interest in joining.
  • 200 words describing your work and professional practice.
  • 200 words on your potential contributions.
  • CV (up to two pages).
  • Five low-resolution images (max 1 MB each).
  • Website and Instagram details.

How To Apply:

Submit your application via the Sydney Printmakers Membership Application.

Introducing Our New Members: Mark Rowden

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Mark Rowden, Suni Satin Gaze, Linocut

Please welcome Mark Rowden, one of our four new members.

Mark Rowden’s works describe modern moments and memories, with a subtle reflection of the past. Rowden finds inspiration in moments of social interaction, isolation and beauty.

As a master printer he constructs works through the traditional process of relief printmaking, breaking down the visual information to a graphic form, creating shadows and spaces which the viewer can move through, and sharing symbols and stories of living in a modern society.

Mark studied at The National Art School, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000. Rowden worked at Whaling Road studios, one of Australia’s oldest print workshops, for many years. While working there he printed for a number of renowned Australian artists.

He has exhibited widely in Sydney in many group and solo shows. He was invited to be a part of the International Print Biennale in Brazil twice. Rowden’s work is held in numerous private and commercial collections, including Broken Hill and Wagga Wagga Regional Galleries.

Recent exhibitions include The Latterns Pavilion activation 2023, Secret Sitter 2023 – Goodspace and Prints4Ukarine – CBD Gallery 2023. Art Prizes – Gippsland Print Prize – Gippsland Regional Gallery, Sunshine Coast Art Prize – Caloundra Regional Gallery, Remagine, Hornsby Art Gallery and Whitewall project art prize.

He has an upcoming solo show in Colorado, USA, December 2023 and a Duo show at Incinerator Gallery in 2024.

Mark Rowden, Reverie, 2023, linoprint, 40 x 40cm.

Only a few days before the deadline to submit an application for membership of Sydney Printmakers!

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Why not give it a go?

Sydney Printmakers is a self-funded and self-directed association, the organisational strength and relevance of which depends on the engagement and contribution of time and energy by its members. Members are expected to attend quarterly meetings and contribute to the running of the organisation and will be given tasks from time to time.

Deadline for applications: 1st August 2023

You will need to submit:

  • 200 words on why you would like to join our association.
  • 200 words about your work and your professional practice.
  • 200 words on what contribution or special skills could you could offer for the running and growth of our association.
  • CV of up to two pages.
  • 5 low resolution images, no larger than 1 MB each.
  • Website and Instagram details.

An online application form is HERE

Sydney Printmakers is calling for new members!

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Join Sydney Printmakers: Enhance Your Professional Journey

Sydney Printmakers, a prestigious association capped at 60 members, is dedicated to the professional development of its members and the promotion and education of printmaking. Our primary focus is securing exhibition opportunities and organizing member exhibitions.

Expectations and Application Requirements:

  • Active Engagement: Attend quarterly meetings and contribute to organizational tasks.
  • Deadline: August 1, 2023.
  • Submission Materials:
  • 200 words on your interest in joining.
  • 200 words describing your work and professional practice.
  • 200 words on your potential contributions.
  • CV (up to two pages).
  • Five low-resolution images (max 1 MB each).
  • Website and Instagram details.

How to Apply:

Submit your application via the Sydney Printmakers Membership Application.

By joining Sydney Printmakers, you will be part of a dynamic, self-funded, and self-directed association where your engagement and contributions are vital to our collective success. We look forward to your application and the unique skills you will bring to our vibrant community.

Introducing a new member: Jacqui Driver

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Jacqui Driver - Intangible
Jacqui Driver, Intangible, 2021, lithograph, 114 x 168cm

Let’s welcome Jacqui Driver, our newest member of Sydney Printmakers, well known as a teacher, and for her large scale lithographs.

Here is how she describes her work:

Being a mother is complicated, the idea of mothering may extend from the romantic notions of unquestioning love through to the difficulties of ambivalence and the trauma of dealing with mental health issues, all concepts reflected in thecomplexity of my thickets. I see the corporeal pain of Rheumatoid Arthritis interconnected with the psychologicalwounding of transgenerational trauma as all encompassing, therefore I use installation to encompass my audience, surrounding them with images of entanglement and the folds and flows of silk drapes. Providing a means to metaphorically hug or be hugged and nurturing a safer space in which toexpress pain. 

My work often involves collaboration with other artists who also deal with transgenerational trauma or mental health issues. I have collaborated previously with a dance-based performance artist, Lorcan Power, a sound artist, Dylan Marelić-Mcintyre and cinematographer, Darwin Schulz,resulting in the production of short films. The projected films add an extra element into my installations and broaden an audience experience of mothering interwoven with childhoodtrauma.

Overall, my work has a powerful presence which reveals the hidden complexity of mothering while challenging the cultural silence of living with the effects of transgenerational trauma.

Jacqui Driver, Nest, 2022, lithograph, 152 x112cm

Here is a link to an interview which Jacqui gave to More Than Reproduction in 2021. It explains more about her process.

New Members: Evan Pank

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Creating large-scale screen prints, Evan Pank’s practice stems from his travel and experiences as a football fan and interest in politics. His work explores the chaotic nature and visuals of football fandom and political protest, sport and politics often becoming one and the same. Pank was the winner of the Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award in 2017 with his work ‘Keeping the Bastards Honest’.

 

Evan Pank - Keeping the Bastards Honest 2

See more of Evan’s work here. Visit his website here.

 

New Members – Seong Cho

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image: Australian Rhapsody, Seong Cho.

I am a Korean born Printmaker. My printmaking practice is mostly woodblock print, and calligraphic styles to represent my Asian heritage and the abstract expression to reflect contemporary influences. My work represents the human experience of seeking harmony and unity, exploring our connection with nature and the natural world, as well as exploring elements of human nature and interpersonal relationships. 

I have had a number of group and duo shows and my two solo exhibitions (2016 & 2018) – the titles of the solo exhibitions were ‘Trails’ and ‘Moment seized me, I seized the moment’.  My work has been recognised domestically and internationally. 

Seong has been represented in the Fremantle Print Award each year for the last three years, and has been a Finalist in the Burnie Print Prize and Inkfest, Cairns.

For more information and more images from Seong, please go here.