Untitled by Brooke Burnside, chine collé relief print (courtesy of Flatbed Press)
Embarking on another year of printmaking, Flatbed Press’ new joint exhibition simultaneously reflects on a storied past and looks to a bright future. The Austin printmaking center’s latest, “A Legacy and a New Voice,” features the work of Jerry Manson, who worked at Flatbed for nearly 30 years (until his death), and recent Flatbed resident Brooke Burnside.
Jerry Manson developed a strong interest in printmaking after enrolling in a lithography course at the University of Texas, taught by Ken Hale, who became his mentor. Hale says Manson admired the intricate process of printmaking, from designing to inking to executing the print, and considered its challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. He admired its collaborative nature even more so, believing unity was a studio’s key to thriving.
“Jerry was a gentle and generous person,” Hale remembers. “He willingly gave his time to projects that had little to do with his own work but were important to the operations of an open and communal studio.”
Featured in the exhibition are many of Manson’s lithographs and etchings. The lithographs pop with pinks and yellows and abstract images of people and lions. Some, like Ghost and Fars Lion, use chine-collé, a printmaking technique that creates a layered effect highlighting both the large and minute details in an image. Manson’s etchings are also distinguished in detail, with fine lines creating structures and scenes that jump from the page.
Flatbed’s residency program named after Manson provides resources and support to its awardees, allowing the artist to explore new printmaking methods and craft a distinct tone. Burnside is the 2024 recipient of that honor.
Burnside’s work mines a similar vein to Manson’s, and the monoprint medium she uses allows for experimentation in her images. The exhibit features many variations of her piece Looking Out, depicting a woman in profile. Each variation reveals something different. The woman’s face and braids stand out in some of the monoprints, but gain vibrancy when melded into collages, showing how much versatility a single image can provide. Fruit imagery also adds a diverse array of colors, often overlapping and flowing as if falling into a vibrant sea.
“Thinking about things that bear fruit, thinking about things that have visual, representational connection to or symbolic connections to femininity and fertility, and also things that perish,” Burnside says. “That’s sort of where the fruit imagery came up.”
“My work has always kind of been about themes dealing with my Black womanhood,” Burnside continues. “There’s just so much that I think about constantly with my hair, with myself, and then also with society; it’s just such a rich but also visually beautiful motif to work with.”
“A Legacy and a New Voice: Jerry Manson and Brooke Burnside”
Through February 22, Flatbed Press
