This last Janurary I got an email about a call for entries at Drake University in Des Moines. It’s hard to explain this without sounding self-confident or self-absorbed but I felt confident enough in my work and the constraints of this exhibition that I knew I had a good shot at being accepted. It was a call for artists like myself. It was an exhibition for prints that are outside the normal conceived bounds of traditional printmaking. It also felt like a chance to test out some of the recent techniques I was working on….. And I was accepted. I believe something like 120 people applied, only 30 artists were accepted. It felt like acknowledgement that I was going in the right direction. The work im putting in has value to other people. To an artist who constantly questions their place in the world; of their worth as an artist; it felt like validation.
I can’t begin to explain how much emotion I have tied up in these images….. not because of the images themselves, but of their idea and what parts of my life they represent. I will write more about how this series and how the general idea came about…. more on that later.
”Join us for the inaugural Richard Black International Juried Print Exhibition at the Anderson Gallery. With a theme of transformation through print, selected works explore the boundaries of the printmaking medium. The exhibition was juried by Raluca Iancu and Sang Lee. Artists include Erika Adams, Ben Anderson, Jared Barbick, Keith Buswell, Sage Dawson, Natalie Deam, Cal Froikin, Arron Foster, Alejandro Guerrero, Travis Janssen, Mary Jones, Anita Maksimiuk, Aya Naoe, Malgorzata Oakes, Nathan Pietrykowski, Miguel Rivera, Linda Lucía Santana, Jennifer Scheuer, Dan Starling, Jami Taback, Craig Volesky, M Robyn Wall, and April Zhu. An opening reception and award ceremony will be held on February 5 from 5-7 pm in the Anderson Gallery, with the awards at 6pm. The exhibition will run until March 13, 2026. “
About the Jurors:
Raluca Iancu is an Associate Professor of Art & Visual Culture (Printmaking) at Iowa State University. She holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her multidisciplinary practice explores themes of disaster, memory, and vulnerability through printmaking, performance, edible art, and installation.
Sang Eun Lee (Sang) is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Drake University, where she teaches all levels of graphic design courses. Her research focuses on advancing inclusive design practices in education through intersectional and user-centered approaches. She holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Iowa State University, an MFA in Printmaking from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design.