Exhibition at the Thoreau Art Gallery
Feb 28, 2017
| Image |  |
|---|---|
| Caption |
|
The Thoreau Gallery at Franklin Pierce University is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, “Breaking New Ground: 15 years of BIG,” an exhibition of international prints, celebrating 15 years of a non-toxic etching technique, known as Baldwin Intaglio Ground (BIG). The exhibit will run from March 1 to March 28 with an opening reception on Wednesday, March 1 from 4-6 p.m.
The exhibit features prints curated by BIG inventor Andrew Baldwin, a professor at the University of Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK, and other hand-pulled prints from the London, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany and the USA.
Baldwin is at the forefront of a movement highlighting the use of less toxic art materials and processes in etching, a non-toxic ground for use in etching metal plates for hand-pulled art prints. To create an etched plate for printing, traditionally a metal plate (usually copper) is covered with a material (the ground) that protects it from the acid during etching.
Prior to this invention, most grounds in use were petroleum-based grounds. Baldwin has worked to develop a less toxic version for use in this etching technique. His home studio is Trefeglwys Printmaking, a studio in a small village near Llanidloes, Powys, Mid Wales, UK.
Many of the techniques unique to the use of BIG are available on the website: http://www.printmakingstudio.co.uk/
All of the prints in the exhibition are on loan from the University of Aberystwyth for the month of March and illustrate the techniques pioneered by Baldwin.
Susan Silverman, gallery curator and associate professor of fine arts at Franklin Pierce University spent a few weeks studying in Wales at Trefeglwys studio to refine the use of these techniques under a research grant from the Whiting Foundation and a Franklin Pierce University grant in the spring of 2013. Silverman has continued to use these techniques with her students in printmaking classes at Franklin Pierce University.
An opening reception for the exhibition will take place on Wednesday, March 1 from 4-6 p.m. Prints will be on display through March 28. The Thoreau Art Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and located in Peterson Hall on the campus of Franklin Pierce University, 40 University Drive Rindge, NH 03461.
For additional information about the exhibition, please contact gallery curator Susan Silverman at or at 603-899-4047.
