Tandem Press is a professional print publisher and gallery affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Tandem invites internationally renowned artists to create original fine art prints in its printmaking studio. Using an array of traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques, Tandem has established itself as a leader among international fine art print publishers. Visitors may tour the printmaking studio, view the current exhibition in the gallery, and browse prints in the print study center. Tandem Press has produced original fine art editions with over 100 artists spanning many artistic styles and subject matter. Current inventory includes work by Derrick Adams, Richard Bosman, Suzanne Caporael, Robert Cottingham, Lesley Dill, Jim Dine, Jeffrey Gibson, Sam Gilliam, Michelle Grabner, Al Held, Ikeda Manabu, Robert Kelly, David Lynch, Judy Pfaff, Alison Saar, Swoon, Mickalene Thomas, and others.Gallery exhibitions feature curated selections from the Tandem Press inventory and affiliated artists.Image: Tandem Press Apex Gallery with works by Alison Saar, Robert Cottingham, and Jim Dine on view.

Tandem Press

Tandem Press announces a new exhibition now on view in the Tandem Press Apex Gallery. The show, titled On Tenterhooks, was guest curated by Devon Stackonis, our 2023-2024 University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate Student Curatorial Assistant. During her time working at Tandem over the past year, Stackonis familiarized herself with many of the prints that have been created at Tandem Press. As one of her final projects, she was challenged to conceptualize and curate an exhibition of prints, selecting pieces from the Tandem Press inventory and contextualizing them to create a unique statement.This exhibition includes prints by Suzanne Caporael, Lesley Dill, Michelle Grabner, Manabu Ikeda, Nicola López, David Lynch, Judy Pfaff, Sam Richardson, Alison Saar, David Shapiro, and Steven Sorman.Curator StatementTenters and tenterhooks were commonly used as early as the fourteenth century as important elements in the process of weaving woolen fabric. Starting sometime in the eighteenth century, the phrase “on tenterhooks” came to mean “in suspense,” the way a piece of cloth is suspended from tenterhooks on a tenter. In contemporary literary use, it extends metaphorically to express a range of tension, anxiety, excitement, fear, and anticipation of what is yet to come.On Tenterhooks&nbsp;asks the viewer to consider what is to come, to acknowledge the moment of anticipation between definitive events, to sit with the unknown and its many possibilities, and to find some grounding amidst the precariousness of it all.I have selected a group of works from Tandem Press’s inventory that embody this notion of being suspended, stretched, or held in tension, either formally or metaphorically. These prints speak to extended moments of waiting nervously as events unfold. They represent various possible responses to a state of suspense, whether it is with great anticipation and excitement of a desired outcome, or with agitation, distress, and fear of its opposite. An acknowledgment of tension and discomfort in uncertainty can serve as a significant catalyst for change. In these moments between known and unknown, fear or stress may even shift to hope.Curator BiographyDevon Stackonis is a visual artist and printmaker specializing in mezzotint and intaglio processes. Stackonis’ current body of work serves as a personal reflection of the mountainous coal regions of Eastern Pennsylvania where she grew up and the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of extractive industry.Stackonis received her BFA from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 2018 and worked as Assistant in Printmaking at Bucknell University from 2018-2020. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024. She was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship through which she will spend ten months in Wrocław, Poland beginning in September 2024, creating mezzotints and studying the Upper Silesian Coal Basin.This exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund.

On Tenterhooks

Devon Stackonis: RETAINING WALLS

Tandem Press is excited to host&nbsp;Pastures of Plenty a Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition by David Love, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA candidate and 2023-2024 Tandem Press Studio Project Assistant.&nbsp;By re-examining found images and objects through printmaking and sculpture, David Love investigates the perception of labor and the myth of prosperity that pervades American history.Artist Biography In his prints and sculptures, David Love investigates labor and the myth of prosperity throughout American history. His work is rooted in the visual and material culture of the American industrial landscape. Love was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a project assistant at Tandem Press.This exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund.

David Love: Pastures of Plenty

Tandem Press presents Seasonal Selections, a group show that brings together colorful or seasonal pieces from twelve artists to brighten up this winter season.This exhibition includes artwork by: <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/richard-bosman/">Richard Bosman</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/andy-burgess">Andy Burgess</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/suzanne-caporael">Suzanne Caporael</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/carmen-lomas-garza">Carmen Lomas Garza</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/gronk">Gronk</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/manabu-ikeda">Manabu Ikeda</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/maser">Maser</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/judy-pfaff">Judy Pfaff</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/sam-richardson">Sam Richardson</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/dan-rizzie">Dan Rizzie</a>, <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/italo-scanga">Italo Scanga</a>, and <a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/artist/tl-solien">T.L. Solien</a>.&nbsp;

Seasonal Selections

Curated by Teyjhana Barton-Neal, Curatorial Intern Summer 2023On view: July 31 – November 10, 2023Reception: Friday, November 3, 5-8 pm<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/hidden-figures-unveiling-selfhood">View full exhibition information here.</a>

Reception: hidden figures: unveiling selfhood

Curated by Teyjhana Barton-Neal, Curatorial Intern Summer 2023On view: July 31 – November 10, 2023Reception: Friday, November 3, 5-8 pmTandem Press is pleased to host&nbsp;hidden figures: unveiling selfhood, curated by our Summer 2023 Curatorial Intern Teyjhana Barton-Neal, a rising senior at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. During her internship, we challenged Teyjhana to curate an exhibition under the conceptual theme of her choice from a limited number of available artworks from the Tandem Press inventory. This exhibition is the result.Exhibition Statement:hidden figures: unveiling selfhood is an exhibition that explores how our minds interpret and perceive what we experience. In this exhibition, I ask how identity can be witnessed from the outside. Thomas Reid, an 18th century Scottish philosopher believed that the identification of self is derived from memory. Being able to recall moments individually or simultaneously where one was a witness to oneself allows one to have an identity of self. In other words, through experience and retaining that experience we can know ourselves. Cartesian theory argues that the perception of reality lies in the perception of self, with the phrase. “I think, therefore I am.” With these ideas in mind, people find identity through the experience of life.This exhibition asks the viewer to consider what experiences in their life helped define who they are. The goal of this exhibit is to guide viewers on a journey of self-introspection. The selection of works in this exhibition are based on self-identifying categories that I use to deconstruct my own identity. They fall into the categories of age, race, physical body, occupation, and state of mind. For the curation of this exhibition, these five self-identifying signals will be named as: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U5Yl9drP4TTPLy5Rt56Okom1lOkHK1uu/view?usp=drive_link">BLOOM</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ch26BrDQnRteR48TtgDZBw77lf4vwlZo/view?usp=drive_link">KIN</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ChT46BenEN_ltcRfCdxVQcH7OlSGP-_e/view?usp=drive_link">CORPORIS SANCTUM</a>, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fOJUX9imRVpp7WsGsClDiWZAv3bfBfWL/view?usp=drive_link">ALMA</a>, and <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1209yXnxV2a6DJ5YWWT4x95OjudO85WdZ/view?usp=drive_link">IKIGAI</a>, respectively. I think that these five separate categories break down most of what makes each person who they are. As the search, construction, and manifestation of identity becomes a surging concern for the new generation, my hope is that the viewer can look deeper into themselves through the windows of memory that these works create for me.Curator Biography:Teyjhana Barton-Neal is a contemporary mixed media artist from Boston, Massachusetts. Artistic practice for Teyjhana started in primary school in the art program at Boston Trinity Academy. She then progressed to high school where she sought mentorship from the non-profit organization Artists for Humanity starting in 2017. There, she was able to explore different mediums such as collage and digital art. Her portfolio has evolved to include poetry, traditional art, digital art, dance, tattooing, and curation. Starting in 2021, Teyjhana began to pursue a career in art in her undergraduate college years at Spelman College. Her art has evolved beyond just the dimension of its composition to become symbolic representations of the concepts she learns inside and outside of her classes.Teyjhana states that, “As an artist, my interests lie in the occult or undeciphered. I create art based on its symbolism in the hope that members of the audience will recognize whatever symbol resonates with them the most. I create symbolic mirror images of myself and aspects of my life. I want my art to pull viewers in through its recognizable visuals and to intrigue viewers with its unconventional concepts. There is a chaos that enters a space before understanding comes.”This exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund.

hidden figures: unveiling selfhood

Tandem Press is excited to host an exhibition of prints and paintings by Madison-based artist T.L. Solien this fall. T.L. Solien has worked in the Tandem Press studio in two occurrences, creating four editions of prints during those times. His most recent print created at Tandem Press The Spanish Chair belongs to a larger series of work Solien has been developing over the past few years. We will show a selection of works on paper and one large painting from this series alongside The Spanish Chair in this exhibition titled Along the Way.T.L. Solien, The Spanish Chair, 2021&nbsp;Exhibition Statement:As he approached his retirement from a twenty-three-year career as a tenured professor in the UW-Madison Art Department, T.L. Solien sat in class with his drawing students and worked alongside them to demonstrate an artist’s practice of persistent creativity. At the time, he was also becoming disinterested in the figural-dominant compositions which had informed his work for many decades. Instead, he wanted to explore figure/ground relationships in which the “figure” and its environment were intertwined and inseparable.During his daily drawing practice, Solien drafted networks of lines in graphite across sheets of paper. As he edited these drawings, they developed structures like those found in stone pathways, walls, or patios. As he continued to work on the drawings and develop them further with gouache and watercolor paints, some of the forms began to suggest almost identifiable objects while others remained completely abstract. As they were such a departure from his previous work, these new pieces felt very foreign to Solien, but he found this new method of working to be highly challenging and satisfying. The process was full of moments of doubt, persistence, and excitement. As the development of the composition took precedence over and determined the final image, Solien discarded his dedication to developing a narrative within his work. Instead, each piece depicts a moment on a path, commenting that reaching the end is not the ultimate goal but that one must also relish in the moments of discovery that are found along the way.Along the Way&nbsp;presents a selection of pieces, predominately works on paper, Solien created through this working process between 2019-2022. Several phases of this project are represented here, including works that are purely abstract and others that begin to depict objects or people. A few art historical references also appear throughout this body of work. Solien stated that he considered his working process to be comparable to Donald Judd’s meditations on the cube or Gene Davis’s choice to only use stripes of color to create his color field paintings. Pablo Picasso’s Cubist sculpture&nbsp;Chair&nbsp;from 1961, which seemed to be crushed from three dimensions down to two dimensions and then unfolded back to three dimensions, was a particular point of inspiration for&nbsp;The Spanish Chair.&nbsp;Solien shares with these artists a steadfast trust in the practice of persistent creativity, which was the impetus for this project from the beginning. By establishing parameters in which to work and asking questions such as “what is it, and how does it seem to exist?” without actually expecting to arrive at any concrete answers, Solien invites us, as viewers, to join him in this state of creative curiosity.Artist Biography:Since the late ‘70s, T.L. Solien&nbsp;(b. 1949, Fargo, North Dakota) has been linked to the continuing evolution of figural painting and has been grouped within the concerns of Neo-Expressionism, Neo-Surrealism, and New Image histories. A self-described artist of the “absurdist cultural critique,” Solien depicts the contemporary collapse of our culture in his work. Using expressive color and imaginative imagery, he often constructs paradoxical narratives with references to his Scandinavian heritage, family memories, and various references to art and literature of the past. Solien received his BA from Moorhead State University and his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has received many honors and awards, including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art showed a 25-year retrospective of his work in 2008, and the Plains Museum in Fargo organized a touring exhibition of his artwork in 2013-14. His work is included in many private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, National Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Tate Gallery, and others. T.L. Solien lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin.This exhibition, along with all Tandem Press exhibition programming, is made possible through support from the Anonymous Fund.&nbsp;

T.L. Solien: Works on Paper

Enigma: The Prints of David Lynch

This exhibition has been organized to coincide with the 2022 Southern Graphic Council International’s (SGCI) printmaking conference which is hosted by the UW-Madison Art Department this year. This exhibition, curated by the Tandem Press collaborative printmakers Jason Ruhl, Joe Freye, Patrick Smyczek, and Seth Klekamp, presents a behind-the-scenes view of a selection of Tandem Press prints and the printmaking materials used in their creation.The exhibition, which begins in the Apex Gallery and continues upstairs into the Gabriele S. Haberland Contemporary Print Study Center, includes prints by a broad range of artists to demonstrate the expansive ways—from abstract expressionism to photographic representation—artists use the printmaking medium to engage with personal, political, social, and environmental themes.The three woodblocks Alison Saar carved to create one of her newest prints, Blonde Dreams (2021), hang alongside the finished artwork. The physicality of the marks carved in the woodblocks not only reveals how Saar rendered the image for this print, but the deconstruction of the image, when viewed in this context, also heightens aspects of the conceptual narrative within her work. The print depicts a Black figure with cascading gold hair representative of white anglicized beauty standards. The dream of long blonde hair has hamstrung the woman. Just as the image is broken down across several woodblocks to create this print, the pressure to modify oneself to achieve social ideals has led the depicted woman to deconstruct and alter her natural self-expression.Another woodblock, carved by Jim Dine with a chainsaw rather than typical wood chisels, is shown alongside two different prints, The Black and Red Heart (2013) and The New Building (2014). This woodblock, which was printed to create one of several layers in the final images, demonstrates a primary characteristic of the printmaking medium: the ability to print multiple images from the same block for various purposes.In addition to showing examples of the materials used to create fine art prints, this exhibition also shares a unique view into the collaborative process that occurs in the Tandem Press studio between our collaborative printmakers and the artists. For example, a portfolio of working proofs with handwritten production notes is shown alongside nine prints from Suzanne Caporael’s Vandercook Suite (2013), and photographs of Caporael working in the studio with collaborative printmakers Joe Freye and Jason Ruhl accompany another of her prints, Montpelier, Ohio (2012). During the proofing or working process, the artist collaborates with the printmakers to try out different papers, ink colors, and printing techniques to select the materials and methods that best achieve the artist’s vision for the final artwork.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Behind the Scenes

Reception: Friday, May 6, 5-9pm<a href="https://tandempress.wisc.edu/live/"> (Coinciding with a performance in our Friday Jazz Series from 5-7pm. Click for information)</a>Tandem Press is pleased to host&nbsp;a Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition by Carley Schmidt, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA candidate and current Tandem Press curatorial project assistant. Schmidt’s work explores place as part of a narrative about human impact and intervention.&nbsp;Somewhere Between&nbsp;offers a depiction of the changing landscape through the lens of liminality.&nbsp;Artist Biography:Carley Schmidt is a multi-disciplinary artist motivated by her relationship to landscape. She utilizes aspects of printmaking, papermaking, photography, and sculpture to&nbsp;explore place as part of a cumulative narrative about human impact and intervention.&nbsp;Schmidt attended the Glasgow School of Art in 2015 before graduating from Gonzaga University in 2017. Since then, she has exhibited work in places like Milwaukee, WI, Chicago, IL, and Sofia, Bulgaria. She has been the Artist-in-Residence at Ne’Na Contemporary Art Space in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and at the Tallgrass Artist Residency in Matfield Green, Kansas. Schmidt is a recipient of the Glenn R. Allen Art Scholarship and the Gabriele S. Haberland Travel Award. She is currently an MFA Candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Project Assistant at Tandem Press.Exhibition Statement:Somewhere Between&nbsp;presents a poetic meditation on the changing&nbsp;landscape.&nbsp;This body of work combines photography, sculpture, handmade paper, and aquatint prints to situate notions of place.&nbsp;Engaging the language of geometric abstraction and the strategy of repetition, the prints and sculptures in this exhibition reflect mapped space and speak to a larger narrative of human impact and intervention. &nbsp;Each work offers a depiction of containment. The expansiveness of the sculptures’ imagery is interrupted by the boundaries of its own form. These visual cues recall how the sky, untouched and unending, differs from the land below the horizon, which takes on the human-drawn partitions brought by colonial development practices: manifested as fences, property lines, and other symbols of ownership.&nbsp;&nbsp;The unusual geometries of the works are derived from satellite photographs. The angular forms reference boundary lines found within the tallgrass prairie of Kansas, one of the most diminished landscapes in North America. The shapes create intentional limitations, bounding an image’s expanse to the edges of its irregular frame, or from one color field to the edge of another. When puzzled together, the forms generate a reflection, and a paradox that illuminates a fraught yet optimistic relationship between people and the lands we occupy.&nbsp;As the sculptures attempt to place borders onto the sky, the aquatint prints use the same boundaries to consider fluctuations on land. The repetition of imagery, coupled with subtle shifts in tonality, signifies the tangible passage of time. Recurrent forms disappear and reappear, existing in a constant state of flux, somewhere between presence and absence. Each print operates individually as a suspended moment in time, however, when taken together, the series becomes a collection of snapshots of an ever-evolving landscape. The land we know now will remain unchanged only in memory. That same land will long outlive us.&nbsp;This exhibition is made possible through support from the Anonymous Fund.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Carley Schmidt: MFA Thesis Exhibition

Tandem Press is pleased to host&nbsp;Dream House, a Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition by Katelyn St. John, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA candidate and current Tandem Press project assistant. St. John’s work depicts her exploration of abandoned architecture. This exhibition features prints that delve into the visual representation of the space between experience and memory.&nbsp;Artist Biography:Katelyn St. John is a multimedia artist who works in printmaking, photography, and sculptural installation. She explores and photographs abandoned architecture that she then transforms into prints and sculptures which convey her experience of the space to her viewers. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking and Art History from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In 2015, she researched green printmaking materials at Zeamays Printmaking, and in 2019 she was among the first recipients of the Tandem Press Gabriele S. Haberland Travel award. She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she works as a Project Assistant for Tandem Press.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Katelyn St. John: Dream House

Organized to coincide with the SGCI (Southern Graphics Council International) printmaking conference which will be hosted by the UW-Madison Department of Art in March 2022, this exhibition gives viewers a behind-the-scenes view of a selection of Tandem Press prints and the printmaking materials that were used in their creation.Artists represented include Robert Cottingham, Jim Dine, David Lynch, Manabu Ikeda, Alison Saar, Mickalene Thomas, and more.More information and images coming soon.<a href="https://www.sgcinternational.org/2022-madison/#!event-list">Visit SGCI’s website for more information about the conference</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Tandem Press is pleased to host&nbsp;Ramshackle, an exhibition of prints by Derek Hibbs, a 2020 MFA graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former Tandem Press project assistant. Hibb’s work satirically illustrates working-class survival in the face of American class inequality, particularly now in the midst of a pandemic.Artist Statement:Ramshackle (adjective) 1: appearing ready to collapse: RICKETY 2: carelessly or loosely constructed / / a ramshackle plotAn apt title for this body of work, not literally in its construction, but within the content. Some works in this exhibition undoubtedly highly specific ongoing human issues: climate change, inequality, selfishness, and addiction, to name a few. Others function as a reflection or recollection of the self in a time of flux and instability.The past few years have been turbulent, to say the least. Ramshackle has been a relevant word for how one many feel while enduring the seemingly endless battle of living in a tumultuous political landscape amidst a global pandemic. It describes countless scenarios for those recently brought to the brink of something about to collapse. It also fairly describes a general assertion about society – how we have typically lacked consideration for other throughout human history – something that is gravely needed for us to move forward on planet earth.Artist Biography:Derek Hibbs (b. 1992, Toledo, Ohio) received his BFA in printmaking from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and his MFA in Studio Art (printmaking) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hibbs lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin where he has established a fully functional home print studio. Through this operation, titled Persistence Press, Hibbs collaborates with local artists to produce a wide variety of fine art prints. Hibbs is also currently a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville where he teaches a variety of 2D media.This exhibition is made possible through support from the Anonymous Fund.<a href="https://www.derekhibbsart.com/">Visit Derek Hibbs’s website for more information</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

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