The Swedish Printmakers’ Association was founded in 1910 by a handful of artists with the intention, then as now, of furthering the interests of printmakers, arranging print exhibitions and distributing information about printmaking as an art form. The Association has worked internationally from the very beginning, exhibiting in many countries, and arranging print exhibitions from abroad. The Swedish Printmakers´ Association runs a gallery from which there is a vast network of contacts to other printmakers´ collective workshops and printmakers´ associations in Sweden and abroad. The Association functions as an information centre and meeting point for those who appreciate prints and for artists who are printmakers. Its members are testing and extending the boundaries, if indeed there are any, of printmaking. It is a collective of some 430 active printmakers encompassing just as many means of expression. A jury chooses new members every year. Work is submitted and qualifications are assessed.

With a combined member base of over 500 print-makers from around the world, the galleries have selected Maria Erickson, Jakob Leijonheilm and Eric Saline to coordinate the project. The team will “perform” the production of graphic works on site, collaboratively, involving students from the grafik pre-university and university programmes from around Sweden, including Dômen, Göteborgs Konstskola and others GiV and GS member will also participate in the activities (Supermarket visitors are also welcome to participate!). We will not use a traditional printing press, rather, explore a wide range of various other techniques involving our hands/ feet, stamping, and other non-traditional ways of mark-making onto surfaces.
Work produced will be used to create an installation in the Art Fair booth, and additional formats will also be explored and created on site, such as posters, post cards, 'zines and so on.
The priorities of the project are to present how exciting printmaking can be, while helping us to re-think our relationships to our own personal relationships to printmaking in a group, and to inspire the public to reconsider the multiple ways printmaking remains and will continue to be a powerful tool for communication.
In conjunction with our booth, artist and GiV Spokesperson Nina Bondesson would like to offer a presentation, or be integrated into a panel discussion, like she was in 2014.
Here's a bit of info about her theme:
Vad är detta med tryckta bilder?
Vår vardag svämmar över av trycksaker. Det mesta åker direkt i pappersåtervinningen. Deras ärende är oftast ett och detsamma: att få oss att köpa olika varor och tjänster. Vi förväntar oss därför inte några särskilda överraskningar av det pappersburna, tryckta innehållet.
De verkliga kostnaderna för framställningen av trycksaker döljs också för oss i fastställda priser för varor och tjänster. Vi betraktar dem därför som gratis och tillfälliga, utan något speciellt värde i form eller innehåll.
Är konsekvensen av detta att bildkommunikationen, som aldrig varit så omfattande som idag, samtidigt trivialiseras? Drunknar vår förmåga att läsa bilder i den brusande bildfloden? Hur hänger dessa massutskick ihop med den grafiska konsttillverkning som ständigt pågått och pågår vid sidan av kommersiella allfarvägar? Vad har tryckkonstens olika områden för betydelse? Från det kommersiella till konstgrafikens poetiska undantag. Från det hantverkliga till digitala representationer. Hur ser vi på bilder idag?
Nina Bondeson, konstnär med grafiken som en avgörande delmängd i sitt arbete, ger en personlig betraktelse över denna samtida bildflod och dess förgreningar.