Calendar

Jeff McNear is a third generation artist who participated in his first gallery show at the age of eight. He grew up surrounded not only by the paintings and sculpture of his grandfather and father, but by an impressive and ever changing collection of African, Pre-Columbian, South Asian, and Cubist art. His work has shown in a variety of galleries throughout the United States, and during the summer months can be seen at many juried art festivals in the Midwest.

Approximately ten years ago he turned his attention from sculpture to printmaking, with a particular concentration on the technique of block printing. In general he uses linoleum blocks for his work. Linoleum is a composition of solidified linseed oil, resin, and cork dust mounted on a backing of burlap. Developed in the late 1800’s as a floor covering, Linoleum was quickly recognized by artists such as Picasso and Matisse as an excellent printmaking medium.

Designs are drawn in reverse directly on the block and then cut out using knives and gouges. The finished block is then inked, paper is put on top of the block, and the image is transferred to the paper by using a press or barren. By convention, at the end of each edition the blocks that made the print are defaced. This ensures that blocks can never be used after the edition is final.

Since each individual print is handmade, deliberate and inadvertent variations in colors and imprint strength occur within any edition. Multiple colored prints require that a separate block is carved for each color of a finished piece, and careful registration is required in both carving and printing. These works are therefore built in layers that give a distinct three-dimensional quality to a two-dimensional work.

While to the uninitiated, the medium of block printing may seem to allow for a finite window to convey artistic expression block printing can be amazingly expressive in both in line and in color. In this work the limits of the materials distill aspects of the world around us down to their most raw and honest forms, to project to the viewer an immediate visceral impact of archtypical forms and imagery.

link to e-mail

link to website