Guardian Fine Art Services donates printing press

Guardian Fine Art Services donates printing press to MIAD.

Students returning to classes in the Printmaking Lab at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) will notice a new addition when they return—a printing press donated to the college by Guardian Fine Art Services.

The intaglio-style press has the capacity to print large-scale works and on thicker surfaces like wood blocks and linoleum. This will allow students to use the press for multiple types of printing, from intaglio to etching to collagraphs.

Collagraph printing, or printing from an inked, textured plate, is a popular printmaking technique at MIAD. “Something like collagraph, where you’re using recycled materials, plastic, things like that, it’s very accessible, very cheap,” explains Matthew Presutti, Printmaking Lab Technician. “It’s a great entry point into printmaking. You don’t have to use a lot of toxic chemicals. It’s all the same kinds of things you would use for an acrylic painting, you’re just making a printable matrix out of it.”

Generously donated by John Shannon and Jan Serr of Guardian Fine Art Services, who also covered installation costs, the press joins a similar piece of equipment in the Printmaking Lab. Presutti hopes it will allow more students to be able to work while classes are being held in different parts of the lab.

“Printmaking takes a long time!” continues Presutti. “It requires a lot of focus and detail-oriented thinking and trying to make space for that is super important. If you want high-quality work being produced, you need a large amount of time.” With the addition of this second press, the Printmaking Lab will increase student access to user-friendly, versatile equipment.

“We’re doubling our most-used piece of equipment,” explains Presutti. “It is really exciting. We do have one [press] that’s very similar to this already, which is probably the heaviest-used piece of equipment in this room. It’s used by almost every student that comes through the printmaking lab.”

Presutti finishes, “It does really increase our capability and it’s a huge deal. I feel very lucky that we have the space to accommodate it.”

Read about a recent Printmaking class taught by Jeffrey Morin, MIAD’s President!