This exhibition presents new prints made at Graphic Studio Dublin over the past 2 years through the studio’s Visiting Artist programme.   The programme invites renowned visual artists, sometimes with little experience of printmaking, to create original fine art prints, with the assistance of our master printers.   The scheme makes an important contribution to the development of printmaking in Ireland, introducing many of Ireland’s most well known artists to printmaking.  Many of these have gone on to make prints as a central element of their artistic practice.

The Visiting Artist programme has been widely celebrated, including a survey exhibition at 30 years, presented by The Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Under the programme, towering figures of 20th century Irish art, including the late, great, Tony O’Malley, Louis le Brocquy, Micheal Farrell and William Crozier worked with us to create a body of fine art prints.   Contemporary participants in the programme include Mark Francis, Alice Maher, Gwen O’Dowd, Mary Lohan, Anne Madden, Hughie O’Donoghue, Seán McSweeney, Nick Miller, Diana Copperwhite, Charles Tyrrell, Martin Gale, John Noel Smith, Maria Simonds Gooding and Colin Martin among many others, as well as artists from outside Ireland, including Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Ethan Murrow, Christopher Le Brun and Frea Buckler.

The work created through the scheme, reveals itself as an important historical archive, telling the story of the often crucial relationship between masterprinter and visiting artist. From the inception of the programme, a small number of masterprinters at Graphic Studio Dublin have been guiding and mentoring artists through the printmaking process. These skills combine to create editions that are unique to Graphic Studio Dublin.  Currently, our master printers are Robert Russell and Niamh Flanagan.  The results of this creative process – editions of fine art prints, can be viewed and purchased from our gallery.