ALLENDALE, Mich. -- Within the rather intimate world of printmaking, fellow artists are often a significant source of inspiration. An exhibition at Grand Valley State University, Line/Edge/Influence: Works on Paper by Bill Hosterman and Friends, will focus on a selection of prints by international artists that illustrate their influences. The collection is extensive in number and geographical reach. The 18 artists represented hail from locations as diverse as Anchorage, Alaska, to Zayed University of the United Arab Emirates.
The exhibition has a soft opening on Wednesday, August 15. An opening reception with Hosterman is planned for Thursday, September 6, from 5-7 p.m. in the GVSU Art Gallery, 1121 Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus.
Bill Hosterman, printmaker and assistant professor of Art and Design at Grand Valley, organized the exhibition after creating The ECHO Portfolio, which will be donated to the university's permanent collection at the end of the exhibit. This portfolio is comprised of three tiers of artists. He began by inviting five artists, whose work has influenced him, to comprise the first tier of the portfolio. Each of the artists, including Bill, then invited another artist to participate, forming the second tier of the portfolio. The six artists in the second tier completed the portfolio by inviting six more artists to join. In the three rounds, a total of 18 artists from around the world are represented.
"The prints in the portfolio were created in a variety of sizes to physically represent the concept of an echo," said Hosterman. "Each image is a representation of some aspect of the artist, and visually plays off the other images in the portfolio. Viewed together in a gallery setting, the pieces are able to visually respond to one another, echoing the influences within the printmaking world."
The works were created independently, without knowledge of what fellow artists were working on, yet a remarkable echo of style is recognized in many of the pieces. For example, Hosterman's, piece "Exchange," is a swirling mass of colorful lines merged with block shapes of various sizes and colors. He invited artist Tanja Softic, who was born in Sarajevo and is a professor of art at the University of Richmond, in Virginia, to participate. Her work had been a landmark on Hosterman's own journey as an artist.
"I have always had an intuitive idea of what I wanted to accomplish as an artist, but I often have been unsure what artistic direction to take," said Hosterman. "When I saw Tanja's work for the first time, I realized that she was working with many ideas that I felt a kinship to. She juxtaposes images from nature with images from modern culture and intends her work to be read like a narrative. Her work can be interpreted on a purely visual level, and conceptually."
Softic, in turn, asked an artist whose work she admired to participate in the portfolio. She chose Ilgim Veryeri-Alaca, who was born in Istanbul, because she has a masterful handling of the traditional media coupled with modern poetic sensibility that make her prints and drawings, beautiful at first sight and that much more aesthetically and intellectually satisfying upon closer reading. "And because idea of an echo seems particularly suited to her work," said Softic.
The exhibition will be on display through Friday, September 21. For more information, contact Bill Hosterman at (616) 331-3562 or call the GVSU Art Gallery at (616) 331-2564.
The following artists and works are included in the exhibition:
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Bill Hosterman, ECHO Portfolio Organizer
Assistant Professor of Art, Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI
Exchange
etching
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Tanja Softic
Associate Professor of Art, University of Richmond, Richmod, VA
Home and Abroad
etching
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Ilgim Veryeri
Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey
Heaven As The Echo Of Hell
etching
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Tracy Featherstone
Assistant Professor of Art, Miami University, Miami, OH
I Touch You In My Sleep
collograph
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Roscoe Landon Wilson
Assistant Professor of Art, Miami University, Miami, OH
Please, Do Not Feed My Wildlife
lithograph
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Kathryn Reeves
Professor of Art, Purdue University
MYTH
archival opaque pigment digital, relief, and collage
- Mark E. Ritchie
Associate Professor of Art, University of Wyoming
Pair
intaglio on Okawara and beeswax
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Cima Katz
Professor of Art, University of Kansas
Helping Hands
digital collage
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Lynwood Kreneck
Professor Emeritus, Texas Tech University
The Treasures of Eden
screenprint
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Karen Oremus
Assistant Professor of Art, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Tried To Do
digital output
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Mario Teleri
Professor at Temple University Rome, Italy
Gondole
digital output
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Luce Delhove
Professor at the Academy of Art in Milan, Italy
Untitled
etching
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Melissa Harshman
Associate Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Echoes of the Past
serigraph and ink jet
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Beth Grabowski
Professor of Art, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Domestic Venn.
silkscreen and open stencil work with milk and lemon juice, burnt
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Minna Resnick
Independent Artist, Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY
Round-Up
photo collograph, silkscreen
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Johntimothy Pizzuto
Associate professor of Art, University of South Dakota
DEAFENING
new wax medium intaglio
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Garry Kaulitz
Professor of Art, University of Anchorage, AK
A Line Runs Through The Abyss
reduction relief/screen print/ chine colle
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Lawrence Williams
Professor Emeritus of Art, Spencerport, NY
Echo Cut
woodcut
