Dream City, Dreams in Petrovac, Montenegro

Posted on September 23, 2016 by printerbird

This August, I was honoured to be invited to exhibit in Petrovac, Montenegro at the Marko K Gregovic Gallery. The exhibition was organized by the Canadian Embassy and has been touring in the area after my exhibition last year in Belgrade. Below are some of the pictures from the exhibition and opening. I am grateful to the gallery and the warm welcome by all the local cultural workers that took us around and shared a bit of their country with us.

: Exterior shot of the gallery space

: Poster advertising the exhibition

: Install Shot

: Install shot

: Install Shot

: Opening night speeches + Canadian Ambassador, Philip Pennington

Barbarian Press Workshop

Posted on August 8, 2016 by printerbird

I recently took a 3-day workshop at Barbarian Press in Mission, BC, where I learned the basics of letterpress printing from some of the masters in the game. I printed a broadsheet with the lyrics from “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing” by the Magnetic Fields. It was an excellent opportunity to peruse a range of beautiful printed books, sort through tons of old type, and gain valuable tips on letterpress printmaking. Pictures below!

Printing on a Vandercook Press.

Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing – printed broadsheet featuring lyrics by Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields.

Setting type on the press.

A printed book

Setting type.

Setting up for the second colour on the Vandercook.

Printed In Canada/Taiwan

Posted on September 13, 2014 by printerbird

About a year ago, I was invited by Guy Langevin to participate in a print exhibition that would take place in Taiwan. 25 Canadian artists were to exhibit our works in Taiwan and 25 Taiwanese artists were to exhibit their work here (well, in Quebec). Guy invited three artists from the exhibition (myself, Deborah Chapman, and Mylene Gervais) and a representative from Trois Rivieres (Marie-Eve Berube) to accompany him to the opening in August. It was a whirlwind three days in Taiwan and we were welcomed by the generous and extremely friendly Taiwanese artists. The exhibition would serve as a way for artists in each country to show their works and to build relationships between artists and institutions beyond the exhibition. A catalogue of all of the works in both exhibitions is available.

: We were welcomed warmly wherever we went! This is at a printmaking studio.

: Signatures of all the artists in the exhibition on the wall leading into the show. The background image is my print.

: Installation shot of Printed in Canada/Taiwan

: Me in front of my works installed at the Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei

: Guy Langevin, the Canadian curator, discussing his works in front of the crowd (pictured with a translator, daughter of Rock Shen, curator of the Taiwanese exhibition)

: Deborah Chapman, a wonderful mezzotint artist from Montreal.

: The Canadian artists with our Taiwanese artist-friend, Boris, at the entrance to the exhibition with Taipei 101 tower behind us.

: In front of the Hall where the exhibition took place.

: In Liao Shiou-Ping’s studio. He is considered the father of contemporary printmaking in Taiwan.

SGCI 2014 – San Francisco

Posted on April 2, 2014 by printerbird

I recently returned from the 2014 SGCI conference in San Francisco. As always it was great to connect and reconnect with printmakers from around the world. Some highlights included Kathan Brown’s talk, the Open Portfolio sessions, and the opportunity to be introduced to Jiri Anderle’s sublime work in the flesh. Some products to try including water-based etching ink by Charbonnel and a non-toxic ground called B.I.G (it can apparently stand-in for hard, soft and aquatint grounds – available at Takach soon). All my fellow silkscreen friends were nerding-out about a new screen re-streching system from Squeegeeville (who also have some great silkscreen books available).

Hi to anyone I met at SGCI – you can also follow me on Twitter @heatherhuston or on Instagram @printerbird.

Now I am busy preparing for my exhibition at SNAP on April 24th, end of semester and prepping Alberta Printmakers’ after a recent move. Some photos from the trip below!

My table during open portfolios

Jeffrey Dell’s cakey blends.

New quick screen re-streching from Squeegeeville

Hanging out at Crown Point Press in front of Mamma Anderson’s plate

Sean Caulfield’s work

Beautiful and strange lithographs by Michael Barnes

Some layered glass silkscreening by Bullseye glass.

Uncanny Flux

Posted on February 21, 2014 by printerbird

: Ruh Roh

: Set up in progress

: Installation shot I

: Installation shot II

: Installation shot II

: All better!

I recently headed back to Trois Rivieres to set up my solo exhibition Uncanny Flux at Presse Papier. My work arrived ahead of me and unfortunately one of the houses did not emerge from his journey unscathed. Fortunately, after a day and night in the art hospital and a bit of glue, it was back in the game and ready to go. A few technical misunderstandings later and the show was up. The show is a mixture of silkscreen prints and a couple of my house sculptures. The exhibition is on at Presse Papier from now until March 16th.

Printeresting Article

Posted on July 10, 2013 by printerbird

Printeresting is one of my favourite printmaking sites and I was thrilled that they recently accepted an article that I wrote about the 8th Biennial International d’Estampe Contemporain de Trois Rivieres (BIECTR). Back in November, I was invited to be part of the jury, an intensive three-day process that was an awesome opportunity to dialogue about amazing prints (in French no less) and I wanted to visit the exhibition once it was up. In June I attended the opening of the exhibition which sprawls across four venues. Its a great selection of works by some amazing artists from around the world. You can read my article here: Trois-Rivieres Survey

Trois Rivieres

Posted on November 20, 2012 by printerbird

I recently returned from Trois Rivieres where I served as a juror for the 8th Bienniale Internationale D’Estampe Contemporaine de Trois Rivieres. I was fortunate to be able to spend several days looking at and discussing prints from all around the world. I greatly look forward to seeing the prints in the summer when they are exhibited. I gave a talk afterwards (in French!) at the Universite de Quebec a Trois Rivieres. It was interesting to consider my ideas in another language and to connect to a different audience.

I was greatly impressed with the depth of culture in Trois Rivieres and the way that they integrate culture into the daily life of the city. I met a great many artists and visited Presse Papier (a print-based artist run center and print shop). My brain is still absorbing the depth of the experience, I know I will be back in Trois Rivieres soon!

Pre-vernissage with Guy Langevin at his exhibition “Crepuscule des Anges” at Presse Papier.

Showing my prints after my talk (Jo Ann Lanneville just to my right).

A.M Leka with students and his prints after giving his artist talk at UQTR.

Aleksandar Mladenovic Leka

heather huston

Category Archives: Travel