Prints Charming

Next week sees the opening of Bite, an exhibition of prints that will see emerging artists sharing wall space with the likes of Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Sir Peter Blake.

The works were all submitted through an open competition, and demonstrate a broad range of different printmaking techniques including digital prints, screen prints, woodcuts and etchings.

Recent University of Brighton printmaking graduate Laura White’s Dissonance is among the works on show, which were selected by a panel including Royal Academician and ex-Professor of Printmaking at the RCA Chris Orr and RA Schools Epson Print Research fellow Barton Hargreaves.

White’s stunning black and white image is typical of the young artists work, using microscopic photography worked up in collaboration with scientists at Brighton University manipulated using Photoshop.

White says, ‘It’s a section of a leaf – all my work’s based on environmental issues and sustainability. This one looks at the effects of pollution – it’s a section 200 times its original size in black and white.’

She adds, ‘My drawings are very detailed and precise. I’m really interested in chaos and order and how we as humans make order in a chaotic world. The need to create ordered drawings led me onto looking at microscopic photography and my interest in nature.’

White feels that printmaking naturally attracts a bold, instant-gratification, colourful pop art aesthetic. Also featuring in the show is Michael Craig Martin’s Lust with its brash colouring; and Sir Peter Blake’s Some of the Sources of Pop Art No 7, a visual ‘who’s who’ of the movement.

All of the works are for sale, though Hirst’s diamond-dust adorned kaleidoscope of butterflies, Exaudi Domine will set you back a rather hefty £12 000.

Bite: Artist Making Prints runs from 24 August – 3 September at Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1