Print is inextricably woven into our daily lives, appearing in art and design works, books, newspapers, posters and other printed ephemera. The Print Season 2011 looks at ways that artists respond to the presence and history of print in New Zealand as well the impacts of new technology on the ways in which we create and relate to printed matter. Featuring work from eight artists across four exhibitions as well as a Print Fair and a Symposium, the Print Season 2011 will explore the zeitgeist of print in New Zealand.

Print Season 2011 Exhibition One: Laura Marsh and Rosemary Nightingale, 25 February – 05 March

Laura Marsh and Rosemary Nightingale share a common engagement with the question of how we relate to place and how this relationship inflects our cultural identities. In recent work Nightingale has travelled to national parks, taking impressions of found rocks and sculpturally formed maps to reflect the topography of the land. Marsh’s work approaches the tricky terrain of Pākehā cultural and national identity as it is constructed through a relationship to and representation of the land.

Print Season 2011 Exhibition Two: Matt Coldicutt, Sam Ovens and Rebecca Steedman, 11 – 19 March
Matt Coldicutt, Sam Ovens and Rebecca Steedman are three artists whose work addresses the concept of cover art, both in the sense of a cover version of a song that creates a homage to and a reinterpretation of the original, and through an engagement with the history of cover art in design and advertising, including book covers, record sleeves and newspaper headlines.

Print Fair: Saturday 26  & Sunday 27 March

There is something seductive about printed matter, be it a book, zine, poster, printed T-shirt, record or artwork. To celebrate our ongoing fascination with print ST PAUL St Gallery is hosting a Print Fair so that you can buy, barter for, or even be gifted printed material.

The Print Fair brings together presses, publishing groups, galleries, project spaces and individual artists to display their publishing projects and promote the wealth of printed matter in New Zealand. Works on offer will include works on paper, artist’s books & private press publications, design and typography works, experimental music and publications on art and design.

Participating groups included: The Adam Art Gallery (WLG), ARTSPACE (AKL), Auckland Zinefest & Alphabet City (AKL), AUT University Print Students (AKL), Cherry Bomb Comics (AKL) Enjoy Public Art Gallery (WLG), Pania Press (AKL), Popohardwear (AKL), split/fountain (AKL), and

Exhibition Three: Barry Cleavin & Jason Greig 01 – 09 Apri

Artists Barry Cleavin and Jason Greig have both had a long, passionate and evolving relationship with print. Cleavin’s work uses humour and a compelling graphic sensibility to interpret and comment on society, saying "Mostly I reduce the world to absurdity; in that form it is manageable."  Greig’s work takes a darker tack, exploring the macabre and sinister sides of the human psyche.

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Exhibition Four: Sonya Lacey, 15 – 30 April

The exhibition presents three new works by Sonya Lacey exploring different methods of collating and representing information. Through the production of fragments and possible pages of magazines, coupled with the custom writing of journalistic narratives for later publication, the works point to commercial and institutional publishing practices. They examine the slippages between the actual and the supposed that are generated by acts of reproduction and their relationship to indefinable originals.

The Print Season 2011 is the second annual season at ST PAUL St Gallery Three, following on from the success of the Sculpture Season 2010. The seasons focus on a particular art form or concept and are curated with an emphasis on early career artists.  Through this ST PAUL St Gallery supports emerging practices and spotlights developments in contemporary art in New Zealand.