PAFA Presents A Collaborative Language: Selections from the Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI)

August 12 - November 5, 2017

PHILADELPHIA (July 18, 2017) – The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) presents a new exhibition celebrating the Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI) at Lafayette College and its 20-year history as one of the nation’s leaders in fine art prints.

Through the creative vision of its founder, master printmaker Curlee Raven Holton, EPI transcends boundaries by developing innovative visual methodologies that articulate the non-verbal exchanges between environment and experience, medium and process, and ultimately artist and printmaker.

A Collaborative Language: Selections from The Experimental Printmaking Institute, featuring EPI’s generous gift to PAFA of over 60 prints, details how EPI functions as a destination for artists to create fresh vocabularies with printers and Lafayette students, collectively reinventing approaches to surface, form, structure, and technique that allow artists to realize their work in imaginative ways.

“Printmaking is all about exchange. It’s one of the few artistic mediums intrinsic to a collaborative environment. As a destination for visual artists, particularly African American, EPI is one of the most important print workshops in the country, and we are thrilled to present this exhibition highlighting the institute's history and philosophies” said Kelli Morgan, PAFA’s Winston & Carolyn Lowe Curatorial Fellow for Diversity in the Fine Arts and the curator of the exhibition. “EPI is one of the most important print workshops in the country, and we are thrilled to present this exhibition highlighting some of the many important works on paper that have been created there.”

A Collaborative Language features prints by such noted artists as Alison Saar, Sam Gilliam, Robin Holder, David Driskell, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Willie Cole, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Barbara Bullock, Melvin Edwards, and William T. Williams, illuminating EPI’s unique effect on the infinite possibilities of paper.

"The art of the print has been celebrated at PAFA from the beginning, so we are delighted to not only add these works to our permanent collection, but share them with our public with this exhibition," said Brooke Davis Anderson, the Edna S. Tuttleman Director of the Museum.

Since its start in 1996, EPI has produced over 100 editions by more than 80 different artists. The results of these collaborations have been included in museum collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as within the permanent collections of various colleges and universities.

The opening reception for this exhibition is Friday, September 15.

About EPI
Founded in 1996, the Experimental Printmaking Institute is dedicated to bringing students and professionals together through exploration in print. The not-for-profit EPI supports both renowned artists and novice artists with their work while also offering art students the chance to work with these visiting artists.