Kip Gresham Prints

Kip Gresham is a master printer, publisher and artist. He has established several influential and highly productive printmaking studios and publishing houses. All have been driven by his technical skills, experimentation and creative collaboration.

In his own practice, the nature of materials is of paramount importance and Kip investigates the gap between intention and result by employing methods of supreme control as well as total lack of control. In his drawings, Kip has worked in graphite and varnish, the graphite pencil being the simplest of tools yet acute in revealing the hand of the artist through the marks. Varnish is transparent and Kip has used this material by drawing without touching the paper. The resulting visual dialogue between the acute and the uncontrollable is compelling. The underlying intention of each image is exactly the same and in effect Kip is making each drawing twice, layer upon layer.

There is an obsessive aspect to Kip’s practice in which the materials are combined with repetitive marks and familiar shapes to encounter essence. Kip creates a code by saying something with different materials and mediums which is highly structured while also being ideally impenetrable. As a result the works are enigmatic, mysterious, familiar and transcendent.