THE AIMS OF THE INKERS GROUP

INKERS was set up in April 2000 with membership initially drawn from printmakers using the facilities at West Yorkshire Print Workshop Mirfield, West Yorkshire.

More details can be obtained through the secretary. Our principal aims are to promote new work from members, to educate each other on processes and methods and gain support and stimulation through interaction and shared activities. Members meet regularly in Mirfield and are expected to contribute towards every exhibition as well as provide time, transport and labour at exhibition times.
 

AIMS
To bring Printmaking to the attention of the general public.
To promote Printmaking in all its contemporary diversity.
To further the careers of the members through greater exposure.
To provide regular periodic exhibitions of previously unseen prints.
To provide a focus for northern printmakers and. build a strong membership.
To promote opportunities for learning, experiment, and growth.

THE HISTORY OF THE INKERS GROUP

INKERS was set up in April of 2000 with membership initially drawn from printmakers using the facilities at Eastthorpe Visual Arts, Mirfield, West Yorkshire. [Now the West Yorkshire Print Workshop]The idea arose Out of discussion, and the need to create opportunities specific to printmakers in the region through which to gain recognition.

The intention was to establish a caucus of printmakers who through collective activity and interaction would develop their skill base, improve their professional standing, raise the profile of printmaking regionally, offer support to each other and increase their business skills.

The vehicle to carry all this forward is an exhibiting programme to which members commit themselves on the basis of an agreed Title and number of prints; each exhibition to tour three venues within a twelve - eighteen month period, allowing members to work towards subsequent exhibition title, as a rolling programme. This premise is specifically to encourage the generation of new work. Themes for exhibition Titles arise from discussion and interaction, and are not intended to restrict, constrain, or channel members to work in particular ways or directions.

It is our intention to expand our membership, and so we do not regard ourselves as `resident' to Eastthorpe Visual Arts Members pay a yearly subscription fee, and agree to the alms, intentions, and definitions as put forward by INKERS.

Membership is by submission of print portfolio to the Membership Committee, and by signing an agreement form and the payment of an annual fee.

Our programme of annual shows of new works ensures an emphasis on development by each member

Each exhibition visits a number of venues within a year and we are constantly seeking new exhibition spaces

In 2003 Inkers secured major funding enabling us to undertake a developmental project this culminated in the exhibition "A Lasting Impression" which toured North and West Yorkshire and Rotchdale.

PAST EXHIBITIONS

Feb 2007 'A Sense of Idenity' The clock Tower - Sheffield

April 2006 'A Sense of Idenity' Brussels EU Offices

Feb 2005 'A Personal Choice' West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield.

June 2004 'A Personal Choice' the Manor House, lIkley

May 2004 `A Lasting Impression' at Gallery Oldham.

Nov 2003 `A Lasting Impression' at West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield.

June 2003 `A Lasting Impression' at Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes.

March 2003 `Site and Seen' at Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk.

Site and Seen 16/3/2003
Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk

ARCHITECTURE has been described as the pinnacle of the arts, and it is certainly true that a striking building can inspire many a response and even invoke conflicting ideas and views. The recent competition to design something to replace the twin towers in New York is a case in point. On the other hand, buildings are so much a part of everyday life that it can be useful to have them presented in new ways.

This exhibition contains work by several artists all interested in the impact which buildings and the man-made environment can have, and all working in the medium of prints of various kinds. The range could hardly be broader, from Jenny Thomas's street marks based on graffiti and curbside drains in cheerful non-naturalistic day-glo colours to Julia Clegg's careful and cool exploration of the significance of buildings as symbols. One example of this links two calamitous events that happened decades apart May-Sept Obit is a beautiful and thought-provoking visual elegy which portrays the first attack on New York's twin towers - designed using two columns of newsprlnt set against a background of blue - superimposed with a blur of gold signifying a fragment rescued after the bombing in 1940 of a cathedral in Belgium. Such disasters assume a particular iconography that hardly needs explaining but so does the mundane.

No-one can miss the significance of the logo-design letter M in "Yet Another Mall" by Lucy Hainsworth whose composite, tightly-packed images refer to urban landscapes and busy lives encompassed by fast-food, travel and shopping. Close by, prints by Jon Booth offer a contrasting mood via images of elegance from a previous, more leisured era, in softly-tinted etchings of spacious country houses all characterised by fanciful turrets, towers and rooftop curlicues.

Vic Cruz-Howell expresses both the constant and ephemeral features in a location using trees and roots as map-bearing symbols. Cath Brooke delves into the sense of community associated with the back-to-back terrace housing of
Yorkshire towns, using clean lines and, strangely, an absence of people. Figures and what appear to be family groups are divided and anonymous in Ian Wrench's plain, simple DIY-like constructions, while Janine Denby places people against the boldly-textured back- drop of night-time Leeds and Bradford like players in a stage drama. Alison Saldane's composite images explore the search for the ideal form in Greek architecture - the place where it all began - packing together references to temples, statues of the gods and myths in shades of vibrant reds and blues.
The exhibition continues until
March 29. by P F.

Nov 2002 `Site and Seen' at West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield.

Sept 2002 `Best of Both' at Priestley Center for the Arts, Bradford.

March 2002 `Site and Seen' at RIBA Site Gallery, Leeds.

ART REVIEW
Site And Seen

This group exhibition by INKERS Contemporary Printers explores architecture and the built environment with a wide variety*y of print media and styles. Vic Cruz-HowelI's Roots I and II use natural tree forms layered over a collage of maps, symbolic of the landscape.

Her Capital City and Sunset also use multiple layers of colour and experiment with collage and typography. The May September Series by Julia Clegg reveals her interest in relics and ruins. Obit combines the bombing of Nivelles, Belgium in May 1940 and the September 11 tragedy. We see the remains of Sainte Gertrude's shrine all twisted and torn, set against the steel remains of the twin towers in New York. Ian Wrench's Glass series explore the fascinating images seen in the distorted reflections on modern office blocks and his simple but effective night scene, Showing
Tonight, sees him in a more minimal mood.

The burgeoning advancement of the modern industrial world on the natural Iandscape is attacked in Lucy Hainsworth's work, with a radical juxtaposition of images, criss- crossing rail tracks in Gare De L'Est and dizzying fairground rides in Roundabouts. In contrast, Cath Brooke's work uses subtle hues to depict back-to-back terraces in Burley and housing in Robin Hood's Bay. Watch out, too, for Janine Denby, who takes her subjects of Leeds and Bradford into a twilight Parisian realm while Jenny Thomas reproduces graffiti and the rock textures on the Isle of Skye in vivid luminescent colours. A great adventure.

Rich Jevons

RIHA Site Gallery, 8 Woodhouse Square, Leeds, Mon to Fri
9am to 5pm, free. Tel Ol 13 245 6250

Nov 2001 `Time and Space' at Vernon Mill Gallery, Stockport.

July 2001 `Passage' as part of the Holmfirth Fringe.

June 2001 `Time and Space' at Eastthorpe Visual Arts, Mirfield.

Dec 2000 `Passage' at North Light Gallery, Huddersfield.

Sept 2000 `Passage' at Millyard Gallery, Oldham.

FUTURE PLANNED EXHIBITIONS
2005 A themed show "Significant Numbers"

2006 "Print in Three dimensions"

Apply for membership to Inkers to Julia Clegg