Printmaker to visit YSU for program

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Printmaker Matthew Hopeson-Walker will be featured in the next installment of the Red Press Collaborative, a program designed to promote fine-art printmaking at Youngstown State University and in the Mahoning Valley.

The event will run Monday through Friday in the printmaking studio, Room 4015, Bliss Hall, on the YSU campus.

Patrons may stop by any day from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. to observe the printmaking process.

YSU art students will collaborate with guest artist Hopson-Walker to produce a limited-edition lithograph. Students will work with the artist to make his initial concept a finished print and will also print T-shirts with Hopson-Walker’s imagery.

Printmaking will take place throughout the week, and prints and T-shirts will be pre-sold during the event. Shirts are $15, while the limited edition prints are $125.

In addition, Hopson-Walker will present a lecture about his work at the McDonough Museum of Museum of art at 3 p.m. Monday.

All events, including the guest-artist lecture, are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Wick Avenue deck for a nominal fee.

“The Red Press Collaborative is named for the actual press, an American-made Takach lithography press, located in the printmaking studio, which is red (to honor YSU and legendary Tamarind Master Printers Bill Lagattuta and Jeffery Sippel), but also for the fact that this is a collaborative project whereby students have the opportunity to work alongside and learn from professional artists,” said Greg Moring, chairman of the Art Department at YSU.

“Print collaboration in its tradition, has fostered relationships between professional artists and students, using the most contemporary and comprehensive printmaking concepts available,” said Joseph D’Uva, associate professor, Printmaking.

“The Red Press Collaborative is a means towards creating these interactions and educating future fine art printmakers. We are excited about this year’s guest artist and look forward to both the print and the tee shirt image, both of which are unknown until the process begins.”

More information may be obtained by emailing D’Uva at jduva@ysu.edu or calling the department of art at 330-941-3627

Born and raised in Fresno, Calif., Hopson-Walker received his BFA in printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1998. He received master’s in 2002 and in 2003 from the University of Iowa.

In 2006 He was recipient of the James Phelan Award in Printmaking for California-born artists given through the KALA Institute.

Hopson-Walker is currently teaching printmaking and drawing at College of the Sequoias and California State University-Fresno.