by Jessica Robles

The COS Art Gallery has teamed up with Arts Visalia to bring you East/West: A Survey in Contemporary Printmaking, a portfolio of prints that showcases 100 of the most prominent printmakers/educators representing every state in the USA. The COS Art Gallery will have the Western half of the portfolio on display, while Arts Visalia will have the Eastern half of the portfolio displayed. The show at COS Art Gallery will run from September 1 through 25 with a reception on Wednesday, September 2 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the COS Art Gallery.

The East/West: A Survey of Contemporary Printmaking is a printmaking portfolio that reflects and celebrates the pluralistic existence of printmaking practice and printmaking education in the United States. Unlike most portfolios, this project asked participants not to respond to a certain theme but rather asked the artists to embrace their current image making techniques and conceptual concerns. The result is a portfolio of prints that are diverse in image and that embrace and celebrate the tradition and the alternative in printmaking techniques found in lithography, intaglio, woodcut, silkscreen, archival pigment, hybrid, intaglio types, and photo-relief prints.

The artists in the East/West: A Survey of Contemporary Printmaking portfolio were chosen based upon their long and distinguished careers as both artists and teachers practicing the art of printmaking in a fashion coined from the tradition of the major Midwest universities in the 1960s –“ the artist/teacher in residence.”

This portfolio celebrates these artists as innovators for their continued development of the printmaking medium and their own unique artistic visions as evidenced by their work and continued success as educators. These printmakers have had and continue to have dramatic impacts on printmaking education, their institutions and printmaking workshops.

The COS Art Gallery is located on the bottom floor of the Kaweah Building in room 214 on the College of Sequoias Visalia Campus. Free parking is available during the night of the reception in parking lots 3 and 7. If you are visiting the gallery during the day, there is 20 minute free parking available in lot 3 on the corner of Meadow Lane and Mooney Blvd. Parking passes can be purchased in lots 3 and right outside lot 7, for further questions regarding parking please contact the COS Art Gallery for details.

Our new gallery hours for the Fall 2015 semester are: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For any further questions or information regarding the show, call the COS Art Gallery at 737-4861 or visit the COS website at www.cos.edu. Also, don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook to receive news on upcoming events. Arts Visalia is located at 214 E. Oak Visalia, CA. For more information regarding their show, please contact them at (559) 739-0905. We hope to see you in BOTH galleries soon!

Jessica Robles was born and raised in Visalia, California. She studied fine art at the College of the Sequoias, then went on to receive her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from Northern Illinois University, both with an emphasis in printmaking. She is now an adjunct art instructor and the Gallery Director of the COS Art Gallery at the College of the Sequoias.