Ninety delegates attended the Regional Print Centre’s sold out Print Symposium event on the 27th February 2019, which took place at Tŷ Pawb in Wrexham, North Wales.
Curated by the Regional Print Centre, the symposium offered a series of talks by leading printmakers discussing their printmaking practice focusing on the importance of collaborative projects.
Hilary Paynter
The first talk was by Hilary Paynter who is one of the UK’s leading wood engravers and past president of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. She focused on her practice and experience of working on commissions including the Newcastle metro and creating prints to illustrate poetry. She also gave an insight into how her recent work has become more politically and socially engaged.
Barry Morris
The next presentation was from Barry Morris, Retail Manager at MOSTYN in Llandudno, who discussed how and why the gallery had recently collaborated with a range of printmakers and the development of the North Wales Print Fair in partnership with the Regional Print Centre. He also announced the Next North Wales Print Fair, which will be taking place in November 2019 at MOSTYN.
Tom Frost
The afternoon began with Printmaker Tom Frost discussing how he works in collaboration with range of companies and publishers to create screen-prints for books, posters and products. As well as the development of original artworks. He also talked about the balancing act of working as a freelance printmaker and the power of Instagram as a publicity tool and vehicle for developing partnerships and promoting his work.
Reveal Printmakers
The final presentation was from Reveal Printmakers who are a printmaking collective that formed after meeting each other on the Complete Printmaker course at Hot Bed Press in Salford. They discussed how the group established, their resent projects, and how they run and manage a variety of printmaking initiatives including exhibitions and taking part in print fairs.
Delegates also got the opportunity to see the current exhibition at Tŷ Pawb Julie Copes’ Grand Tour: The story of a life by Gayson Perry
Jim Creed, Regional Print Centre Coordinator said ‘The overall aim of the symposium was to discuss how printmakers can work collaboratively in a variety of different ways. We also wanted to show our studio members and delegates how collaborative working could be initiated, developed and funded. It is important to reflect on how collaborations can help develop artists and the opportunities that can arise from them. We hope that our delegates will be inspired to develop their own collaborative project a result of hearing our keynote speakers at the symposium’.
