Brooklyn Fine Art Print FairOver the weekend of March 26-30, 2025, Brian Miller and I (Fine Arts Baltimore) helped Powerhouse Arts realize its first-ever fair, the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair.
From the press release: Powerhouse Arts (PHA) Printshop Director Luther Davis and the wider PHA team have partnered with Fine Arts Baltimore (FAB) to bring to life a critical new entrant in the New York art fair circuit—one committed to re-affirming New York as a key hub for esteemed print fairs. From March 27-30, 2025, the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair will welcome approximately 40 galleries and print publishers to occupy booths in the 22,517 square-foot, column-free Grand Hall, with the opportunity for an additional 30 book arts purveyors, self-representing artists, and academic printmaking departments to exhibit on tables in the adjacent Loft space. The fair seeks to expand opportunities for print producers and sellers of all types, growing an already-vibrant ecosystem of fine art print production and publishing with new, accessible opportunities to cultivate collectors and grow their market. The Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair will reduce barriers to entry for a wide range of printmakers by implementing criteria which allows for a wider scope of exhibitors, including individual artists and academic print departments, to show among the galleries and institutional exhibitors at the fair. In speaking about the opportunities afforded by this fair, Fine Arts Baltimore's Ann Shafer states: “We all feel strongly that a new PHA-hosted fair will push the needle for the print ecosystem. By offering a range of affordable booth sizes and a table-top section for book arts dealers, single artists, and university shops, we seek to get smaller, younger, emerging printmakers more firmly into the pipeline. If there are no opportunities for younger, emerging artists and galleries, then there is no future for the sector. Powerhouse Arts is one of very few organizations that can and is willing to put a fair together with this intentionality. Thus, this marks a unique and exciting opportunity to rally the print community around this shared vision.” PHA Printshop Director, Luther Davis, adds: "I will always remember my first print fair as an exhibitor. The print community was so incredibly welcoming, and I came away from that experience with lifelong friends in the industry. Now almost 20 years later, Powerhouse Arts can create such an experience for the community that has given us so much support over the years. This first annual Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair will showcase some of the most innovative printers in the world while also allowing first time print enthusiasts access to our in house fabrication shops and studios." Highlights from the roster of international exhibitors include: Aspinwall Editions (Hudson, NY, USA) Bleu Acier (Tampa, FL, USA) Brandywine Workshop and Archives (Philadelphia, PA, USA) Brodsky Center at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA, USA) Center for Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk, CT, USA) D&S Fine Art Editions (LaForce, France, and New York) David Krut Projects (Johannesburg, South Africa, and New York, NY, USA) Flatbed Press, (Austin, TX, USA) Hecho a Mano Gallery (Santa Fe, NM, USA) Overpass Projects (Pawtucket, RI, USA) Society of American Graphic Artists (New York, NY, USA) Stewart & Stewart (Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA) Two Palms (New York, NY, USA) Viadukt Screen Prints, (Vienna, Austria) Individual artists exhibiting with the fair include: Brian D. Cohen (Kennebunk, ME, USA) Art Hazelwood (San Francisco, CA, USA) Martin Mazorra (Brooklyn, NY, USA) David Rathman (Minneapolis, MN, USA) Jenny Schmid (Minneapolis, MN, USA) Diane Stemper (Sacramento, CA, USA) Photos: Gina Curovic except top image by Ann Shafer and bottom by Tru Ludwig. Baltimore Fine Art Print Fair |
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When I was a curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) I directed the last three iterations of its print fair in 2012, 2015, and 2017. Since I left the museum, there have been no signs that the fair would ever happen again. It has been a long-term goal of mine to bring a new print fair to Baltimore over the weekend of April 29-May 1, 2022. (Details are at baltimoreprintfair.com.)
For context, the BMA print fair ran from 1990 to 2017 initially run by curators Jay Fisher and Jan Howard. They started the fair because the museum had shuttered its beloved Sales and Rental Gallery. That was a project run by the Women's Committee in which people were able to rent framed works of art (usually prints) that had been brought down from various New York galleries. It was a rent-to-own deal, and many collectors in town will tell you they purchased their first works of art from the BMA's Sales and Rental Gallery.
As a result, Baltimore is a serious print town. In addition to the many years that the museum fostered print collecting in town through its support group, the Print, Drawing & Photograph Society, and the print fair, both MICA and Towson University have robust printmaking departments, and print publisher Goya Girl Press is here along with multiple small presses. Also, let's not forget the rare books full of prints to be found at Evergreen Museum & Library, the George Peabody Library, and the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
On Platemark, Tru Ludwig and I recorded a bonus episode about why Baltimore is ripe for a print fair. We talk about the Sales and Rental Gallery, the Print, Drawing & Photograph Society, the BMA print fairs I worked on, and all all sorts of other stuff. It was a great reminder for me about why we're doing this. I can't wait. You can find the episode at www.platemarkpodcast.com/bonus-ep-baltimore-fine-art-print-fair/.
Photos: Greg Dohler
For context, the BMA print fair ran from 1990 to 2017 initially run by curators Jay Fisher and Jan Howard. They started the fair because the museum had shuttered its beloved Sales and Rental Gallery. That was a project run by the Women's Committee in which people were able to rent framed works of art (usually prints) that had been brought down from various New York galleries. It was a rent-to-own deal, and many collectors in town will tell you they purchased their first works of art from the BMA's Sales and Rental Gallery.
As a result, Baltimore is a serious print town. In addition to the many years that the museum fostered print collecting in town through its support group, the Print, Drawing & Photograph Society, and the print fair, both MICA and Towson University have robust printmaking departments, and print publisher Goya Girl Press is here along with multiple small presses. Also, let's not forget the rare books full of prints to be found at Evergreen Museum & Library, the George Peabody Library, and the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
On Platemark, Tru Ludwig and I recorded a bonus episode about why Baltimore is ripe for a print fair. We talk about the Sales and Rental Gallery, the Print, Drawing & Photograph Society, the BMA print fairs I worked on, and all all sorts of other stuff. It was a great reminder for me about why we're doing this. I can't wait. You can find the episode at www.platemarkpodcast.com/bonus-ep-baltimore-fine-art-print-fair/.
Photos: Greg Dohler
Platemark: prints and the printmaking ecosystem, a podcast
Why do fine art prints (etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, screenprints, etc.) and printmaking draw such fervent practitioners, collectors, and fans? Find out how prints were the first internet disseminating images since the mid-15th century. Find out why it takes a village to make, sell, study, and collect these affordable beauties. Who are all these people in the print ecosystem, anyway?
Series one looks at prints and printmaking and how they fit in in the context of museums, the market, critiques, and the print ecosystem. Series two offers a history of prints and printmaking in the West. Series three offers interviews with the people who perform various roles in the print ecosystem. Join us and find out why prints and printmaking occupy the best little corner of the art world. We'll turn you into a fan, too.
Platemark offers a bit of art history, artistic creativity, and introduces listeners to artists, printers, dealers, print publishers, gallerists, art historians, curators, and scholars.
Series one looks at prints and printmaking and how they fit in in the context of museums, the market, critiques, and the print ecosystem. Series two offers a history of prints and printmaking in the West. Series three offers interviews with the people who perform various roles in the print ecosystem. Join us and find out why prints and printmaking occupy the best little corner of the art world. We'll turn you into a fan, too.
Platemark offers a bit of art history, artistic creativity, and introduces listeners to artists, printers, dealers, print publishers, gallerists, art historians, curators, and scholars.
Blog: Musings on Art, Mostly Printmaking
At the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, after 2.5 years of depression and self-doubt following my departure from the BMA, I started writing aboutart. The truth is, I was terrified that if I were taken out by Covid-19, which in those early days seemed entirely possible, there were a few things I would regret not having said. I wanted to leave some trace of my legacy in the field; some record that my kids could refer to later and say, hey, my mom did a thing.
Navigate via the menu above to get to the blog page.
Navigate via the menu above to get to the blog page.
Stanley William Hayter and Atelier 17
I have researched, written, and talked about Hayter and Atelier 17 for many years. Here is a 34-minute video in which I introduce the workshop and talk about Hayter's own work.
Peter Milton at Evergreen
Curated exhibition focused on the intaglio copper plates of artist Peter Milton for Johns Hopkins University's Evergreen Museum and Library.
