After spending the morning at Firecracker, I headed over to Washington University in St. Louis where Island Press is the in-house print shop. I met with the master printer, Tom Reed, and I learned that Island Press functions as a research printmaking facility as well as an artist studio space. Island Press invites visiting artists to print an edition with the master printer as the students assist and work together to complete the edition with the artist. What is really awesome about this program is that both undergrads and graduate students have the opportunity to work with world-renowned artists to create an entirely original body of work that is then published. I was so excited when Tom showed me a huge collection of prints he has printed over the years. It was especially cool to actually see these prints up close and in person, because we all know pictures on the internet never does them justice. He showed me works from Ann Hamilton, Nina Katchadourian, and Paula Wilson among others. I loved seeing the prints by Trenton Doyle Hancock, an artist whose work I have been extremely interested in since he came to give a guest talk at Pratt a few years back. Every single image was clean, crisp, and beautifully printed. Tom is a true master of the print trade! When Island Press is not occupied with visiting artists, it is open to students to use as their studio. It is outfitted with all the printmaking gear you could ask for, and has one of those great 5 x 10 foot etching presses for all the oversize printing you could possibly want to do. Overall, Island Press is a great space run by an extremely skilled master printer who creates high quality print work for some of the biggest names in the art world.
http://islandpress.samfoxschool.wustl.edu
http://islandpress.samfoxschool.wustl.edu
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