Current Exhibition
PRESS ON
A Juried Exhibition of the Art of Letterpress
May 30–July 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, May 30, 6-8pm
In-Person and Online Gallery Hours begin Saturday, May 31
Artists from all over the US, with additional participants from Canada, France, and Japan,
are featured in this exhibition that celebrates letterpress as a powerful medium for artistic expression. In
addition to traditional letterpress printing, varied techniques include inkless pressure printing and linocut
blocks reconfigured to be used on a letterpress machine. The resulting show has nearly 100 works and is a
testament to the creative possibilities of letterpress.
Jurors Celene Aubry, Hatch Show Print (TN), and Allison Tipton, Globe Collection and Press at MICA (MD) had the difficult job of selecting from over 400 entries. The resulting show features a wide range of formats, including artist books, work on fabric, vinyl, and paper. The content ranges from political to inspirational; narrative to conceptual; and type both representing and exploring language, including English, French, Hebrew, Japanese, and Korean.
To accommodate the size of the exhibition, Pyramid is utilizing newly opened space within its facility. The
additional space is currently in a planning phase for future use, but the Pyramid team is very excited to have
an extra large gallery to showcase the PRESS ON works.
Letterpress printing dates back to Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of a printing press with movable type in
the 1450s. Letterpress printing remained commonly used until the 1950s, when further automation processes made offset printing more favorable. By the 1980s, letterpress machine and type manufactures essentially ceased production. However, artists have returned to the aesthetic appeal and craftsmanship associated with the handmade quality visible in letterpress printing. New tools, such as polymer plate graphics and type, offer artists a wide range of old and new options for creativity in print while still using these now vintage machines. Pyramid has several presses and a good collection of type for artistic use and loves seeing ways in which artists have used historic methods, contemporary hacks, and ingenuity to make new work on these old machines.
Participating Artists:
Kennedy Adams | Jody Arthur | Lauren Bailey | Frank Baseman | Andre Lee Bassuet | Molly Berkson | Rick Black | Black Rock Press with: Zach Clark, Jayna Conkey, Josh Dannin, AB Gorham, Tanya Gutierrez, Meghan Pohlod, Kelsey Reiman, Thea Sizemore, Jessica Spring, Phoebe Todd-Parrish | Sara Blumberg | E Bond | Lauryn Boyd | Servane Briand, Patrick Fenton and Samuel Mignot | Mary Bruno | Stephanie Carpenter | Valerie Carrigan | Olivia Childress | Cynthia Connolly | Elizabeth DeLuna | Jon Drew | Lauren Emeritz | Tyler English | Theresa Esterlund | Jennifer Farrell | Angela Davis Fegan | Scott Fisk | Tate Foley | Katherine Fries | Ruthann Godollei | Alisa Golden | AB Gorham | Virginia Green | Belle Handler | Carlos Hernandez | Susanna Herrmann | Elaisha Hilliard | Erica Honson | Raluca Iancu | Ayumi Ishii and Kate Copeland | Jim Jereb | Stacie Kammerling | Richard Kegler | Eric Leland | Amanda Levendowski | Eric Lunde | Aya Masumoto | Sarah Matthews | Sarah McCoy | Casey McGarr | Christine Medley | Kari Ann Miller | James Modrick | Erin Moore | Marjon Mudde and Magdéleine Ferru | Khoa Nguyen | Paul Oh | Mervi Pakaste | Poojana Prasanna | James Quigley | Lisa Rappoport | Jason Rigg | Etai Rogers-Fett | Stefan Saal | Mark Sarigianis | Lindsay Schmittle | Noam Sienna and Aaron Silver | Rachel Simmons | Nicole Soley | Raychel Steinbach | Steven Stichter | Elinor Swanson | Linda Samson Talleur | Emily Tamulewicz | Misty Thomas-Trout | Michaela Tures | Britta Urness | Patrick Vincent | Jeff Wilkson | David Wolske | Richard Zeid
About the Jurors:
Celene Aubry, Hatch Show Print
Celene is the Director and Print Shop Manager at Hatch Show Print, one of America’s oldest surviving letterpress show poster and design shops. While the business thrives as a letterpress poster and design shop, expanded programming includes a visiting artist program, a gallery periodically showcasing print-centric art, and offering hands-on tours and workshops from the education space. In between poster runs and whatnot, she also enjoys analog photography, making cyanotypes and van Dyke photoprints specifically.
Allison Tipton, Globe Collection and Press at MICA
Allison is a designer and letterpress printer from Baltimore, Maryland. She is the manager of the Globe Collection and Press at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art). As a student she fell in love with printmaking while earning her BFA is graphic design at MICA and was bitten by the DayGlo love of Globe. She devoted most of her senior year helping to rally student support for acquisition of the collection. Her love of Globe kept her in Baltimore, lurking around MICA’s campus, helping on projects and spreading the word of Globe until MICA finally hired her. She oversees Globe’s operation including archiving, education, and production of new projects in the iconic Globe style for clients including CFG Bank Area, John Waters X New York Film Festival, and Baltimore Magazine.
Exhibition Gallery:
Made possible in part through partnerships with
