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  • UH Art Gallery - New Art Exhibition - "The Commodity of Exchange: Prints from the Charles Cohan Collection."



New Art Exhibition -
"The Commodity of Exchange:
Prints from the Charles Cohan Collection."


PRESS INFORMATION:
March 2, 2008

CONTACT:
Lisa Yoshihara, Director (808) 956-6888
Sharon Tasaka, Associate Director (808) 956-6888
Email: gallery@hawaii.edu

New:
Please join us for live printmaking demonstrations and gallery walk-throughs with Charles Cohan on Sundays April 6, when parking on campus is often free. The hours for the demonstrations on April 6 have just been extended to 12:00-5:00 p.m.

For more information please visit http://www.hawaii.edu/artgallery/.

ART EXHIBITION
The Commodity of Exchange: Prints from the Charles Cohan Collection
Features contemporary international prints collected from 1993-1998 through the printmakers' tradition of portfolio exchanges

SPONSORS
The Commodity of Exchange: Prints from the Charles Cohan Collection is sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa; the Blodwyn Goo Endowment; and anonymous donors.

LOCATION
University of Hawai'i Art Gallery
Art Building, University of Hawai'i at M_noa

DATES
March 16-April 11, 2008

HOURS
Monday-Friday 10:30-4:00; Sunday 12:00-4:00;
Open Easter, March 23; Special hours April 6, 12:00-5:00 p.m.
Closed Saturdays; Good Friday, March 21; Prince Kuhio Day, March 26

ADMISSION
Admission is free. Donations are appreciated. Parking fees may apply.

OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday, March 16, from 2:00-4:00 p.m.
The public is invited. Admission is free. Parking fees may apply.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Printmaking Demonstrations
University of Hawai'i Art Gallery
Sundays: March 16, 2:00-4:00 p.m.; March 30 & April 6, 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Gallery Walk-through with Charles Cohan
University of Hawai'i Art Gallery
Sundays: March 30 & April 6, 1:00-2:00 p.m.

Exhibition Summary
Printmakers have had a long tradition of exchanging or trading their prints with one another. Charles Cohan, professor of art and chair of the printmaking program at the Department of Art and Art History, University of Hawai'i at MŠnoa, has participated in this tradition of exchange and by doing so, has developed an extensive collection of prints and print-related materials created by contemporary artists from around the world. A selection of these outstanding prints collected between 1993 and 1998 is featured in the exhibition The Commodity of Exchange: Prints from the Charles Cohan Collection at the University of Hawai'i Art Gallery.

As a young art student at the College of California Arts and Crafts, Cohan traded his prints with other students as an inexpensive way to collect works he admired. He explains, "Almost all prints are exchanged. This is based on the fact that multiples are easily exchanged. There can be a direct exchange between two or more artists, or the classic collaborative exchange that takes place when a group of artists are invited to develop a print for a specific theme or workshop. All the artists participating in an exchange make a print for everyone in the collaboration. Those prints are collated into portfolios that are then given to each participating artist. Within this collaborative effort, an artist could easily exchange work with a number of artists around the world. This is how my collection continues to grow."

Cohan adds, "It is a privilege to be invited to participate in a collaborative exchange. Many of the printmakers participating in these exchanges are highly regarded, and I am honored to have my work in the same portfolio and shown alongside their works in exhibitions of the project. Because of these exchanges, Cohan's prints are in collections around the world as well.

With an extensive record of international and national exhibitions, Charles Cohan is one of the highly regarded printmakers today. He just returned from the East Coast last week, where he opened two concurrent solo exhibitions. Airfield, Cohan's carborundum collagraph series of airport terminals and runways from around the world, is at the Curator's Office, an innovative micro gallery located in Washington D.C. through April 5, 2008. His Tectonic series of spare compositions based on architectural formations including stadiums, refineries, prisons, plants, installations, complexes and ports is at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, through April 20, 2008. Pyramid Atlantic is a non-profit contemporary arts center dedicated to the creation and appreciation of hand papermaking, printmaking, digital arts and the art of the book for nearly 25 years.

"We are fortunate to have Charles Cohan as a professor at the Department of Art and Art History, and are pleased that he is sharing a part of his collection for this exhibition," said Lisa Yoshihara, director of the University of Hawai'i Art Gallery. Five outstanding exchange portfolios that include more than 150 prints were selected for the exhibition The Commodity Exchange: Prints from the Charles Cohan Collection. The portfolios include: Colorprint U.S.A., Drawn to Stone, Epicenter, Hard Ground Printmakers, and The Levee. Yoshihara added, "These five portfolios were selected for their exceptionally strong works and because many of these printmakers are well known both nationally and internationally. Colorprint U.S.A. is a very significant national portfolio. The history of the Hard Ground Printmakers studio in South Africa is unique, and some of the prints reflect images and themes from that region."

Some of the most recognized printmakers include Keith Achepohl, Randy Bolton, Judith Brodsky, Carmon Colangelo, Sydney Cross, Keiko Hara, Yuji Hiratsuka, Wayne Kimball, Karen Kunc, Beauvais Lyons, Charles Massey, Jr., Kweti Nzube, Clare Romano, John Ross, Edwine Simon, Jeffrey Sipple, Vuyile Voyiya, Warrington Colescott, Ruth Weisberg, Sue Williamson, and Dongchun Yoon whose works are in significant collections around the world.

Colorprint U.S.A., a collaborative exchange that was first organized in 1968, challenged artists to explore the possibilities of color in printmaking. Colorprint U.S.A. 1998, highlighteŚd in this exhibition, celebrates the fact that printmaking produces multiple original works of art, making art easily accessible to large audiences. Fifty printmakers, one from each state, were invited to participate in the exchange based on their reputation, technical virtuosity, and exploration of developing trends. The prints in this portfolio encompass a wide variety of techniques, themes, and imagery including landscapes, urban scenes, figures, and abstracts. Exhibitions of the portfolio opened simultaneously across all fifty states in the first weekend in November, 1998.

The portfolio Drawn to Stone, 1998, celebrates the 200th anniversary of lithography, which was invented in 1798 by the amateur Bavarian printer Alois Senefelder whose methods quickly transformed printmaking. Organized by Beauvais Lyons, printmaker and professor of art at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Tom Christison of Sandhill Press in Ohio, the exchange includes twenty-seven artists. This portfolio demonstrates the many ways contemporary printmaking continues to further the art of lithography.

Hard Ground Printmakers was established in Cape Town, South Africa in 1989 by Jonathan Comerford. After studying and working abroad at print studios in Scotland, Comerford returned home with a vision of developing a professional printmaking facility for independent artists from diverse communities. Because apartheid had been in place for decades, many indigenous artists had been marginalized or excluded from many well-equipped facilities and educational institutions. Comerford believed that learning, sharing information, and promotion of printmaking and sales of prints would provide both creative and financial opportunities for these artists. Because his efforts to plant the seed of independent printmaking and break new ground for all printmakers met resistance from the established community, he named the new studio Hard Ground Printmakers. Twenty international artists participated in the Hard Ground Printmakers, 1993, collaborative exchange.

The Levee, 1997, is an international exchange curated by Peter Calvert whose inspiration came from Alan Lomax's book The Land Where the Blues Began. Based on his research, Lomax proposed a connection between the development of levees along the Mississippi Delta and the birth of the blues. Calvert was "struck by the idea that the blues arose from an artistic response to a physical confrontation with society and nature." For this collaboration he invited twenty-eight artists who either lived along the Mississippi Delta or near its tributaries; were listening or performing aficionados of the blues; or brought an alternative context to their prints.

Epicenter, 1996, coordinated by Sergio Soave, then associate professor at West Virginia University and currently art department chair at Ohio State University, presents the work of 20 of the most important contemporary American printmakers of the 90s, each with the artist's sense of center.

Visitors to this exhibition will get a glimpse into the realm of the artist. Two working printmaker's studios, vital to the artist and the production of a print, are re-created in the gallery. The printing press that belonged to Huc Luquiens, the founder and first chair of the Department of Art at the University of Hawai'i from 1924 to 1946, and an early 20th century lithography press along with relative tools and materials will give the viewer an idea of various print processes. Through didactic labels, visitors will also learn about the distinctions between different types of prints including lithographs, etchings, aquatints, and more. Gallery walk-throughs with Charles Cohan and live printmaking demonstrations will be open to the public on three Sundays. "We really encourage visitors to come to the demonstrations and especially to the two gallery walk-throughs with Charlie Cohan. Both are rare opportunities for everyone to learn more about the fascinating prints and processes, and hear personal insights about some of the artists in the exhibition," said Lisa Yoshihara.

Charles Cohan Bio
Charles Cohan, professor of art and the chair of the printmaking program at the University of Hawai'i at MŠnoa, received a BFA in printmaking from California College of Arts and Crafts, 1985, and an MFA in printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art, 1988. He has held professorships at Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee prior to his employment at the University of Hawai'i in 1994.

Research and teaching projects have taken him to Seoul, South Korea; Whanganui Polytech, New Zealand; Hard Ground Printmakers, Cape Town, South Africa; the University of Georgia Study Abroad Program, Cortona, Italy; the Pilchuck Glass School, Washington; and the Fundaci—n Ludwig, Havana, Cuba; for which he received a U.S. Department of State research travel grant.

Charles Cohan's work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; the New York City Public Library, New York, NY; the Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN; the Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI; the Kennedy Museum of American Art, Athens, OH; the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; the University of North Dakota Art Museum, Vermilion, ND; the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA; Fresno Arts Center, Fresno, CA; Florida State University Art Museum, Tallahassee, FL; Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS; City of Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA; California State University, Long Beach, CA; Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA; and the State Art Museum of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Russia.

Website
For more information please visit http://www.hawaii.edu/artgallery/.

University of Hawai'i System
Established in 1907 and fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the University of Hawai'i is the state's sole public system of higher education. The UH System provides an array of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees and community programs on 10 campuses and through educational, training, and research centers across the state. UH enrolls more than 50,000 students from Hawai'i, the U.S. mainland, and around the world. For more information visit www.hawaii.edu.

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