Crown Point Press

Crown Point Press presents Spring Evolutions, a group exhibition showcasing artists whose work combines abstraction and geometry with images of the natural world. The results are a union of distinct features that evolve into wholly unique compositions. The blend of organic subject matter and inorganic forms produces vibrant images that emerge like new growth sprouting during the spring season. These etchings evoke the spirit of perseverance, hope and renewal that a new season promises.

Crown Point Press presents All Color, an exhibition featuring a group of artists whose etchings explore the expressive potential of color. In this exhibition, color serves not just as an aesthetic choice but as an integral aspect used to amplify the imagery of each print. The artists employ vibrant, rich tones to create dynamic compositions through the techniques of aquatint, spite bite, and sugar lift. The works featured in All Color demonstrate the universal impact color can have in etching.

Crown Point Press presents Only Black and White, a group exhibition that explores the intricacies of black and white prints. Featuring a diverse group of artists, the exhibition highlights the significance of line, tone, and expression in the absence of color, inviting a deep engagement with form and contrast. The works showcase the artists’ ability to balance simplicity and complexity using only the monochrome palette, revealing profound depth and subtle nuance.

Crown Point Press announces two complementary exhibitions. One features new etchings by Rupy C. Tut and the other prints by four figurative artists: Mamma Andersson, Marcel Dzama, Chris Ofili, and Shahzia Sikander. These artists enliven and expand the figurative tradition while reflecting on contemporary issues.

Crown Point Press is pleased to release its first project with Oakland-based artist Rupy C. Tut. In the spring of 2024 in the Press’s etching studio, Tut created her first intaglio prints during a two-week residency. Tut is influenced by 18th century traditional Indian painting and was trained in the techniques of that period. She creates densely colorful figurative paintings which reflect social and contemporary issues of motherhood, feminism, patriarchy, identity and the environment. To create the paintings, Tut transfers line drawings onto hemp paper or linen and hand-mixes her palette from raw pigments. In the Crown Point studio, she used hard ground and soft ground etching to create fine lines and the aquatint technique for color. In these six new etchings, Tut melds traditional forms, exquisite line drawing, and rich color to tell personal stories about the landscape and the female figure. She has said, "I strive to center the narrative around female characters who are struggling but resilient, facing hardships but also bolstered by support systems, and tackling patriarchal challenges while also setting examples of winning the fight." In the print, A matter of presence, Tut uses line work and movement to symbolize her experience of diving fearlessly into a new medium. Rupy C. Tut was born in northern India in 1985, and immigrated to California with her family in the late 1990s. She received a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2006 and a M.P.H from Loma Linda University in 2009. In 2016 she studied traditional Indian painting at Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, London. Her first solo exhibition was at the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, Ontario, Canada and most recently, her work was exhibited at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (Into View: New Voices, New Stories) and at the Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (Contemporary Sikh Art). Tut is the recipient of the 2024 SECA Award; her work will be shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in December 2024. She is represented by the Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. Her work is in the collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; and the Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis.

To inaugurate the summer season, Crown Point presents Summer Choices, an exhibition that emphasizes the wide range of etching, the medium which the Press has specialized for more than half a century. The exhibition showcases an array of lively and bold images such as Al Held's intricate brightly colored woodblock print, Pachinko and Darren Almond's color photogravure of a tropical landscape, Fullmoon@Kitandara: Mountains of the Moon. Alex Katz’s aquatint, Black Shoes depicts feet in socks and sandals, and Robert Bechtle’s etching Mississippi Street Intersection captures an iconic San Francisco street scene of a VW bug atop a hill. Ed Ruscha's Lonely Highway offers a roadside billboard proclaiming “Gal chews same piece of gum since 1970.” The exhibition also includes a wall of etchings printed in various shades of blue, a color that epitomizes summer by its reference to sky and water. John Zurier’s predominantly blue etching Drifting evokes the depth and beauty of the ocean at evening. In Summer Pond, by Pat Steir, her richly gestural print blurs the line between reality and abstraction while the use of the grid adds structure against the kinetic drawing. Other artists included in the exhibition are William Bailey, John Chiara, Richard Diebenkorn, Leonardo Drew, Mary Heilmann, Jacqueline Humphries, Bryan Hunt, Markus Lupertz, David Nash, Pat Steir, Wayne Thiebaud, Catherine Wagner, and William T. Wiley.

Crown Point Press presents Gestural Language, an exhibition that brings together a group of artists who have pursued 20th century abstract painting using a variety of individualized visual languages. Characterized by gestural brush strokes or painterly mark making, the works of these artists make a case for the continued relevance of an almost one-hundred-year-old genre as a vital tradition of creation. On view at Crown Point Press April 4 - May 31, the exhibition includes prints by Pia Fries, Jacqueline Humphries, Janis Provisor, Laurie Reid, Amy Sillman, Pat Steir, Patricia Treib, Mary Weatherford, and Charline von Heyl.

Crown Point Press announces Jacqueline Humphries, an exhibition of new prints by the New York- based artist. Humphries created seven color etchings during her second Crown Point project in October 2023. The new prints are each nearly square, with a dot matrix background and a central splatter shape. The prints are untitled, qualified by the dominant color in parentheses, and Humphries’ choice of color in each print is uniquely subtle and varied. Layered hues vibrate against the staccato of dotted backgrounds and gestural foregrounds.