Southern Graphics Council (SGC) International is an educational non-profit organization committed to informing its membership about issues and processes concerning original prints, drawings, book arts, and handmade paper. Formed in 1972, the Southern Graphics Council has grown into the nation’s largest organization for printmaking with representatives internationally. In 2010, the organization changed its name to SGC International to reflect this broader scope. The annual SGC International Conference was held in Atlanta in 2017, with SCAD Atlanta as one of the hosting institutions.
Fourteen themed and juried portfolios were created for the 2017 conference, as well as an exchange open to all SGC International members. Each participating artist received a portfolio as well as the participating institutions: SCAD Atlanta, Kennesaw State University, and Georgia State University. These portfolios are housed in the SCAD Libraries - Atlanta Special Collections, Print Collection, and are open for research.
AFTER THE COLLAPSE
Organizers: Nicholas Dowgwillo, Ana Fernandez and Endi Poskovic
Description: Anselm Kiefer: “Ruins, for me, are the beginning. With the debris, you can construct new ideas. They are symbols of a beginning.” This portfolio is about the inherent possibilities that come after the breakdown of a system, entity, or organism. The debris and ruins resulting can be fertile ground for new iterations of the original, or a complete metamorphosis. The cyclical process of collapse and rebirth mirrors the structure of the Terminus, expanding and contracting in a constant state of transformation.
Size of prints: 15 x 18 in.
Artists: Michael Barnes, Marcin Bialas, Mark Bovey, Sean Caulfield, Katy Collier, Nicholas Dowgwillo, Ana Fernandez, Oscar Gillespie, Agata Gertchen, Orit Hofshi, Tim Musso, Goedele Peeters, Endi Poskovic, Brett Schieszer, Tanja Softic, Evan Summer, Ruth Weisberg
HELLO. I LOVE YOU. I’M SORRY
Organizer: Terri Dilling
Description: This portfolio reflects upon the people that come and go in our lives (arrivals and departures), symbolized as a bouquet of flowers. Flowers are given on many occasions including births, deaths, anniversaries, travels, love and friendship. Flowers celebrate beauty and fleeting moments of time, and have also been an important subject throughout art history. A unique aspect of this project is that the individual prints are cut out as flowers and the display of the whole portfolio makes a combined visual statement as a bouquet.
Size of prints: 12 x 12 in. with variation, each edition is a cut out print
Artists: Christine Adams, Elle Anderson, Kristen Bartel, Grant Benoit , Stephanie Berrie, Elizabeth Castaldo, Neil Daigle Orians, Mariana Depetris, Valerie Dibble, Terri Dilling, Andrea Emmons, Melissia Fernander, Candace Nicol Garlock, Kathy Garrou, Oscar Gillespie, Melissa Harshman, Anna Hasseltine, Luke Johnson, Ann Marie Kennedy, Susan Ker-Seymer, Stephanie Kolpy, Eun Lee, Michael Marling de Cuellar, Liz Menard, Palmarin Merges, Nicole Milette, Kristen Necessary, Lauren Peterson (duo with Derek Faust), Laura Peturson, Elise Robbins, Hyeyoung Shin, Freda Sue, Jordan Thornton, Alex Velardes
HOMEWARD
Organizers: Michael Litzau and Mariana Smith
Description: We all come from somewhere else. Whether first or the tenth generation of exiles or wonderers, a home and identity was left behind. Arriving to a new place, a new life and identity is created. The transition from one’s heritage has a direct influence on how we live and experience our world. Sometimes this departure is traumatic and directly impactful. For some, the journey became lost and is barely influential. Sometimes we know our familial homeland by hearsay or fantasy. By moving, a part of who we are is lost but another part is gained by who we become. This portfolio includes artists whose imagery is inspired by their heritage, who let their distance inform the work, as a space for questioning, for departures and returns.
Size of prints: 11 x 15 in.
Artists: Sophie Knee, Sang-Mi Yoo, Irena Keckes, Michael Litzau, Serena Perrone, Xenia Fedorchenko, Elizabeth Klimek, Jose Rodriguez, Jesus De La Rosa, Mumu Wang, Marzi Rahmani, Lila Shull, Jade Hoyer, Jason Scuilla, Gloria Shows, Mariana Smith, Preeti Sood, Ani Volkan
HOTLANTA
Organizer: Deborah Sosower
Description: In Atlanta, when the sun goes down the city heats up. HOTLANTA is a colloquial term referring in equal parts to the urban, fun and sexy diversions available in Atlanta after dark and the blazing heat the city endures in summer. HOTLANTA is a portfolio of work on black paper; allowing the artists to explore the exposed or hidden activities of a city at night.
Size of prints: 11 x 14 in., Rives BFK black paper
Artists: Anna Lisa Allegretti, LaMar Barber, Christopher Benson, Derek Cracco, Chad Eehlein, Daniel Jasa, Michael McGovern, Virginia Moore, Ben Nelson, Chris Neuenschwander, Sarah Pollman, Elmer Ramos, Gina Reynoso, Deborah Sosower, Patrick Vincent
NOT APPROVED BY THE COMICS CODE AUTHORITY (TOO!)
Organizer: Joseph Lupo
Description: Much of the history of American comics defined it as a secondary artistic medium. For example, the 1990 MOMA exhibition “High and Low” featured comics only as inspirational material, and not as artwork itself. Over the last decade, though, American comics have experienced a rise in interest and diversity. A generation of artists have grown up never knowing the stigma comics have had in the past. Because of this, a new experimental spirit exists in the independent and self-published comic world, breaking expectations and assumptions about what comics can and should be. But what about printmakers using comic sensibilities? How are they expanding expectations for referencing or appropriating comics? This portfolio seeks a diverse group of printmakers who use comic sensibilities in subtle, surprising, critical, or experimental ways.
Size of prints: 18 x 20 in.
Artists: Jamie Adams, Aaron Coleman, Raphael Cornford, Benjy Davies, Jon Irving, Brian Johnson, Emmy Lingscheit, Joseph Lupo, Dave Menard, Guen Montgomery, Neil Daigle Orians, Sage Perrott, Ian Sampson, Brett Schieszer, John Schulz, Tonja Torgerson
THE SHAPE OF SOUTHERN PRINTMAKING TO COME
Organizer: Nick Satinover
Description: In 1933 HG Wells published the science fiction novel "The Shape of Things To Come" which forecasted the events of a future up until the year 2016. By 2017 we will have arrived at the future imagined by Wells and departed to the future beyond. Now is the time to take stock of the shape of printmaking in the American South. This novel's title has been referenced by some important musicians/bands in the past; Ornette Coleman's "Shape of Jazz to Come," 1959, and The Refused's "Shape of Punk to Come," 1998. Both of these albums are benchmarks of their respective genre and the hope is that this portfolio will be a similar culmination of contemporary southern printmaking. ATL is the capital of the new South, so this is a perfect venue.
Size of prints: 15 x 20 in.
Artists: Katie Baldwin, Dustyn Bork, Steven Foutch, Leslie Friedman, Matthew Hopson-Walker, Brooke Inman, Andrew Kozlowski, Sarah Marshall, Adrienne Miller, Kathleen O’Connell, Erin Potter, Marilee Salvator, Nick Satinover, Jon Swindler, Erik Waterkotte
THOSE WHO ARRIVE SURVIVE
Organizer: Seth Daulton
Description: “Terminus” was introduced in Season 4 of “The Walking Dead” as a safe haven for travelers trying to escape the zombie apocalypse. The group in command of the “safe haven” are cannibals who lure in unsuspecting, optimistic wanderers seeking shelter. They say “Those Who Arrive Survive”, but our heroes soon realize the grim reality of this lie. “The American Dream” is changing. Or was it always an illusion? 2016’s divisive and contentious presidential election has revealed surprising and conflicting attitudes towards LGBTQ rights, criminal justice reform, poverty relief, racism, police brutality, and immigration. The United States has increasingly become a schizophrenic hotbed of controversy. Is America safe? Or, will we be cannibalized at any moment? This portfolio calls upon its participants to produce an artist book utilizing the risographic process.
Size of prints: 5.5 x 8.5 in. zines, 12 pages minimum including covers.
Artists: Zachary Carlisle Davidson and Yunjin Woo, Josh Dannin and Sage Perrott, Seth Daulton, Stephanie Gage, Daniel Ogletree, Neil Daigle Orians, Liz Clayton Scofield
THROWING LINES: CELEBRATING THE ACT OF MARK-MAKING
Organizers: Lutsky Berel and Katie Ries
Description: The portfolio draws its title from Bryan Baker’s experiments in Line Throwing. Baker asked gallery viewers to attempt, as he did, to throw an ordinary pencil such that it would hit the wall and complete a full drawing before falling to the ground. The resulting marks inevitably fell short of Baker’s vision, but the practice of Line Throwing suggests a new appreciation for making marks and highlights the challenges faced in creating prints. To that end, if the print is the terminus of a printmaker’s practice, this portfolio is interested in the journey. How do you get the image to the plate, the block, or stone? How is your multiple constructed and crafted? We seek to celebrate prints that embrace and highlight the tension between the hand-wrought and the mechanical, the artisanal and the digital, the historic technique and the innovative hybrid. Modern technology can mask the hand and the do-it-yourself sensibility that, for many years characterized the fine art print. The artists/printmakers included in “Throwing Lines” will seek to honor the hand and to challenge existing technologies, to celebrate the mark and its possibilities.
Size of prints: 15 in. x 22 in.
Artists: Veronica Ceci, John Driesbach, Lise Drost, Beth Grabowski, Karla Hackenmiller, Berel Lutsky, Sue Medaris, Guen Montgomery, Tatiana Potts, Roselyn Richards, Katie Ries, Ben Rinehart, Hannah Sanders, Mike Sonnichsen, Kelsey Stephenson, Freda Sue, Jason Terry, Melissa Wagner-Lawler, Eileen Wallace
THROWING LINES: CELEBRATING THE ACT OF MARK-MAKING
Organizers: Lutsky Berel and Katie Ries
Description: The portfolio draws its title from Bryan Baker’s experiments in Line Throwing. Baker asked gallery viewers to attempt, as he did, to throw an ordinary pencil such that it would hit the wall and complete a full drawing before falling to the ground. The resulting marks inevitably fell short of Baker’s vision, but the practice of Line Throwing suggests a new appreciation for making marks and highlights the challenges faced in creating prints. To that end, if the print is the terminus of a printmaker’s practice, this portfolio is interested in the journey. How do you get the image to the plate, the block, or stone? How is your multiple constructed and crafted? We seek to celebrate prints that embrace and highlight the tension between the hand-wrought and the mechanical, the artisanal and the digital, the historic technique and the innovative hybrid. Modern technology can mask the hand and the do-it-yourself sensibility that, for many years characterized the fine art print. The artists/printmakers included in “Throwing Lines” will seek to honor the hand and to challenge existing technologies, to celebrate the mark and its possibilities.
Size of prints: 15 in. x 22 in.
Artists: Veronica Ceci, John Driesbach, Lise Drost, Beth Grabowski, Karla Hackenmiller, Berel Lutsky, Sue Medaris, Guen Montgomery, Tatiana Potts, Roselyn Richards, Katie Ries, Ben Rinehart, Hannah Sanders, Mike Sonnichsen, Kelsey Stephenson, Freda Sue, Jason Terry, Melissa Wagner-Lawler, Eileen Wallace
TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM, UGA PRINTMAKERS 1997-2002
Organizer: Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis
Description: The Turn of the Millennium portfolio focuses on printmaking majors and their professors at the University of Georgia at the dawn of the 21st century. These artists landed in Athens, GA, working together at a time of millennial anticipation, and many departed for various destinations worldwide. All continue to work as professional artists and regularly exhibit their artwork. Moreover, many of these artists have academic careers in the arts, and continue to nurture a new generation of artists. The coordinators of this portfolio asked themselves: Where have these artists’ work traveled 15 to 20 years down the road? We aim to find out!
Size of prints: 15 x 11 in.
Artists: Corinna Brannon, Larry Copper, Daniela Deeg, Jerushia Graham, Melissa Harshman, Emilie Sayward Henry, Tobin Hines, Cynthia Lollis, Joseph Lupo, Sonya Pototschnik, Frank Saggus, Joe Sanders, Stephanie Smith, Tara Thieleke, Ashley Worley
UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE
Organizers: Sean P. Morrissey and Lenore Thomas
Description: This portfolio reflects the dynamic field of printmaking by inviting artists who fluidly work across or at the edge of disciplines to apply their aesthetic and conceptual vision to the multiple, representing the ability of the print to move from one point to another in terms of execution and definition. Utilizing their unique skill set combined with the aforementioned attributes, the artists in this portfolio explore the history and future of printmaking while redefining the possibilities of what a contemporary print can be. Nontraditional media, digital processes, and otherwise divergent approaches are highlighted while contributing to the growth, revitalization, and solidification of the discipline of printmaking.
Size of prints: 15 x 20 in.
Artists: Diana Behl, Charles Beneke, Denise Bookwalter, Jeffrey Dell, Lari Gibbons, Dusty Herbig, Tim High, Robert Howsare, Travis Janssen, Amanda Knowles, J. Myszka Lewis, Eddy Lopez, Eva Mayer, Sean P. Morrissey, Althea Murphy-Price, Troy Richards, The Scavengers, Lenore Thomas
WHERE HAVE WE GONE, BEFORE WE GO
Organizer: Jennifer Scheuer
Description: This portfolio will reflect on the evolution of the artist. Participants will create a diptych - the left half illustrating their approach to the printmaking/subject matter from an earlier point in their career, and the right half reflective of their current artistic practice. Each artist will receive a portfolio in return that can be constructed into a drum leaf book, the portfolio will be wrapped in a soft book cloth with materials to make the book inside.
Size of prints: 10 in. high by 20 in. wide, diptych 10 in. x 10 in.
Artists: Anne Beidler, John Bergmeier, Ed Bernstein, Kaitlyn Collyer, Benjy Davies, Pamela Drix, Fred Hagstrom, Raluca Iancu, Eleanor Jensen, Kathryn Maxwell, Katherine Miller, Greg Page, Minna Resnick, Mary Robinson, Nick Ruth, Carrie Scanga, Jennifer Scheuer, Hannah Skoonberg, Taro Takizawa, Ruth Weisberg