Print by Damon Kowarsky

The Collie Print Trust annually awards 4 printmakers the opportunity to develop their skills by providing access to the Australian Print Workshop.

This enables artist to use professional printmaking facilities and equipment for a year, while also providing them with artistic and technical support from professional printmakers working at the Australian Print Workshop.

The scholarship ensures the presence of printmaking in Australia by nourishing the promising talents of printmakers at the beginnings of their careers. The opportunity culminates in a 6-week exhibition of the recipient’s work undertaken during the year long scholarship.

In 2004 Damon Kowarsky, Mirjana Vuk-Nikic, Cherie Winter and Kate Zizys were the recipients. The exhibition highlights the uniqueness of each artist by demonstrating the strong differences they bring to the craft. Although each have had similar education’s undertaking fine art degrees their diversity perhaps come from the variety of international institutions they’ve come from. Between the four artists their influences can be drawn from travels in Northern Africa, Mexico, Switzerland and Vietnam.

Kowarsky’s use of intaglio techniques and combinations of man-made and natural environments can be seen with reference to his travels in Northern Africa. His striking figurative tableaus explore men in strange and beguiling surrounds. Background buildings draw heavily from Moroccan style architecture giving the prints an intriguing and exotic element. His prints draw us into an unusual world which is both recognizable yet distant, mythic and familiar; where the viewer is able to create narratives or admire each print individually.

Vuk-Nikic’s work interestingly creates 3 dimensionality by using her individual prints as a basis for sculpture. Her delicate pieces create abstract shapes and forms, which are intriguing and delightful. Both Winter and Zizys’s work also explore striking landscapes. Winters lithographs illustrate nature imbued with the man-made objects which have come to dominate it whilst Zizy experiments with both stone and digital lithographic techniques.

The exhibition is a fascinating experience allowing the viewer insight into the various techniques and multiple ways print making can be applied to create startling images. The experience is enhanced through the use of space at the Australian Print Workshop. The gallery cleverly allows the viewer visual access into the printmaking process by putting the workshop and studio space on display to the public. Whilst viewing the work you are also free to watch artists in the printmaking process.

I recommend the exhibition to those interested in printmaking while also providing others with the opportunity to gain insight into the striking artistic technique.

The exhibition is showing at the APW Gallery, 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, until March 24, 2005.