Welcome
Hello, Print Friend is a podcast dedicated to celebrating and amplifying contemporary printmaking and its culture. Releasing weekly interviews with artists, activists, curators, and print champions, we explore what brings together this passionate yet often geographically separated community across a press bed and around the world.
meet your hosts
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meet your hosts ||
Miranda K. Metcalf
Miranda K. Metcalf holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in art history with a focus on printmaking. She has held the directorship of arts organizations in Australia, Thailand, and the United States in both commercial and non-profit institutions and serves on the board of Print Austin. She is the director and founder of Hello, Print Friend Studios.
Reinaldo Gil Zambrano
Reinaldo Gil Zambrano is an award-winning printmaking artist from Caracas, Venezuela, in Spokane, WA. Reinaldo is currently an associate professor of Printmaking at Gonzaga University, Co-founder of the Spokane Print & Publishing Center, and former Art Commissioner for the state of Washington.
Listen to the latest
This week Miranda speaks with David Barker of the Muban Education Trust, an organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, researching, and exhibiting contemporary Chinese woodblock prints.
David is a researcher, writer, former professor of printmaking, and one of the leading English-language scholars working on Chinese printmaking today, having contributed to a number of books published by The British Library, The British Museum and The China National Academy of Fine Arts contributing regularly to the journal Printmaking Today. He joins the podcast today in his role as the Senior Research Fellow at the Muban Educational Trust weeks before the trust was to show at the London Original Print Fair.
In this conversation, they discuss the history of the Trust, how a small London-based institution became one of the most important collections of contemporary Chinese woodblock prints outside of China, and the relationships they’ve built with artists and academies across the country over the last three decades.
They talk about the continuing importance of woodblock printing in China, the role of institutions like the Central Academy and Hangzhou Academy in preserving traditional techniques while fostering contemporary experimentation, and why woodblock remains such a vital and evolving medium for young artists today. David also reflects on the educational mission of the Trust, the challenges of collecting and exhibiting contemporary Chinese prints internationally, and the fascinating lineage that connects today’s artists back to some of the earliest print traditions in the world.
Hoy Reinaldo estará conversando con Memo Orduña. Maestro impresor y artist gráfico originario de Oaxaca y jefe de edición del taller la Buena Impresión. Memo comenzó su carrera inspirado por el trabajo artístico de sus familiares y a su temprana edad se convirtió en la cabecera de la impresión en este prestigioso taller dedicado a la litografía.