Through the Screen

Screen Prints by Bill Davison, Steve Poleskie, Minna Resnick, Kadie Salfi, Christa Wolf

September 3 - September 24 |  Opening Reception Friday Sept. 3., 5-8 PM

Screen printing is currently regarded as one of the newest forms of printmaking, but it evolved out of the oldest known techniques of stenciling. These methods of stenciling were developed in China and Japan between 500 and 1000 A.D. The Japanese used fine silk threads and strands of human hair to hold floating stencils in place. The whole stencil was then varnished and flattened, which formed something not unlike the modern screen. Artists then applied color to open areas using a stiff brush, creating continuous patterns of almost unlimited complexity. These patterns were used to create fine art forms such as stencil pictures, screens, and fabrics. The medium was developed in the west using framed screens and squegees to press the ink throiugh. It became the medium for all kinds of professional printing and is often used to decorate T shirts.

In the 1960s, screen printing proved an ideal medium for the aesthetic movement of the time. In his 1967 article,"Silkscreen Printing"  in Artists Proof, the Annual of Prints and Printmaking"  Steve Poleskie, founder of the Chiron Press, called screenprinting "the medium of now," saying that "...the new artists attracted to this field, naive about what can or cannot be done, about what is or is not a print, have completely revolutionized the graphic arts."  At Chiron Press Poleskie worked with most of the well-known artists of that time such as Robert Rauschenberg, Claus Oldenburg,  Larry Rivers, Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol.  A professor emeritus at Cornell, Poleskie's work is in the collections of numerous museums including the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Other artists showcased include Bill Davison, who taught screen printing and etching at the University of Vermont for thirty-five years and produced his own screen prints until 2000, when he switched to making water based monotypes. Kadie Salfi, his daughter, also works primarily in screen printing, often with sculptural material. Kadie was awarded the Peter Kahn Family Fellowship in 2009/10 and has a solo show at the Ink Shop Gallery. Minna Resnick is well known nationally and internationally for her work that centers on womens' themes. She often combines screen printing with lithography. Christa Wolf’s pieces deal with the layering of memory. She studied screen printing with Steve Poleskie at Cornell and is a co-founder of the Ink Shop