3600 Lyons Road, Austin, Texas 78744

Some Saturdays from 12-4pm

Annalise Gratovich – Through the Dusk, a Light

January 25th – March 7th

Works on paper about the places for which the heart yearns by printmaker and artist Annalise Gratovich. Part of PrintAustin.

-

Annalise creates her finely crafted prints by hand from start to finish, carving wood, etching metal, dyeing paper, and using manual printing presses to create multiple originals. Each piece is printed on the finest archival papers using oil based inks and hand dyed papers she produces in her studio. Annalise operates as a self publisher out of Austin, Texas and travels frequently across the country as a visiting artist and speaker and to publish prints with highly esteemed print shops. 

Annalise begins each of her pieces with a drawing and a love for technical and artistic experimentation. She meticulously carves wood blocks with hand tools or carefully scribes into wax on the surface of a copper plate that is then dipped into an acid bath. Once these matrices are complete, sometimes after months of carving or a dozen dips in the acid bath, she begins her color development. Starting from color swatches she dips and tests in her studio, she dyes in bulk sheets of thin yet strong mulberry paper in a wide variety of colors and patterns. These sheets of dyed paper are then carefully cut out and applied to the wet ink on each woodcut or etching during the printing process, at which time the ink, papers, and pressure all combine to create the prints you see here. 

Annalise Gratovich was awarded the title of Creative Ambassador of Visual Arts in 2019 by the City of Austin and exhibits extensively nationally and internationally, most recently in Buggenhagen, Germany, New York, NY, Dawson City, Youkon, San Antonio, TX and Austin, TX. She was most recently a guest artist and lecturer at Egress Press, Edinboro University, Pennsylvania, and a guest artist and juror at New Leaf Editions in Vancouver, B.C. Her most recent publications were produced by Mixed Grit in Denver, Colorado, at Egress Press in Pennsylvania, Evil Prints in St. Louis, Missouri, and Cannonball Press, Brooklyn, New York. She has work in numerous private and public collections, the most recent acquisition going to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

She is a member of the Board of Directors of PrintAustin, a month-long, city-wide printmaking event for which she has helped organize exhibitions and special events, curate the PrintAustin Invitational, and has participated in artist and curator talks, and panel discussions. 

  

-

 

We're also thrilled to be premiering the latest film project by Emily Basma at our closing event, entitled SEEDS. SEEDS is a 16mm short film retelling the myth of Persephone as an American tale. In this version, instead of being kidnapped to go to the underworld, Persephone makes the decision herself. The film will premier at 7:30pm.

Recspec Gallery
4825 Weidemar Lane #700, Austin, Texas 78745 (map)

 
Cocktails provided by Desert Door.

 

-

 


This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.