Any form of art is a form of power.
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| | “Any form of art is a form of power – it has impact, it can affect change. It can not only move us, it makes us move,” according to Pablo Picasso. The power of printmaking is something of a theme in our new issue – from stories of love, hope and justice with social pioneer Corita Kent to the humorous yet emotive prints of Wuon-Gean Ho – the ability for art to conjure a feeling, evoke an emotion or encourage action are all present. And our new edition seems to be having a positive impact from the get-go, with our readers sharing their favourite articles online and our print challenge artists excitedly posting news that their artwork made the showcase. |
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| | I wanted to take a moment to give a special shout out to Jo Hounsome who has been a major part of making this a fantastic edition and who I'm pleased to say is now a key part of our small team.
After taking some needed time off this summer the pressing matters team are firmly back at work, dividing time between promotion and packing up copies of Issue 35 and reaching out to artists for our Autumn edition too. I’ve taken on the epic task of sorting through my art book collection this summer and I’m loving stumbling upon publications that I forgot I had and putting them aside for a deeper dive. Inspiration for upcoming experiments in the print studio and a reminder of the sort of textures, colour overlays and illustration that drive me to try more making myself.
This newsletter is peppered with news of print shows, open studios, products and publications – I hope you enjoy spending some time reading about these great projects and artists. Keep well and keep on rolling… |
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| | John Coe Founder of Pressing Matters magazine
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| | Issue 35, Out Now Our summer edition is out now and making its way out to stockists, subscribers and new customers across the printmaking world. The featured artists in Issue 35 are an exciting group of deep thinkers with a knack of harnessing their art to bring change into their worlds and that of others – whether it’s through community engagement, sharing their time-earned knowledge, or simply in how they apply ink to paper. It comes with a truly summer-y cover and the inside of the magazine is no less vibrant. The perfect companion to an iced tea/coffee or beer in the sunshine (or shade). |
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| | Bathtown Darktown At the end of August, two towns will collide. One is famed for its spa baths and excellent architecture that John Betjeman loved, the other is well known for its tattooed sailors, mermaids and lost highways. Artist and printmaker Jonny Hannah will be bringing his collection of flotsam and jetsam to the walls of Bath’s wonderful Palette gallery. Painted objets d’art, records to die for and the one and only famous Darktown Bottle Pantry will all sit alongside his layers and luscious screenprints. His squeegee has been red hot in recent months – pulling new prints aplenty. Opening 29th August and running until 31st October, Bathtown Darktown will be a show of delights. |
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| | With a summer heatwave and drought escaping no one’s attention, London’s Serpentine has announced the first UK institutional exhibition of new and recent works by Justin Caguiat, on view at Serpentine South from 8th October 2026 to 10th January 2027. Change Ringing brings together painting, sculpture, printmaking, sound and film. The artist will engage with the gallery beyond its interiority, using the architecture and infrastructure of the Serpentine South building to frame and display his artworks and use a heat-responsive pigment, with works constantly changing in colour as they react to environmental factors such as temperature and light. Let’s hope it’s cooled down a bit by October or the results could be extreme. |
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Looking for something creative to do in York this September? Come and meet the makers at York Printmakers’ Annual Print Fair. Located in The Chapel & Harriet Room at York Cemetery on 19th and 20th September, it looks like a weekend packed with original, handmade artwork – from striking linocuts and detailed collagraphs to monoprints and wood engravings. Browse. Meet the artists. Discover the techniques. Take home an original. |
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| | Quiet Transformation Rachel Thornton – who appeared in Issue 9 as one of our regular Workspaces features – is a printmaker based at Studio42 in Bentham, Yorkshire Dales. Using wax, silk and wood, creating layered works that sit somewhere between print, object and installation, her practice explores impermanence, ritual and quiet transformation. Her new body of work from the past year will be shown publicly for the first time as part of the Lunesdale Arts Trail for Transitions - from September 4th- (preview 6-8pm) to 13th September. A joint exhibition with fellow Studio42 printmaker Michelle Hodgson and Amy(who?) seeing her work in person is the best way to experience the layers, scale and tactility of her makes. |
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| | Hickman Registration Pins Kat and Luke from Hickman Design met as students and over the years they built a free resource website to make printmaking more accessible, which they then turned into an online shop selling tried and tested equipment. When the creators of the original metal registration pins they were selling stopped production to retire after years in the business, they set out on the task of creating their own pins – changing and improving the design to add something extra for the next generation of printmakers. “And so were born the Hickman Registration Pins,” exclaims Kat, “we made them thicker, updated the shape and added permanent alignment – otherwise unheard of in the printmaking world”. From an idea to a doodle on a piece of paper through to sourcing metal fabricators and production, these new tiny pins have been on quite a journey. Check them out and order yours now. |
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| | A new art exhibition exploring Orkney's historical connections to the transatlantic slave trade is on display at Orkney Museum’s exhibition room and runs until Saturday 26th September. The exhibition, Torn from that lovely shore… combines new printmaking work and historical research by Orkney-based artist Carolyn Dixon, drawing on and using archival material in the artwork. Through prints, artists' books and accompanying text, Dixon tells the stories of a number of Orcadians who travelled to the Caribbean and the Americas throughout the 17th and early 19th centuries. |
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Due to be published by The Crowood Press later this month, New Techniques for Lino Printmaking by acclaimed artist educator and author Mary Dalton explores the possibilities of lino as an artistic medium far beyond traditional relief printing. Ideal for beginners as well as experienced printmakers, it looks to be perfect for artists wanting to deepen their understanding of lino, enjoy its distinctive expressive qualities and explore its exciting potential. |
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| | The Shape Of Things Whitstable’s FRANK Gallery’s latest exhibition, until 5th September, The Shape of Things, brings together the work of Guy Rutter and Mary Claire Smith. Expect a dialogue between two artists who, although different in their approach, share a distinct response to colour. Both artists work across print and painting and this show encompasses both disciplines. Working across woodcut, screenprint and monotype, Mary Claire Smith's practice explores our relationship with the natural world – responding to landscape, atmosphere and the quiet rhythms found in nature. Guy Rutter makes abstract geometric paintings and prints, often initiated by a chance glimpse of colour or shape during his daily activities. |
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| | Blind-embossing Doves Adrian Greensides (aka Left Winter) stood in a cold mill in Manchester's Longsight District 26 years ago wearing a boiler suit, hand-screenprinting a run of 250 posters that he’d designed for the band Doves' platinum selling debut album tour, Lost Souls. From a printmaking perspective it was born of a simple motif, typeset in Linotype Kursivschrift from a floppy disk, etched onto a metal plate and blind-embossed directly into the sheet of mid-weight, pure white paper of single black screenprint. He spent that November on the road with the band, selling the prints directly from the merch table. The original metal plate and Linotype floppy disk have hung on his studio wall ever since, while the remaining prints sat untouched in the vault for over two decades. Recently, a print from that original run was acquired for the permanent collection of the British Pop Archive and to mark the acquisition, he’s made the final 65 prints available from his website. |
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| | David Zwirner’s London gallery has announced an upcoming exhibition of new and historical prints from the workshop and publisher BORCH Editions. Opening on 5th November, No Plan at All will highlight the history and production of the Copenhagen-based intaglio studio, from its modest beginnings as an experimental workshop to its present-day collaborations with leading international contemporary artists such as Mamma Andersson, Georg Baselitz, Huma Bhabha, Tacita Dean, Andreas Eriksson and Martin Kippenberger amongst many others. |
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For those of you who can get to the University of Wisconsin’s Chazen Museum of Art this Autumn, their new exhibition promises to give a fascinating insight into 1930’s America and the Great Depression. Through the relief efforts of the New Deal to provide a living wage and to bolster the spirits of the American public, visual artists were given the opportunity to portray everyday life in the United States. Pressing Issues at The Chazen Museum of Art brings together work by artists who, through their art, produced radical critical commentaries on the social injustices plaguing the country in their time. |
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