McKnight

Filtering by: McKnight
Feb
1
to Jan 31

2025 McKnight Printmaking Fellows

Jade Hoyer (Left) and Stephanie Hunder

Please join Highpoint in warmly welcoming the 2025 McKnight Printmaking Fellows Stephanie Hunder and Jade Hoyer!

Stephanie and Jade were selected as the 2025 McKnight Printmaking Fellows following a scrupulous review process that included in-person studio visits with panelists Chitra Ganesh and Katrina Andry. The fellowship is made possible by the generous support of the McKnight Foundation. It begins in February and runs a full year through January of 2026. On February 6, 2026, an exhibition of work created by Jade and Stephanie will open in Highpoint’s galleries - save the date!

Stephanie said this about the Fellowship opportunity: “I’m looking forward to accessing Highpoint’s great facilities, feedback from studio visits, and working alongside other accomplished artists in the co-op.

I’m working on some new pieces that explore how our relationship to the natural world is defined by our perceptions of it. Inspired by collaborative discussions with scientists at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station, this work combines abstract data visualizations of contemporary science with the experiential touch and atmosphere of woodlands and streams. Currently, I’m experimenting with large, layered collagraphs of natural materials screenprinted with theoretical diagrams.”

Jade offered this “I am recently relocated to Minnesota from Denver, CO. (I attended college in southern Minnesota, and lived for some time in Minneapolis, and my partner has family in Minnesota: we were really excited to come back to this state.) This transition has given me a lot to think about creatively: what it means to call a place home, what it means to be a transplant to a location, the charged language we employ connected to human migration, and what it means to find community as an artist. I’m in a privileged position to have some space and time to be able to consider these ideas, and I’m grateful and excited to be able to engage in this at the Highpoint. The McKnight feels like a dream fellowship, to have access to such facilities, expertise, and community for a prolonged period. I am most looking forward to connecting with other printmakers through the Fellowship, to develop my work in the company of an artistic community devoted to printmaking.

My current research interests explore the history of health programs, especially nursing training programs, that were set up in the Philippines by the United States at the start of the 20th century. This programming has lead to the establishment of labor pathways that exist today between the two countries. As a Filipina-American whose mother is a nurse, I am interested in unpacking this aspect of my family story in its greater context, and potentially expressing what I learn through my creative engagement at the Highpoint and as a McKnight Fellow.”

About the artists:

Stephanie Hunder is a Minnesota artist and arts educator who creates with ink, paper, and light. Her current work studies human relationships to the natural world through botanical and scientific iconography, combining photographic and digital techniques with traditional printmaking processes. Creating content through process and the importance of hands-on research is a focus in her teaching. Stephanie received her BFA and MA from the UW–Madison, and MFA from Arizona State. She currently teaches at Minneapolis College of Art & Design and the University of Minnesota. Recent activities include solo exhibitions at Metro State University, Bloomington Art Center, and Silverwood Gallery.

Jade Hoyer is an artist who plays in printmaking, papermaking, and installation, using the institutionalized language of the print to inspect societal questions, particularly those connected to privilege and multiracial identity. Hoyer’s work has been recognized by organizations including the Windgate Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Brown University's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Her artwork is part of collections including the Museum at Texas Tech University’s Artist Printmaker Research Collection, the Association of Pinoy Printmakers, Philippines, and the Museu da Gravura de Curitiba, Brazil. Jade is based in Northfield, Minnesota where she is an Assistant Professor of Art at Carleton College. She’s a big fan of the color teal.

Thank you to this year’s outstanding panelists Katrina Andry and Chitra Ganesh for their effort and attention to the selection process.

About the panelists: Katrina Andry is an artist and printmaker based in New Orleans, LA. In her work she challenges the ideology of individualism by examining inequalities and resulting degradation as the result of our color-based prejudices. She argues the belief in individualism allows Americans to turn a blind eye to inequality, suggesting barriers to well-being lie with the individual and not also within our social structures, in spite of documentation of the collective experiences of these groups and data on outcomes of disfavored groups.

Across a twenty-year practice, Chitra Ganesh has developed an expansive body of work rooted in drawing and painting, which has evolved to encompass animations, wall drawings, collages, computer generated imagery, video, and sculpture. Through a multidisciplinary approach, Ganesh ‘constantly attempts to challenge patriarchal norms and empower her female and queer subjects by constructing alternate visual narratives’, while drawing on South Asian visual traditions as well as canonical and contemporary feminist and queer scholarship. 


The McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are open Minnesota artist/printmakers who are at a career stage that is “beyond emerging” — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Fellows are selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and contributions to Minnesota’s arts ecosystem.

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2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellows
Mar
7
to Apr 19

2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellows

Grace Sippy (left) and Fidencio Fifield-Perez (right)

Please join Highpoint in welcoming the 2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellows Grace Sippy and Fidencio Fifield-Perez! Panelists Mike Cloud and Rachel Skokowski were tasked with reviewing a record number of applications (nearly double our previous high). Their initial evaluation was followed by in-person studio visits with the finalists after which they ultimate determined to award the fellowship to Fidencio and Grace.

When asked what excites them about the fellowship and what they think they might accomplish, Grace offered this: “I am excited and grateful to have the resources and mentality to be able to pursue my practice to an extent I have not had before. It feels validatin I am excited and grateful to have the resources and mentality to be able to pursue my practice to an extent I have not had before. It feels vaildatiing.”

“I have had a completely new and separate vein of work spark up in the last year or so, and I still need to decide if I will pursue its creation for the fellowship, or if I will continue to push and evolve what I have been working on for many years.”

And Fidencio said this: “I'm excited about printing in a studio that draws community members and printers from all over the area. Based on my experiences teaching and exhibiting with Highpoint, I knew I wanted to be a part of this community. It's unlike any other print shop I've been in. I'm most excited about printing and taking classes taught by other printmakers in the upcoming year. 

Undoubtedly, this fellowship will enable me to print new work as well as components that will be incorporated into other collaged works. The prize, facilities, and working alongside others during workshops will spur new directions, techniques, and processes. My studio practice is one driven by material curiosity and learning new processes.”

For updates on the progress of the artists and other fellowship happenings, stay tuned to Highpoint’s website and social media.

Highpoint would like to thank the panelists Mike Cloud and Rachel Skkowski for the thoughtful review and consideration of all the applicants.

About the panelists:

Mike Cloud is a painter, writer, and educator.  His work and research in the field of painting is anchored in the contemporary life of reproduction, symbolism and description. Cloud’s paintings “aestheticize their subjects and function on social and political terms that go beyond the stakes of authentic expression.”

Cloud earned his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art and his B.F.A. from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a concentration in art education. Cloud has lectured extensively on his work and contemporary theoretical art issues at the Jewish Museum, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Yale University, the Cooper Union, Bard College, New York Studio School, Kansas City Art Institute and the University of New Orleans.

Mike is associate Professor of Art, Theory, Practice at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Dr. Rachel Skokowski is the Curator of the Janet Turner Print Museum at California State University, Chico. She has worked with museum print collections in the US and abroad, including at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the University of Sydney, and the Ashmolean Museum. She received her PhD from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and holds a Masters from Oxford and a BA from Princeton University. Her research interests include 19th century French print culture, text and image studies, and women printmakers.


The McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are open Minnesota artist/printmakers who are at a career stage that is “beyond emerging” — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Fellows are selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and contributions to Minnesota’s arts ecosystem.

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2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition
Mar
7
to Apr 19

2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition

Grace Sippy (left), Fidencio Fifield-Perez (right)

Exhibition on view: March 7 - April 19, 2025

Opening Reception: Friday, March 7; 6:30 - 9pm

Public gallery conversation with the artists and guest moderator Teréz Iacovino : Saturday, March 15; 5 - 6pm (recording available below)


Highpoint is pleased to present the 2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition. The exhibition features work created throughout their fellowship year, including an incredible collection of mixed media print-based work that incorporates lithography, collagraphy, collage, letterpress, embroidery, bookmaking, and more. Although the body of work each artist presents differs, both collections are filled with highly detailed, delicate, subtle, and personal imagery, documenting themes of loss, memory, home, and meditation.

About the artists:
Grace Sippy
earned her BFA in Printmaking with Honors at the University of Iowa and her MFA in Printmaking at the University of Alberta. She has taught at the University of Alberta, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and Highpoint Center for Printmaking. Grace’s work explores dualities, often between mind and body, and combines traditional and contemporary, hand-based and digital printmaking methods. She has exhibited nationally and internationally across Europe and Asia, earning much recognition in her field. 

During the fellowship year, Sippy dove deep into exploration through a series of collagraph prints transforming garments once worn by her two young children. Sippy says, “The transformation of the garment to a printing matrix is a paradox, destroying the garment in the process but creating something new, a remnant of what was there. My fellowship work presents a reflection of loss and grief: of hopes of having a child, of a child since grown, and the loss of a child.” 

Fidencio Fifield-Perez was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, but raised in the U.S. after his family migrated. His current work examines borders, edges, and the people who must traverse them. In his work, Fifield-Perez’s interdisciplinary practice centers on the materiality of paper ephemera, everyday self-documents discarded after fulfilling their purpose. Fidencio Fifield-Perez received his BFA from Memphis College of Art and an MA & MFA from The University of Iowa. He has completed artist residencies at The Studios at MASS MoCA, Ox-Bow, ACRE, Crosstown Arts, and the Galveston Artist Residency, among others. 

Over the last year, Fifield-Perez has begun to reintroduce the figure into his work. This began with a beautifully rendered stone lithograph depicting his chosen family. He said that previous works, “relied on protection through abstraction. Important documents were shrouded and obscured by the depictions of indoor plants. But in new works, the bodies are present, while often furtive, cut, and embossed.”

We are also excited to welcome Teréz Iacovino to moderate a conversation between 2024 McKnight Printmaking Fellows Grace Sippy and Fidencio Fifield-Perez on their practice, work, and other related topics. The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the artists and Iacovino during the conversation. 
About Teréz Iacovino: Teréz Iacovino is the Assistant curator of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, operated by the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota. Her curatorial practice is continually shaped by the artists she works with, the students she mentors, and her experience as a Latina and first-generation graduate working in academia. Iacovino is the recipient of a Curatorial Research Fellowship Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and is a 2024 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute Fellow. Recent publications include “Unpacking the Portmanteau: Locating Diasporican Art” as part of Nuyorican & Diasporican Visual Art: A Critical Anthology (Duke University Press).

Highpoint would like to express our gratitude to the McKnight Foundation for their generous support of this program and Minnesota artists. thank Mike Cloud (visual artist and Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies at Northwestern University) and Rachel Skokowski (Director of Galleries and Turner Curator at California State University Chico) for providing their expert insight in reviewing the applications for the 2023 fellowship. We’d also like to thank Miguel Aragon (visual artist and Associate Professor in Printmaking at CUNY College of Staten Island), Emma Nishimura (visual artist and Assistant Professor at OCAD University in Toronto), and Xuxa Rodríguez (Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at Duke University) for taking time out of their busy schedules to travel to Minnesota to conduct studio visits with Grace and Fidencio.


The McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are open Minnesota artist/printmakers who are at a career stage that is “beyond emerging” — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Fellows are selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and contributions to Minnesota’s arts ecosystem.

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2023 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition
Mar
8
to Apr 26

2023 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition

Natasha Pestich (left) and Carolyn Swiszcz (right)

Exhibition on view: March 8 - April 26, 2024

Opening Reception: Friday, March 8; 6:30 - 9pm

public conversation moderated by special guest Casey Riley: Thursday, April 4; 7 - 8pm

The 2023 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship concludes with the fellowship exhibition at Highpoint. Beginning on March 8, Carolyn and Natasha will welcome visitors into the galleries to view the fruits of their fellowship year. This is an annual highlight on Highpoint’s exhibition calendar, appointment viewing if you will.

Between the outset of the fellowship in and now, a lot has happened beyond simply time spent in the studio. Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Highpoint brought the poet, artist, and critic John Yau to Minnesota for indivdual studio visits with Carolyn and Natasha. Then in late January, author and art educator Sarah Urist Green braved the Minnesota deep freeze to do the same. Both of these special guests were identified earlier in the fellowship by Carolyn and Natasha as two people that they would like to meet and converse with. 

In September, Carolyn and Natasha were honored alongside all the other 2023 McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellows during a special celebration at McKnight Foundation HQ. in the past 12 months, they have also had the opportunity to attend numerous visits to local museums and guided tours of special exhibitions including In Our Hands at Mia and Paul Chan: Breathers at the Walker Art Center.

Here’s what the fellows have been working on:

Using the large intaglio press in the co-op, Carolyn has been making some massive monotypes. She has also been taking advantage of the screenprinting setup. Carolyn said she was enormously inspired by John Yau’s visit which gave her new ideas and encouragement. She is putting the finishing touches on about a dozen works which will be in the exhibition. The series includes some self portraits and images of her family and pets. Recently Carolyn also spent two months as artist in residence at the Northeast Sculpture Gallery Factory, this is where her visit with Sarah Urist Green took place. At the Northeast Sculpture Gallery Factory she had the room needed to spread out to complete her large work on paper inspired by a trip to the Boundary Waters. 

She’s been working mostly within screenprinting and monotype, but Natasha is awfully  excited to be incorporating her newly acquired papermaking skills into her practice. In the exhibition, she will showcase several distinct series of work that have been in development. Natasha offered this about her fellowship experience: “Over the fellowship year, I have been steeped in an exploration of what home means and where it resides, pulling from my personal experience of eviction. Inspired by the lottery tickets my mom regularly bought and the impromptu fridge collages my Dad forms from real estate ads and images of domestic life, I am seeking to develop a visual lexicon and material sensibility, through handmade paper and printmaking, that allows me to hold onto something while letting go of the things that cannot be changed.” Natasha is also excited to experience a fully-funded artist residency following the fellowship. This benefit is provided to recent fellows by the McKnight Foundation through a partnership with the Artist Communities Alliance. 

Don’t forget to join us for a special event on Thursday, April 4 featuring special guest Casey Riley. Casey will be moderating a conversation between Carolyn and Natasha on their practice, their work, and any other related topics that organically arise. The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the artists and Casey during the conversation. Seating is limited but this event is free, free, free.

Casey RIley oversees Mia’s department of Global Contemporary Art and the research, exhibition, and publication of the museum’s renowned collection of art after 1970. Her curatorial practices are rooted in collaboration and informed by the principles of inclusion and equity. Recent projects at Mia include “Objectivity: Metaphorical and Material Lives of Photographs,” “Dayanita Singh: Pothi Khana,” “Hindsight: American Documentary Photography 1930-1950,” “Vision 2020: Jess Dugan,” “Just Kids,” and “Strong Women, Full of Love: The Photography of Meadow Muska.” In partnership with Mia colleagues and a curatorial council of fourteen artists, scholars, and knowledge sharers, she is co-organizing a survey of works by First Nations, Metis, Inuit, and Native American photographic artists, opening at Mia in October 2023.

Highpoint would like to once again thank Andrea Carlson (visual artist) and Alexis Lowry (Curator at Dia Art Foundation, New York) for providing their expert insight in reviewing the applications for the 2023 fellowship. We’d also like to thank John Yau (poet, critic, artist) and Sarah Urist Green (curator and art educator) for taking time out of their busy schedules to travel to Minnesota for meetings with Carolyn and Natasha


The McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are open Minnesota artist/printmakers who are at a career stage that is “beyond emerging” — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Fellows are selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and contributions to Minnesota’s arts ecosystem.

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Jan
20
to Mar 18

2022 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship and Exhibition

The 2022 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship began in February (2022) and ran through January (2023). During this time, Amy Sands and Nicole Sara Simpkins worked extremely hard to develop visual (and audio) content for their 2-person exhibition that took place in Highpoint’s galleries. Many images of the exhibition can be viewed below.

Other highlights of the fellowship year include a visit In from Orin Zahra (Associate Curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC). In October, she traveled to Minnesota to visit with and view the in-progress work of Amy and Nicole in their studios. Then in November of 2022, the artists welcomed Ruth Erickson (Mannion Family Senior Curator at Institute of Contemporary Art Boston) for individual studio visits.

In the midst of the exhibition run, Highpoint welcomed Amy E. Elkins to lead a public conversation with the fellows on Friday, February 3 from 6-7 pm. You can view a recording of the conversation here or by pressing play on the image to the left.

Amy E. Elkins is an Associate Professor of English at Macalester College and is the author of Crafting Feminism from Literary Modernism to the Multimedia Present (Oxford University Press, 2022). As a multimedia artist and scholar, her work takes up intersectional feminist approaches to practice-based research methods in the humanities. 

You can purchase Amy’s book here.

About the fellows:

LEFT: Orin Zahra with Amy Sands RIGHT: Nicole Sara Simpkins with Ruth Erickson

Amy Sands said this about the work she’s developed during the fellowship: “This new body of work embodies investigations into nature. Using light and shadow as a metaphor for our existence, I have been examining the precarious balance of an ecosystem. My current work uses photography, videography, printmaking, and installation to explore shadows of natural forms diffused through fabric. Nature is reduced to simple shapes and colors revealing only the silhouette of the plant. Differences between species are camouflaged, leaving one to admire the beauty and simplicity of the shadows and finding commonalities between forms.”

Amy Sands (MFA, Pratt Institute) is a Minneapolis-based artist and educator. She has exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally and has been recognized with awards including First Prize ~ Mini Print III International Cantabria/Impact 10 in Santander, Spain; Juror’s Choice Award ~ Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition 2017, Tokushima, Japan; First Place ~ Home exhibition at the Rourke Art Museum, Moorhead, MN. Her work is included in many public and private collections and is represented at Muriel Guépin Gallery in New York City, Davidson Galleries, Seattle, and Base Gallery, Tokyo. Sands is Associate Professor of Studio Arts at Metropolitan State University, St Paul, MN. 

Nicole Sara Simpkins uses printmaking, writing, and drawing to explore entanglements of culture, ecosystems, and personal healing. Her fascination with relationality has fueled her continued research into the culturally-determined category of invasive plants. Using linoleum prints, screen prints, cyanotypes and drawings, she constructs assemblages of cut and stitched layers that invoke complex entanglements of resurgent plants and tumultuous extraction. She presented cyanotypes layered with etchings and drawings as 2-dimensional works on paper, as well as an immersive installation of tapestry-forms suspended from above.

She holds an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University - Bloomington and a BA in Creative Writing from Macalester College. Her work has been supported by a 2018-19 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and by artist residencies at Millay Arts, The Ucross Foundation, The Vermont Studio Center, The Jentel Foundation, Artspace Raleigh, The Future, and The White Page. She teaches courses in drawing and printmaking and has exhibited work locally and nationally.

Highpoint would like to offer our sincere gratitude to Orin Zahra, Ruth Erickson, and Amy E. Elkins for their support of Amy and Nicole during the fellowship and exhibition. We’re also again like to thank artists Willie Cole and Nicola López for all their effort as the panelists for the 2022 application cycle.

And of course, thank you to the McKnight Foundation for their generous and continued support of this program and their recognition of Minnesota artists.


The McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are open to Minnesota artists who are at a career level that is “beyond emerging” — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence within the field of printmaking. The artists are selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and continued growth in printmaking.

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2021 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship
Jan
14
to Feb 12

2021 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship

Exhibition ON VIEW: JANUARY 14 - FEBRUARY 12, 2021


Josh Winkler, Pissing on Fire, color woodcut

Since February 2021, McKnight Printmaking Fellows Josh Winkler and Gaylord Schanilec have been busily translating ideas into prints for this exhibition. Despite never having met prior to this fellowship, their work is remarkably congruous. Each artist is an admirer and advocate of the natural world with a particular appreciation for trees. Not only do trees inform some of the content in their work, historically both artists have used wood as their printing matrix of choice; woodcut for Josh and wood engraving for Gaylord.

Originally from Indiana, Winkler is currently an Associate Professor of Printmaking at Minnesota State University Mankato. He primarily works from his home studio (SKS Press) in rural Nicollet County where he and his partner are rewilding a few acres. He offered the following thoughts about his artistic practice:

Direct experience and research feed the content and connections that are important to me as an artist. The environmental and cultural tragedies of the past must engage the high stakes of the present. Ecosystems are rapidly changing. So much has been lost, and there is much more to lose.

Gaylord Schanilec, Total Despair, relief

Recent research has taken me to the Grand Tetons and Crater Lake to study the plight of a dying keystone species, the whitebark pine. Camping in drought-stricken landscapes of northern California, I walked through burned forests and the dried-up arms of massive reservoirs. In Minnesota, I visited the last northern remnants of old-growth eastern white pine, and explored beaver habitat in southern Minnesota.  

These trips generated the experiences and imagery presented in this work. Half of the projects reflect on environmental conflict and destruction. The other half focus on positivity, and the potency of personal connection to the land. These parallel forces of hope and despair are emblematic of the present. We must look at Nature as a cultural force that can foster unity over division. 

* * *

In 1980, Gaylord Schanilec established his own press, Midnight Paper Sales. Since then he has published more than 25 books under his imprint, and has accepted numerous commissions including works for The Gregynog Press in Wales and the Grolier Club of New York. His work is represented in most major book arts collections in the United States and in the United Kingdom, and the archive of his working materials is held at the University of Minnesota.

Gaylord writes:

Consider the tree  turned upside down roots to the sky trunk to the ground.


Highpoint would like to thank the McKnight Foundation for their generous support of this program as well as this years panelists Tanekeya Word (artist, printmaker, scholar, and founder of Black Women of Print) and Lyndel King (Director Emeritus, Frederick R. Weisman Art Msuem). We would also like to express our gratitude to Dennis Michael Jon (Curator of Prints and Drawings at Mia) and Jerry Saltz (Author, Senior Art Critic at New York Magazine) for conducting studio visits with the fellows. Finally, thank you to Kim Todd for preparing questions and leading a discussion with the fellows during their exhibition.

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Nov
16
6:00 PM18:00

How to Apply: Free Online Workshop (via Zoom)

Tuesday, November 16: 6 - 7:30 pm

Please join Highpoint for a FREE virtual discussion about applying to artist opportunities Tuesday, November 16 from 6-7:30pm. Presented in partnership with Springboard for the Arts thanks to the generous support of the McKnight Foundation, this presentation will provide helpful insight into crafting an artist statement and compiling a work sample. Two things necessary required of applicants for many artist opportunities including the McKnight Fellowship in Printmaking.

Jes Reyes (multi-talented artist, organizer, and consultant) will share a concise yet thorough presentation about writing artists statements and Josh Winkler (artist, educator, 2021 McKnight Fellow in Printmaking) will provide suggestions for assembling a work sample.

Following the presentation there will be time for questions. This workshop is free and there is no need to register. To join, click the button above.

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2020 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition
Jan
15
to Feb 6

2020 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship Exhibition

Mike Marks, Remainder, woodcut

Mike Marks, Remainder, woodcut

ON VIEW: JANUARY 15 - FEBRUARY 6, 2021

PUBLIC CONVERSATION: JANUARY 28, 2021 7-8:00pm

This exhibition fills Highpoint’s galleries with a quantity of original collographs, intaglio, and relief prints made by 2020 McKnight Printmaking Fellow Mike Marks. Much of the featured work is recent, however because this McKnight Printmaking Fellowships are for mid-career artists, some older gems will also be on view.

Exhibition walk through and Q&A with Mike Marks

About the artist: Mike Marks holds a BFA in Drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Delaware. In 2016 he relocated to Minneapolis where he now lives and works. Mike’s prints are included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museo do Douro (Douro, Portugal), Munakata Shiko Memorial Museum of Art (Aomori, Japan), Zuckerman Museum of Art (Kennesaw, GA), and the California College of Arts (Oakland, CA). Marks has been a resident artist at South Dakota State University, the University of Evansville, the Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Crooked Tree Arts Center/Good Hart Residency, Stone Trigger Press, and Acadia National Park. His work has exhibited both nationally and internationally. He recently received an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, during which he produced his most recent solo exhibition, No Trace (2020).

Mike’s work focuses on critical habitat and landscapes under duress, using printmaking as an analogue for the mechanisms that reshape the environments around us. The prints often incorporate an act of deletion in their image-making process, representative of Mike’s ongoing interest in unmaking one object in order to create another.

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2020 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship
Feb
1
to Jan 31

2020 McKnight Printmaking Fellowship

Drew Peterson and Mike Marks

Drew Peterson and Mike Marks

Highpoint is thrilled to announce our 2020 McKnight Printmaking Fellows Drew Peterson and Mike Marks!

This year-long fellowship (February 2020-January 2021) grants the fellows extensive access to Highpoint’s cooperative printshop, technical advice and support, studio visits with nationally-renown arts professionals, career development support, a $25,000 unrestricted award, and many other benefits.

Funded with a generous grant from the McKnight Foundation, this fellowship is open to mid-career Minnesota artists who work in printmaking — defined here as artists who demonstrate a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. The artists were selected on the basis of the artistic merit of their work, and their dedication, interest, and continued growth in printmaking.

Highpoint would like to thank our esteemed panelists Delita Martin (artist, Black Box Press Studio) and Michelle Grabner (Crown Family Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago), who reviewed application materials, conducted in-person studio visits with the finalists, and selected the 2020 fellows.

The panelists offered the following remarks about the selection process:

This was a rewarding, but also challenging task. The work presented by each artist was exceptional, we had some difficult decisions to make.

There are several elements and factors that I took into consideration. I began this process by first looking at the quality of each artists’ work; Did the work show craftsmanship, technical skill, presentation, and creativity? Did the artist push boundaries, take risks, or try something unique? I considered the professional accomplishments of each artist, reviewing the artists’ resume. I concluded my evaluation, posing the question, “What is the artists’ promise for continued growth and how will the fellowship impact this growth”? Following hours of deliberation, I selected artists whose work I believed would challenge the viewer and make them interact with the work. I selected artists who pushed printmaking beyond its boundaries of traditional process into new and innovative directions.

I would like to thank all the artists who submitted work for consideration. The jury process is a difficult one, but I hope that each will constructively use the feedback as a way to propel themselves further in their careers as artists. It is my hope that they will be encouraged to continue to submit works in pursuit of opportunities such as the McKnight Printmaking Fellowship.

-Delita Martin

This year’s recipients not only exemplified a rigorous engagement to artmaking but also demonstrated an ethical commitment to local communities and the natural environment. An imaginative range of varied print processes combined with experimental visual vocabularies, these two artists convey compelling interpretations of the complex social realities that we encounter in contemporary life. A love for the process of print media and its unique ability to foreground time and attention was also a vital and urgent component to both of the fellowship recipients.

-Michelle Grabner

More about each artist can be found below:

Mike Marks lives and works in Minneapolis. He holds a BFA in Drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Delaware. His prints are included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Museo do Douro (Douro, Portugal), Munakata Shiko Memorial Museum of Art (Aomori, Japan), Zuckerman Museum of Art (Kennesaw, GA), and the California College of Arts (Oakland, CA). Marks has been an artist-in-residence at South Dakota State University, the University of Evansville, the Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Crooked Tree Arts Center/Good Hart Residency, Stone Trigger Press, and Acadia National Park, to name several. His work has exhibited both nationally and internationally. He recently received an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, producing his latest solo exhibition, No Trace (2020).

In the coming year as a McKnight Fellow, Mike will be focused on using intaglio and relief processes to reflect the potential for environmental loss. This work will focus on critical habitat and landscapes under duress of change, using printmaking as an analogy for the mechanisms that reshape the environments around us. The prints will incorporate an act of deletion in their image-making process, part of an ongoing interest in unmaking one object in order to create another. 

Drew Peterson received his BFA from the University of Minnesota and attended the Yale Norfolk Summer School for Art before earning an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. He is a lecturer in printmaking and drawing at the University of Minnesota and Lead Instructor in Contemporary Art at Juxtaposition Arts in North Minneapolis.

Peterson received Artist Initiative grants in 2011, 2018, and 2020 and an Arts Learning grant in 2017 from the Minnesota State Arts Board. He is currently completing a Next Step Grant through the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and VAF grant from Midway Contemporary Art through the Andy Warhol Foundation.

His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at The Burnet Gallery, Public Functionary, Kiehle Gallery at St. Cloud State, Sabina Lee Gallery (Los Angeles), and Twist Gallery (Nashville). Recent group shows include Future Future at Hair and Nails (Minneapolis), Outstanding Affiliates at CC Gallery (University of Wyoming), and Octillo at Stella Elkins Gallery, Tyler School of Art.

In 2018, Peterson developed Entity Editions + EDU--a fine art printmaking resource committed to the publication, production, and education of print media through collaboration with emerging  artists, educational workshops, and consultation. Peterson’s south Minneapolis studio functions to serve his own practice, Entity Editions collaborative projects, and print exhibitions under the name Manager Gallery.

With the McKnight fellowship through Highpoint, Peterson looks to expand the technical and material aspects of his work by combining traditional and contemporary approaches to printmaking. 

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