Printfest announce printmaker of the year
Printfest, the UK’s only artist led printmaking festival, has today announced Kelly Stewart as its 2012 Printmaker of the Year.
In Autumn 2011, Printfest asked print studios around the country to nominate the best printmakers in the UK. Kelly was nominated by Edinburgh Print Studio and was chosen from a short list of artists to undertake a residency in Ulverston and exhibit her work at Printfest.
Printfest, now in its eleventh year, is the UK’s only art fair dedicated solely to printmaking and has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, with record sales to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2011. The event now draws artists of such a high calibre that it attracts regular visitors from across the north of England and beyond.
Previous Printmakers of the Year have included Trevor Price who worked with members of the local community on a participatory print to celebrate our 10th anniversary, Anja Percival, who produced the first Printfest commissioned print and Hamanishi Katsunori, a Japanese artist who has work in collections throughout the world.
Born in Sydney Australia, Kelly moved to Edinburgh in 2000 to pursue her career in illustration and to be amongst traditional architecture. Drawing European traditional architecture fulfilled a passion that she craved, having been surrounded by predominantly modern architecture in Australia. Edinburgh became a constant source of inspiration and she began to draw quirky architectural sketches and street scenes combined with mark making and handwritten text.
Kelly joined the Edinburgh Printmakers workshop in 2001 and since then has dedicated most of her art making to the medium of silkscreen printing. She enjoys the drawn line and quite often varies the line quality, whether it be from a pencil, a graphite stick, charcoal or a nib and combines them into the one artwork through the screenprinting process. Screenprinting offers limitless opportunity in combining the drawings with found textures, photographic imagery and text.
“As a printmaker with a passion for the medium of silkscreen print I am very excited to be nominated and chosen for Printfest’s Printmaker of the Year. I look forward to contributing to this years Printfest exhibititon, meeting other passionate printmakers and promoting the unique, versatile, fun qualities of screenprinting,” said Kelly.
Kelly has exhibited in galleries throughout the UK as well as open exhibitions such as the Visual Arts Scotland at the RSA, the Royal Glasgow Institute of fine arts and Aberdeen Artists society exhibition. Permanent collections are in Howies Restaurants (Edinburgh and Aberdeen) as well as in the Budongo Chimpanzee House at Edinburgh Zoo.
As Printmaker of the Year, Kelly will undertake a residency, based in Ulverston and create a commissioned print inspired by the local area. This print will be unveiled at the Printfest private view on Friday 4 May with a copy retained by Printfest and other copies for sale at the event.
“This year we wanted to offer a residency to a printmaker to give them the time and space to develop their work, and create a print for Printfest,” said Artistic Director, Janice Benson. “We worked with 20 print studios across the country to find the best printmakers in the UK and we were incredibly excited to offer the role to Kelly. We know that her work will be a huge attraction at Printfest.”
“We are also very grateful to the Arts Council who have given us funding to develop Printfest over the next two years. Their support is crucial to the continuing success of the event and a real vote of confidence for us going forward.”
Printmakers from all over UK and abroad have applied to exhibit at Printfest 2012, which will take place from 4 t0 6 May 2012 at the Coronation Hall, in Ulverston.
There’s a wealth of information on the Printfest website.