images left to right:
Hide & Seek by Laine Groeneweg, mezzotint, 2016 | GARGOYLE (work in progress), Scar Tissue Series by Susan Aydan Abbott, digital photograph of silicone and foam sculpture cast, 2017
Martha Street Studio has teamed up with Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts in Hamilton, Ontario, on a Residency Exchange program. Laine Groeneweg and Susan Aydan Abbott are the inaugural recipients of the residency. Join us at Martha Street Studio on September 22nd from 7-8pm for an artist talk with Groeneweg, and on October 6th from 7-8pm November 10th from 7-8 pm for an artist talk with Abbott.
Both events are free and open to the public.
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Laine Groeneweg is a printmaker currently living in Hamilton, Canada. He received his BFA from York University in 2004 and subsequently trained at Fondazione Il Bisonte Per Lo Studio Dell’Arte Grafica in Florence, Italy with a focus on intaglio printmaking.
In 2012 Laine opened Smokestack in Hamilton, Ontario – a studio that focuses on limited edition printing and the production of print-based artist projects. It is through this studio that he makes his own work as well as that for others. Laine also continues to work as a collaborative printer at Toronto's Open Studio and Centre[3].
Laine is most widely recognized for his work in mezzotint. His prints explore the possibilities of a traditional technique in the wake of more contemporary production methods. Often characterized by themes of dream and play, his whimsical imagery blurs the line between reality and fiction.
Laine's prints have been shown both Nationally and Internationally and are held in the permanent collections of the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts (Ekaterinburg, Russia), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), and in the archives at Fondazione Il Bisonte Per Lo Studio Dell’Arte Grafica (Florence,Italy).
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Susan Aydan Abbott is a recipient of Martha Street Studio and Centre[3]'s Residency Exchange. She was recently in residence at Centre[3], working on a project using printmaking and other media to explore Century Manor (formely the Hamilton Asylum for the Insane) in tandem with her own personal history with mental illness.
Booby Hatch (Wo)manifesto: A Feminine Perspective of Century Manor (Hamilton Asylum for the Insane) will explore the asylum's dark past in tangent with Abbott's own personal history of mental illness. The artist's intent is to bring darkness to light by confronting how unresolved trauma lingers, smouldering in the shadows, permeating the soil, landscape, and structure of both the asylum and herself. At the same time, the artist questions whether there has been a significant change in the way mental illness is perceived and treated in contemporary society.
Abbott was born in Port Arthur, Ontario, in 1962. She works primarily in the medium of painting but has expanded her practice to include printmaking, sculpture, video, and large-scale installation. She attended the University of Manitoba, Fine Arts program. She has had solo shows and has been in many group shows in Winnipeg. Abbott is a person with lived experience who shares her life story through her work as a trained speaker for the Canadian Mental Health Association and the United Way. She serves on both the ArtsAccessAbility Network Manitoba board and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority mental health advisory board.
CW for this talk: rape, trauma, addiction
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These events are free and everyone is welcome! Martha Street Studio is located at 11 Martha St. and is an accessible space with an elevator and two washrooms. ASL interpretation is available upon request. Please email askmartha@printmakers.mb.ca or call us at 204-779-6253 at least 48 hours before the event if you are interested in attending and require ASL interpretation.