‘INK’ on BAINBRIDGE
In a timely show of their customary subtly played wit, The Gallery at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts is honoring the Art of the Press this month.
Though not an ode to journalism, nor a nostalgic exhibit of old Seattle P-I covers, a show celebrating all things INK at a time when print industries are crumbling is quite compelling regardless.
The art of printmaking, which eventually gave rise to the printing press, along with it the now-rapidly unraveling newspaper industry and a multitude of other splintered art forms and industries, is an ancient medium.
In ancient China, textiles were fashioned with patterns made from designs that had been carved into woodblock, covered in ink and pressed onto cloth. The craft made its way west to Europe by the 13th century, accompanied soon thereafter by the widespread advent of paper. Fabric gave way to paper as the traditional woodblock then gave rise to engraved metal plates, acid-soaked limestone and a host of other printmaking methods, leading up to the introduction of the letterpress in 1901.
This show celebrates the art form’s survival, with a host of contemporary artists still practicing the ancient craft in the 21st century.
Like Tacoma book artist Jessica Spring, proprietor of Springtide Press. She designs, prints and binds unique art books and ephemera using handmade paper, vintage foundry type and machinery well older than 100 years. She’ll be giving a free, hands-on demonstration of the letterpress April 11 at BAC.
The party for First Friday starts around 5 p.m. tonight, 151 Winslow Way on Bainbridge. Info: www.bacart.org or call (206) 842-3132.
ALSO CHECK OUT: The Roby King Gallery’s annual “No Sales Tax” exhibit, making light of the infamous income tax time of year at 176 Winslow Way and other downtown Winslow businesses from 5-8 p.m. tonight.
REFLECTIONS in BREMERTON
Collective Visions is hosting a memorial exhibit for one of its founding members this month in its basement boardroom gallery.
Lana Lee Phillips, a Bremerton artist and Olympic College graduate who’d exhibited with the gallery when it began as the Washington Avenue Art Gallery in 1994, passed away at age 93 last year. She had left Bremerton and the CVG in 1995 to pursue advance studies. Now the CVG brings her work back to Bremerton one last time, to honor and reflect on her memory.
Upstairs in the Main Gallery, longtime CVG member and photographer Kit Sims Taylor intellectually compliments Phillips’ exhibit with his collection of “Rivers and Reflections.”
A reception for each is slated for 5-8 p.m. tonight at 331 Pacific Ave. in Bremerton. Lana’s husband, Jerry Phillips, will give an intro to her exhibit at 6:30 p.m. Info: www.collectivevisions.com or call (360) 377-8327.
ALSO CHECK OUT: The usual cluster of local fine art miscellanea at the Amy Burnett Gallery, 296 Fourth St. and other galleries and businesses in the downtown, Charleston and Manette districts from 5-8 p.m. tonight.
