2017 Six Week Spotlight
Chris Nowicki
Traditional printmaking techniques are the foundation of modern printmaking. The idea of creating multiples by hand that are identical is not new but the skill in creating them is slowly being lost. It is important to retain these traditional techniques that require skillful and sometimes time consuming effort.
Mezzotint, my personally preferred method, was almost entirely lost at the beginning of the 1900’s. It was replaced by newer and faster techniques. But eventually artists rediscovered it and began to appreciate it for its creative advantages. Now it enjoys a certain respect and popularity among printmakers.
With my work I try to touch reality in a different way. I create a surrogate reality that is a transformation of our everyday observations. I use unreal perspectives and juxtapose objects in ways that I feel show a different viewpoint on our existence as humans.
My ‘Entropy’ series, for instance, is not just a study of deteriorating machines. It is a statement about our abbreviated existence in time. People should remember that everything returns to nature, even us. The ‘Doors’ series deals with making decisions and how we feel confined within our society and political systems. These ideas are too often pushed to the background by information systems that are overwhelming in their scope and efficiency.
Printmaking to me is a language, as are other creative methods such as music and dance. This language is able to display ideas in a direct way that often, for me, is better than words. The mezzotint technique has been used for over 350 years to communicate ideas. I use it to encourage people to think deeply about themselves and life.
Mezzotint processChristopher Nowicki first learned screen printing in high school. He studied at the prestigious Toledo Museum of Art School of Design in Toledo, Ohio, completed his Masters studies at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1977, and worked in commercial screen printing shops throughout his school years. After graduate school, Chris taught serigraph and metal-plate and stone lithography at Seattle’s Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle.
In the early ‘80s, Chris began making prints for Native artists. He has printed for Northwest Coast artists Duane Pasco, David Boxley, Terry Williams, Barry Herem, George David and John Goodwin. In 1989 he exhibited at the Desa Gallery in Wroclaw, Poland, and began a lifelong relationship with Polish print making. In 1993, Chris decided to move to Poland. Two months before he was set to depart, Lee Heinmiller, director of Haines’ Alaska Indian Arts, invited Chris to print limited editions for local Native artists. Since then, Chris has returned every summer to Haines to print for Native artists. He has printed over 120 editions of Northwest Coast prints. During the winter, Chris lives in Poland, and teaches at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. He teaches workshops around the world and curates international exhibitions of printmaking.