Draw the Line is a contemporary printmaking and drawing exhibition, curated by Dr. Ruth Pelzer-Montada, Printmaker and Lecturer in Visual Culture and Theory at Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. This exhibition is organised by the Black Church Print Studio, Dublin.

The exhibition features works by Debora Ando, Caroline Byrne, Gráinne Dowling, Killian Dunne, Aoife Dwyer, Mary A. Fitzgerald, Mary Frazer, Joan Gleeson, Ann Kavanagh, Elaine Leader, Catriona Leahy, Mo Levy, David Lunney, Anja Mahler, Colin Martin, David McGinn, Margaret McLoughlin, Rachel O’Hara, Seán O Sullivan, Tracey Staunton and Yvan Vansevenant.

Drawing and printmaking have been closely associated throughout history, yet they share a clear delineation in their ancestry; in drawing’s case, its independence is rectified by the fact that, since the Renaissance, it was regarded as the foundation of the traditional arts. Concurrently, the role of printmaking in cultural life has been strengthened by its natural displacement towards the dissemination of cultural and scientific knowledge. In the past fifty years, both disciplines have arguably moved from a subsidiary to an instructive position in the arts. As with a great many current art forms, these two now broadly encompass previously disparate practices such as installation, video, digital image modes, animation and three-dimensional work. Processes and images which in one context are categorised as drawings may well be regarded as prints in another. This exhibition examines printmaking and its relationship with drawing. Its aim is not to define or fix boundaries, but to reveal similarities, overlaps and differences. Such explorations are vital at a time when arts education is seeing its former disciplinary boundaries abolished, and the different practices of art are increasingly expected to intersect. So where do we differentiate between drawing and printmaking? Within the act of printmaking, drawing is always indirectly ‘removed’, due to the presence of its matrix, in the form of a plate, screen or stone. Print techniques can weaken or subvert the traditional connection of drawing with the hand by their affinity with and reliance on mechanical processes. Today, certain techniques within drawing appear to bring it closer together with printmaking. Here, there has been an increase in the incorporation of photography, or of imported ‘ready-made’ gestures and forms. Conversely, there are techniques now employed by printmakers that imbue the surface of the print with haptic qualities, such as embossing or collaging, which move printmaking towards established or new modes of drawing. So it is reasonable to ask whether print may retrieve the tactility that many drawings now lack, or intentionally suppress? And by emphasising print’s material qualities, do these techniques also reduce fears of an inhuman cultural environment?

For further information, contact: Black Church Print Studio, 4 Temple Bar, Dublin 2; +353 1 677 3629; info@print.ie; www.print.ie