Alabama Visual Arts Network proudly partnered with PaperWorkers Local and Samford University Art Gallery to present the inaugural Alabama Printmaking Conference in Birmingham in July 2022.
Samford University Art Gallery hosted the exhibition, Noah Breuer and Liz Chalfin: Good on Paper, from July 15-September 8, 2022 with a reception for the artists on Thursday, July 14th from 5-8pm. The exhibition and reception was free and open to the public.
This project, sponsored by the Alabama Visual Arts Network, was made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Noah Breuer
Noah Breuer is an American artist originally from Berkeley, California. His creative work examines themes of family, identity, labor and diaspora. His current project examines the visual legacy of "Carl Breuer and Sons," his Jewish family’s former textile printing business, founded 1897 in Bohemia and seized by the Nazis in 1939. Breuer holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, an MFA from Columbia University and a graduate research certificate in traditional woodblock printmaking and paper-making from Kyoto Seika University in Japan.
Breuer’s recent solo exhibitions include Cabbage at VisArts (Rockville, MD 2021), Heirloom at Penn State University Altoona (Altoona, PA, 2020), Something Borrowed / Something Broken, at Spring Hill College (Mobile, AL, 2020), CB&S Werkstätte at Spudnik Press (Chicago, IL 2019) and Lucerna at Left Field Gallery (San Luis Obispo, CA 2018).
His artist books have been published by the San Francisco Center for the Book and Small Editions in Brooklyn, New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library; Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Victoria and Albert Museum; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Zuckerman Museum of Art; University of Oregon Design Library Artists’ Book Collection; Alfred R. Goldstein Library, Ringling College of Art & Design;
Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design; and Schneider Museum of Art.
Breuer currently works as an Assistant Professor at Auburn University.
Liz Chalfin
Liz Chalfin is a printmaker with a commitment to environmentally sustainable practices. Her work is informed by her travels near and far and conveys her interest in interpersonal relationships, moodiness, memory and time. Her prints and artist’s books are in numerous museum and library collections including the New York Public Library; Boston Public Library; Art Museum at Bowdoin College; Smith College Museum of Art; Portland Museum of Art; De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park; The Hood Museum; The University of the Arts; Yale University; University of Arkansas; Wheaton College Permanent Collection; Hampshire College Special Collections; and the University of Michigan Art Library. She has been an artist in residence at Mass MOCA (USA), Artist Proof Studio (South Africa), The Vermont Studio Center (USA), Bowdoin College (USA), Trefegwlys Print Studio (Wales), Loomis Chaffee School (USA).
Chalfin is founding director of Zea Mays Printmaking, a professional printmaking studio, located in western Massachusetts. Since its founding in 2000, ZMP’s mission has been to provide a space and community to learn, create and promote prints made with the safest processes available. Zea Mays Printmaking collaborates with artists, studios and schools around the world to share innovations in non-toxic and sustainable printmaking.
Chalfin is a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists, the Boston Printmakers, The Los Angeles Printmaking Society, the Southern Graphics Council International and an Honorary Lifetime Member of the California Society of Printmakers.
Chalfin is represented by Mitchell Giddings Fine Arts, Brattleboro, VT and the Zea Mays Printmaking Flat File Project.
PaperWorkers Local hosted workshops by Liz Chalfin and Noah Breuer during the event.
PaperWorkers Local - 2717 7th Avenue South #203, Birmingham, Alabama 35233
The reduced cost of registration and supplies is sponsored by the Alabama Visual Arts Network, and has been made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
PaperWorkers Local was established in 2013 as an open, collaborative workspace to give artist printmakers affordable access to professional quality facilities and equipment. The founding artists worked to purchase and recondition presses, tools, and additional equipment to provide a functioning studio. This is a space where the public can experience works of art and interact with artists in the same studio space where those works have been made. Since its founding, PaperWorkers Local has offered dozens of workshops teaching hundreds of students a variety of printmaking and related art-making techniques. The nonprofit co-operative organizes ten to twelve art exhibitions every year, both on-site and at other locations, featuring the work of local and nationally recognized artists at all stages of their careers.