Alabama Visual Arts Network partnered with the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to present the second annual printmaking conference,
“Collections and Connections.”
University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
December 6th - 7th, 2024
Keynote Address by artist/curator Cynthia Nourse Thompson
and featured presentations by artists Charlotte Wegryznowski, Nic Tisdale, and artist/curator William T. Dooley.
Collections and Connections
We welcomed teachers, students, working artists, and museum professionals to join us for a two-day symposium at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa where we fostered connections with one another and engaged in discourse surrounding the role of printmaking in art today. Symposium activities centered around touring institutional spaces including printmaking and book arts facilities as well as special and departmental collections, hands-on workshops, and opportunities for sharing work through open portfolio sessions. Presenting artists included Charlotte Wegryznowski, Nic Tisdale, William T. Dooley and Cynthia Nourse Thompson.
Cynthia Nourse Thompson (http://www.cynthia-nourse-thompson.com), keynote speaker for the conference, is currently Professor and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University School of Art and Design. Prior to this position, for six years she was Associate Professor and Director of the graduate programs in Book Arts & Printmaking and Studio Art at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has also served as Associate Professor and Curator of Exhibitions at University of Arkansas; twelve years as Professor of Book, Print and Paper Arts and Chair of Fine Arts at Memphis College of Art running the prestigious program created by renowned papermaker and book artist Dolph Smith; and additionally worked at Dieu Donné Paper, Harlan & Weaver Intaglio, and The Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper now the Brodsky Center at PAFA. Thompson has been awarded numerous residencies including Yaddo, Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, Women’s Studio Workshop, the Visual Studies Workshop, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Penland Winter Residency, and a Maker-Creator Fellowship at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. She also served as a visiting scholar and printer in residence with her collaborator David Charles Chioffi at the Bodleian Bibliographical Press in Oxford UK in May of 2022. Thompson has also been visiting faculty at University of Georgia’s study abroad program in Cortona, Italy; the prestigious Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy; and the University of Arkansas Program in Rome, Italy. Thompson received her BFA in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Charlotte Wegrzynowski
Charlotte Wegrzynowski is an artist based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her work explores the tensions between professional and domestic spaces, blurring the lines between realism and abstraction, representation and imitation. Her careful observations of light and its interplay with objects allow her to depict familiar forms out of context, freeing them from narrative constraints and inviting viewers to form their own interpretations. Her drawings and paintings, are meditations on color and form, made using the fragments of objects around her as inspiration. Charlotte earned her BA from The University of the South and her MFA from The University of Alabama Book Arts Program. She is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Art and Art History, and has taught Drawing, 2D design, Color Theory, and related courses at UA and in the surrounding community for over fifteen years. She exhibits regularly and her work has won awards throughout the region.
Nic Tisdale
Nic Tisdale was raised in Birmingham, earned a BFA at the University of Montevallo, and an MA and MFA in Printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His artistic practice merges traditional CMYK printmaking with contemporary digital mediums, exploring the interplay between physical and virtual realms. By embedding errors and mundane internet content directly into the hexadecimal code of his imagery, he intentionally disrupts visual order, creating unexpected flaws. This process highlights the imperfections in our visual tools and examines the complexities of communication in the digital age. In an era reliant on digital interaction, he investigates how these flaws reshape language and visual forms, influencing our increasingly distanced connections. Nic exhibits nationally and internationally, and his work is included in both national and international collections. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Montevallo and Samford University.
William T. Dooley’s (https://art.ua.edu/people/william-dooley/) paintings and drawings explore the effects of compression and concentration, of pigment, line, form and other elements, including the visual assertiveness wielded by a small artwork. His work has been included in numerous regional and national juried exhibitions. Since 1988, he has taught Drawing, 2D Foundations, and Museum Practices at The University of Alabama, where he also served as the department chair from 1998 to 2008. As Director of the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, Mr. Dooley programs and curates a schedule of changing exhibitions featuring a wide selection of internationally acclaimed artists. Through his work with the SMGA permanent collection, Mr. Dooley manages the Bill and Sara Hall Print Collection. This collection of over 475 printer’s proofs, placed in the care of the SMGA in 2014, showcases Mr. Hall's 25-year career as a Master Printer with Pace Editions, Inc., where he worked closely with many celebrated artists, including Jennifer Bartlett, Donald Baechler, Chuck Close, Tara Donovan, Helen Frankenthaler, Zhang Huan, Kiki Smith, and James Turrell.
Willam T. Dooley