Pyramid Atlantic

PRESS ON: A Juried Exhibition of the Art of Letterpress from Pyramid Atlantic

On View: May 30–July 20, 2025
Jurors: Celene Aubry, Hatch Show Print, and Allison Tipton, Globe Collection and Press at MICA


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 ad
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 inspiration
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 ma
 
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 B

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 show

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 l
  • Alisa Golden, Where’s Owl, 2023, Art quilt- letterpress printed on cotton
  • Aya Masumoto, Heartbeat, 2023, Letterpress artist book
  • David Wolske, Polysynthesis No. 1,   2021/22, Relief and letterpress from movable wood and metal type

Jurors’ Statement:

“Press On is a resounding, vibrant, thoughtful, poignant, and delightful statement that indeed, letterpress printing is not dead. There are more “stories” than there are artists represented on the walls at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center this summer, and I am honored to have been able to see so much incredi
As a fellow printer, used to mixing ink and making ready and cranking cranky old printing presses myself, the award winners stood out as creators whose work continues to push the medium, using familiar tools in new ways, or in the case of two of these artists, working in an additional medium or
I am humbled to have been able to view all of the work in this show, and I am certainly inspired!”

 

By Celene Aubry, Hatch Show Print and on behalf of Allison Tipton, Globe Collection and Press at MICA, June 2025


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THE REVIEWS:

Read two reviews of the Press On exhibition,  by Stephanie Rudig in the Washington City Paper and Mark Jenkins in his Substack newsletter, DisCerning Eye.

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SPACE: KNOWN / UNKNOWN by Sarah Matthews, Lauren Emeritz
  • Sarah Matthews, Lauren Emeritz
  • SPACE: KNOWN / UNKNOWN
  • Letterpress artist book

SPACE: Known/Unknown is a collaborative project between Lauren Emeritz & Sarah Matthews. They explore the universe of book arts using “space” as a metaphor and immerse themselves in the possibilities of letterpress and sculptural book techniques. SPACE: Known/Unknown incorporated hand-carved letters, Stars from Galileo’s “Sidereus Nuncius” (Starry Messenger), wood and metal type and printing blocks, to create a set of five prints. Three of the prints feature quotes: “Open a book, open the universe” -unknown; “We are made whole by books, as by great space and the stars” -Mary Carolyn Davies; and “The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you” -Neil deGrasse Tyson, while the other two prints are abstract compositions of letters and stars. The prints are printed on French Paper Pop-tone Black using transparent white, silver, yellow, and orange inks. Emeritz & Matthews used a Vandercook Universal 1 and Vandercook 4T to print 200 copies of each print; 1,000 prints total.