In the News: November 7 – 12, 2019

Summary of news articles featuring the NSCAD Lithography Workshop: Contemporary Editions.

In the ’70s, the world’s top artists flocked to Halifax. This new project revives that moment

The premise is simple. An artist — an artist with no printmaking experience on their CV, if possible — gets an invite from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Prepared with an idea, they show up in Halifax, where they’re paired with a master printer. And together, they make a lithograph — a brand new original artwork.


With this image of a headless saint, Shary Boyle slyly critiques male-dominated 1970s conceptual art

Shary Boyle is perhaps best known as a sculptor. She makes works that range from the tiny to the intimidating, all marked by a sort of scary level of intimacy. They’re also super smart. And she’s brought the same energy to the lithograph she created for the lithography workshop at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. The workshop itself is a place with serious art world legacy — it was the home to many heavy hitters of the conceptual art world in the 1970s.

NSCAD marks the revival of the famed lithography workshop

From https://nscad.ca/litho2019/

by Jolinne Kearns


In 1969, the NSCAD University Lithography Workshop was established, earning international recognition and redefining the artistic potential of print in the 20th century. This workshop had a significant and lasting impact on the world of art and design.

Now, fifty years later, NSCAD is bringing the workshop back. The legacy continues with new limited-edition lithographs by eight celebrated Canadian artists created in collaboration with Master Printer, Jill Graham.

“Each new lithograph tells a unique story, but they are all rooted in the enduring legacy of NSCAD’s Lithography Workshop,” said Melanie Colosimo, Director/Curator, NSCAD’s Anna Leonowens Gallery Systems. “Our goal is to continue the legacy of the NSCAD Lithography Workshop beyond 2019. The sale of these editions will be reinvested back into collaborative printing, and the NSCAD press, with a goal to revive publishing here at NSCAD.”

Artists Shuvinai Ashoona, Jordan Bennett, Shary Boyle, Brendan Fernandes, Amy Malbeuf, Ed Pien, Derek Sullivan, and Ericka Walker are the eight whose work will be on display during the relaunch of the Lithography Workshop.

The creation of these prints served as a launching point for a series of public artist talks and documentary short films on each of the artists and their approach to this project. Students and recent alumni were able to participate in the workshop through studio visits with the artists while they were on campus. In addition, they were hired as assistants in the studio and were commissioned to write essays on the works which will be published online at litho.nscad.ca.

All eight lithographs will be on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1723 Hollis Street, Halifax,  from November 9  to April 26, 2020. The new prints will be available for purchase as of November 7, 2019 at litho.nscad.ca

image courtesy of the NSCAD University Archives, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Lithography Workshop Fonds