Platemark Episodes

In s3e56, Platemark host Ann Shafer introduces a five-part miniseries with the artists in 5X5, an exhibition that was part of PrintAustin 2024. First up is Briar Craig, one of five artists selected for inclusion in 5X5 by juror J. Myszka Lewis, curator at Tandem Press, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Briar is an artist and professor at University of British Columbia, Kelowna. He primarily works in screenprint, using found text and surprising juxtapositions. Ann and Briar talk about words and th...

In s3e55, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Miguel A. Aragón, artist and professor at the City University of New York, Staten Island. They talk about CNC routers, drills as woodcutting tools, growing up in Juarez, Mexico, and that city’s war on drugs as a subject in his art. He weaves a tight conceptual circle in prints that explore violence, death, perception, and memory in surprisingly subtle works. Miguel A. Aragón (Mexican, born 1978). Espectadores (Spectators), from the series Meoria F...

In s3e54, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Andrew Raftery, artist, professor, scholar, and wallpaper designer. Andrew works in several modes, most notably in engraving. The through line in the work is domesticity. An early print featured a young man suit shopping. Next was a portfolio of engravings detailing rooms during a real estate open house. Then engravings representing each month in the life of a garden were transferred to twelve dinnerplates and sold as a set. His latest show included...

In s3e53 of Platemark, hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig conclude their conversation with Carol Wax, artist and author of The Mezzotint: History and Technique. Carol recently published the second edition of The Mezzotint, expanding greatly in every area from the 1990 first edition. As she tells us, there is a better break down of rocking the copper plates, and of inking and printing them, plus there are new chapters about printing papers and the history of the medium and how it fits in the greater...

In s3e52 of Platemark, hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig talk with Carol Wax, artist and author of The Mezzotint: History and Technique. Carol recently published the second edition of The Mezzotint, expanding greatly in every area from the 1990 first edition. As she tells us, there is a better break down of rocking the copper plates, and of inking and printing them, plus there are new chapters about printing papers and the history of the medium and how it fits in the greater history of prints. Th...

In s3e51, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Chris Santa Maria, artist and gallery director at Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl. As director of the New York gallery, Chris is responsible for showcasing and selling the print output of the storied LA workshop to enable it to keep working with amazing artists and producing incredible editions. Chris and Ann touch on Gemini’s history, the structure of the workshop, how artists get to work there, and Julie Mehretu, Julie Mehretu, and Julie Mehre...

In s3e50, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Allison Tolman, a private dealer handling prints by contemporary Japanese artists. The Tolman Collection has branches in Tokyo and New York and works with a range of artists. Allison is a second-generation dealer—her father heads up the Tokyo branch while Allison is holding down the fort in New York. She enjoys personal relationships with her artists and is a tireless promoter of prints from the other side of the world. Ann and Allison talk about c...

In s3e49, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Valpuri Remling, collaborative printer and manager of the pro workshop at Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, which was established in 1960 by the legendary June Wayne in order to preserve and promote the art of lithography. Valpuri, a native of Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, graduated from the program in 2009. After working at Helsinki Litho with Matti Hintikka and Kalle Berg, Valpuri returned to Albuquerque in 2015 to assume ...

In episode s3e48, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Deb Chaney, Tamarind-trained master printer specializing in lithography. She has an eponymous imprint, Deb Chaney Editions and has started a new venture with Stéphane Guilbaud—D&S Fine Art Editions—to whom she is fairly recently married. They have studios in Upstate New York (studio to be built), Paris, and LaForce, France. Ann and Deb talk about the beauty of litho stones, common problems that come with printing lithographs, why litho ink...

Leading off 2024’s series three episodes is s3e47 in which Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Adam McCoy, Senior Specialist in Fine Art, Rago Auctions. Adam has worked in various auction houses for many years, including Christies and Artsy. Ann relished the chance to pepper Adam with questions. In the episode Adam and Ann talk about the business of the business including what to expect when you decide to sell something at auction, the vagaries of the market, the authentication process, the b...

In s3e46, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Reinis Gailitis, an engraver from Riga, Latvia. The magic of the internet is fully on display today. Without it, finding Reinis's work would have been challenging. But his self-portrait in the style of Claude Mellan's Holy Face, the one with a single line emanating from the subject's nose, is a marvel. Ann and Reinis talk about how engraving is simultaneously the most simple and direct of techniques while being the most difficult. They talk about ...

In Platemark s3e45, host Ann Shafer talks with Bob Schneider, who is best known for his music but is a serious artist as well. You may know some of his best-loved songs like 40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet), Honeypot, Deep Blue Sea, and Peaches, but you will be delighted to learn about his print output. These are gorgeous etchings primarily made with Katherine Brimberry at Flatbed Press in Bob's hometown, Austin, TX. In the episode, Bob and Ann talk about all sorts of things including anxiety, A...

There's often a ton of art in medical spaces, but who are the curators of those health system collections? In s3e44, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Naomi Huth, chief curator and director of the art collection for NYC Health + Hospitals. Held within the Arts in Medicine department, NYC Health + Hospitals has one of the largest public (non museum) art collections in New York City with more than 7,000 works of art, including a number of murals. Their goal is to make art accessible to the pu...

In s3e43, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Craig Zammiello, an artist and collaborative printer with over 40 years of experience in all areas of printmaking. He worked for 25 years at Universal Limited Art Editions, where he collaborated with numerous artists, including Jasper Johns, Elizabeth Murray, James Rosenquist, Kiki Smith, and Robert Rauschenberg. Currently, he is a collaborative printer at Two Palms working with Mel Bochner, Ellen Gallagher, Chris Offili, Elizabeth Peyton, and Dana ...

In s3e42, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Lauren Rosenblum and Christina Weyl about their exhibition on view at Print Center New York through December, 23, 2023. A Model Workshop: Margaret Lowengrund and The Contemporaries is the first exhibition to explore the legacy of Lowengrund (1902–1957), a visionary artist-advocate and entrepreneur. In charting the institutional history of the hybrid print workshop-gallery she founded, The Contemporaries, and its later evolution into Pratt Graphic A...

In Platemark s3e41, host Ann Shafer talks with Susan Tallman, an art historian and essayist who co-founded the journal Art in Print and served as its editor for its entire run, 2011–2019. A regular contributor to New York Review of Books and The Atlantic Monthly, she has authored and co-authored many books, most recently No Plan At All: How the Danish Printshop of Niels Borch Jensen Redefined Artists Prints for the Contemporary World, as well as the new catalogue raisonné of prints by Kerry Jame...

In s3e40, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Luther Davis, master printer and director of Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn. This is a two-parter. For this interview, Platemark collaborated with its sister podcast Hello, Print Friend. Miranda Metcalf, Hello, Print Friend’s host and creator interviewed Luther about his background and early career; Ann Shafer spoke with Luther about the present and future at Powerhouse Arts, a new non-profit arts center in a renovated transit power station on the Gowanu...

In this bonus episode, Hello, Print Friend creator and guest host Miranda Metcalf talks with Luther Davis, master printer and director of Powerhouse Arts Print Shop, Brooklyn, about his background and early career. Powerhouse Arts is new player in the printing/publishing ecosystem and warrants extended conversation with its leader. This is a two-parter in which Miranda converses with Luther and then in another episode, Ann Shafer speaks with Luther about the present and future at Powerhouse Arts...

Platemark hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig offer up a bonus HoP episode featuring a conversation about a single work of art. Occasionally we will drop a BONUS EP ONE PRINT, which will take a single work and pull it apart with an eye toward exploring subject matter, technique, style, and composition. The first of these episodes features the etching Battlefield, 1907, by Käthe Kollwitz. We hope this new kind of conversation resonates, and we’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions for other g...

In s3e39, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Sue Coe, an artist and social activist. The pair were joined in the conversation by Tru Ludwig (Sue is one of Tru’s art heroes) at Sue’s home in the Catskill Mountains, New York. Sue creates art that goes right to the heart of an issue, whether it be animal cruelty, capitalism, authoritarianism, women’s rights or any other progressive ideal. Images are sometimes difficult, (TRIGGER WARNING) and the conversation touched on some topics that may be d...

In this week's episode of Platemark (s3e38), host Ann Shafer talks with Jillian Ross, collaborative master printer and publisher with an eponymous imprint, Jillian Ross Print, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Ross returned to her native Saskatoon after many years in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she was the master printer at the David Krut Workshop (DKW) from 2003 to 2020. There, she worked with over 100 South African and international artists, most notably William Kentridge. Ross and pa...

In the second part of their conversation, Ann Shafer and printer/publisher Phil Sanders continue talking about the state of the printmaking ecosystem. They talk about why supporting artists is important even if you don’t like what they are doing, why that new Julie Mehretu set of etchings costs $250K, the imminent brain drain among our elder printers, and the importance of art and creativity to humanity’s survival. Cynthia Bringle (American, born 1939). Blue Covered Jar with Fish. Ceramic. 21 ...

In s3e36, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with printer/publisher and author Phil Sanders about the state of the ecosystem. Phil has a finger in nearly every pie in the ecosystem, so after a Platemark listener wrote in to ask about breaking into the publishing end of things, Ann turned to Phil. They talk about the history of print publishing after the print boom quieted down in the 1980s, why the prices of prints are in need of revision, and how to read a Joan Mitchell painting, among many othe...

In s3e35, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Larissa Goldston, director and owner of Universal Limited Art Editions, usually referred to by its acronym ULAE. We talk about ULAE’s founder Tatyana Grosman, and her harrowing escape from first Siberia following the assassination of Czar Nicholas, and then from the Nazis in France. Larissa talks about the early days of ULAE, growing up there, how they find artists to work with, and all her favorite print projects. Larissa‘s father, Bill Goldston, ...