The 2013 North American Print Biennial is Coming!

Okay, all my inked up friends, it's that time when we hunker down and enter any and all the print competitions we can, but one does rise to the top of our register, and its the North American Print Biennial. Although the Cafe Management is handling the competition's entry format - (really, we must address and protest this particular group's difficult entry procedures), the show promises to be a spectacular grouping of all of us who live and breathe ink. Bon chance!

Juror: Dennis Michael Jon, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Jon is associate curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. 


Biennial Site = 808 Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA
Calendar
January 15, 2013 Applications process OPENS. Applications link at www.bostonprintmakers.org
June 25, 2013 Final online application submission date. Application process CLOSES
July 27, 2013 Notifications of accepted work e-mailed
Saturday, August 10, 2013 Accepted work may be shipped to BU
Tuesday, September 10, 2013 Accepted work due if shipped to BU
Saturday, September 7, 2013 Accepted work due if hand delivered
Sunday, October 27, 2013 Opening Reception and events
Friday, December 20, 2013 Exhibition closes
Prizes
Over $10,000 is available in juror-designated purchase prizes and materials awards. 
Entry
All artists in North America are eligible to enter. Original, innovative works in all printmaking media including monoprints and monotypes,
books and mixed media prints; large-scale prints, digital prints, three-dimensional prints, and print installations are eligible. We will not consider photographs, offset reproductions, or reproductions of artwork originally produced in another medium. Submitted work may not have been exhibited in any other Boston Printmakers exhibition.
Entry Procedure
Entries will require digital images submitted online.
We have chosen the CaFE system of the Western States Art Federation to receive and process all entries.  Artists may submit up to three digital images of original prints completed within the past two years.

Online entry opens January 15, 2013
Go to http://www.callforentry.org

Entry Fee
$30 USD for Members of Boston Printmakers with coupon code that is sent after receipt of 2013 dues.
$40 USD Non-Members
The fee is non-refundable and entitles the artist to submit up to 3 works.  credit card, online or by check or money order payable to the Boston Printmakers and mailed to: The Boston
Printmakers at the Art Institute of Boston-Lesley University, Attn: Biennial, 700 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215.
Sales
A 35% commission will be charged on all sales and Patrons’ selections. No commissions will be taken on purchase prizes. 
Catalogue
A catalogue will be sent to all accepted artists. Our catalogue illustrates the entire exhibition and includes a statement by the juror.

For Further Information
Website: www.bostonprintmakers.org • Email: biennial@bostonprintmakers.org
This prospectus may be downloaded at www.bostonprintmakers.org/biennial.html and reproduced as needed.

Deborah Cornell's Sublime Explorations into Genetic Survival

Deborah Cornell's work is comes across to the viewer as bold, ambitious and technically seductive. She bridges the divide easily between flat work, installations and virtual reality, and tackles issues relative to the physical to cultural, geographic to genetic. The piece above is called Repercussion III. In it, we see a pair of hands opened before us as if they presenting a gift. The hands are subtley layered with Indian henna-painted designs. Swimming around them are elements of  genetic strains and overlapping it all are what look to be global weather diagrams. So, what is it all about?

She has always projected an interest in global issues and an overlap of ideas which are present in her prints. In Cornell's "Space left Vacant" and her "Species Boundaries" series, one gets more of an overview interest in Cornell's work for our own species and how it has and will evolve genetically, how the species seem at once polar opposites, and yet have visual, if not genetic, connections. The visual references she promotes with human hands; how they are visually similar and then show the destructive progressions of arthritis  can be viewed as internal fears of one's own genetic break-downs as we age, both as a person and as a society.

In her "Games of Chance" series, the obvious is stated whereby she presents images that combine broken genetic strains, bacteria, sperm, disastrous global warming maps and aspects of game-playing via cards, chess. Evolution of the human species, let alone the multitudes of other species, is a luck of the draw and no one's survival is assured. "Straight Flush" pictured below makes that statement very clearly.

The blend of her subjects is maybe more directly connected than say the work of Robert Rauschenberg or David Salle, but there is a similarity in her collage of seemingly disparate images. The scale of her work is expansive and colors are strongly confrontational. The effect is work you can't walk away from, nor does one  want to. The prints are seductive and implore the viewer to come closer - like a moth to the proverbial flame.

Cornell's been teaching at Boston University for some time, and has built up an impressive list of international awards and credentials. She is also known for establishing the Experimental Etching Studio and has continually stretched the parameters of printmaking.One can find out more about her work at http://www.deborahcornell.com