Press

ALASDAIR Gray has just taken down a retrospective of his prints at Glasgow Print Studio, and now’s he’s back, alongside the 14 other artists represented by Sorcha Dallas, in To Bring Forth and Give. It matters not that he’s been making prints since before most of these guys and girls were born. His artwork is getting renewed appreciation through being linked to one of the hippest galleries in town.

Since Gray graduated from Glasgow School of Art in the 1950s, print-making in contemporary art practice has suffered a decline. One gets the impression that it is relatively new to many of these artists. This collaboration with Glasgow Print Studio has given them the opportunity to experiment with different processes and consider how to integrate these possibilities into their existing practice.

In a few cases, the visual themes of their work are so strong that they flow seamlessly into printmaking. Craig Mulholland, whose striking solo show at Glasgow School of Art and Sorcha Dallas in March made extensive use of peg boards, has now turned them into the base for relief prints. He creates an installation of these in one corner, using map pins to enhance the sense of three-dimensionality.

Likewise, Clare Stephenson’s free-standing figure is more of a sculpture than a piece of traditional piece of printmaking, extending her current aesthetic vocabulary of tall, androgynous figures, part goddess, part chainsmoking drag queen.

She is not the only one to take printmaking beyond its traditional boundaries: Fiona Jardine has designed wallpaper with a pattern of eyes, so even the walls appear to be watching you. Michael Stumpf has printed a sweatshirt with the word Silenzio and displays both this and a screenprint photograph of it. Raphael Danke alludes to pop art in his bold etching of a lipstick and a radiator.

Other more subtle works, such as those by Henry Coombes, Alex Pollard, Alan Michael and Kate Davis, can only be understood within the context of the artist’s wider body of work. And some are simply experiments, like those of Alex Frost, who has devised a whole new print technique from piercing holes in paper. It will take time to see how these explorations are played out in future projects.