The Directors' Top Picks From Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2022

Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair was founded by Gallerists, Lizzie Glendinning and Jack Bullen, while running their contemporary art gallery Brocket London. On a mission to educate collectors and novices alike on printmaking processes and techniques, give emerging artists a platform, and share the joy of collecting original art with the masses, WCPF was established in 2016, and continues to be a pioneer in the world of contemporary print. It has become Europe's largest dedicated contemporary original print fair, showcasing the best in contemporary printmaking from independent artists, well known names and specialist galleries from across the globe.

Jack Bullen is a practising artist and studied Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School, where he went onto work for many years. Lizzie Glendinning is a Curator and Art Dealer with a background in Art History and Fashion Curation, with specialisms in Chinese art history after managing a private Asian Art gallery in Mayfair for a number of years; and curating art for interiors.

“We love the colour, bold shapes and scale of this Eastern Asia inspired piece. while referencing many of the themes running through this year’s fair such as the ‘collector’ in the museological sense and art historical narratives or archival studies.”

Ella West is a London-based artist and recent graduate from Slade School of Art. In the Keepers, the Maintainers (2022) print series, acts of care for the geological materials and the land are explored. Through these works, she is concerned with how geology, stone monuments and archeological sites can be used to explore how the ground has entangled itself with nature and human culture, and how it can shape our notion of home, history and the passing of time.

“The depiction of the gown in this work gives a sense of strength & determination, reflected in the stark Brutalism of the doorway, yes the drapery juxtaposes the architectural shape leaving a sense of paralleled ambiguity - who was wearing the gown, and what’s beyond the door?”

Felicity Warbrick has exhibited internationally and uses drypoint, woodcut with painting and monotype to make her images. She takes objects or scenes from the real world, ranging freely across cultures and geographical boundaries in search always of the authentic or handmade.

“We love the painterly nature of monotypes. This one is particularly vibrant, full of vivid colour and gesture. Perfect antidote to what is a very grey start to November.”

Valeska Hykel is an award winning painter and printmaker whose work is an ongoing dialogue between these two practices. Hykel’s recent series of screen printed monotypes explore longing, homesickness and Panmnemism: the idea that inanimate objects can hold onto memories. Considering wallpaper, textiles and the possessions that surround us as silent observers of the human experience, she proposes that these objects absorb our trivial day-to-day; our joys; our traumas, and repeat them back in distorted echoes. Examining these interrelationships, the work seeks to reflect her experience of a haunted present.

“We love the classical elements of the containers or vessels depicted in Uriquia’s pieces.. There is great drama through their work through the textures and layering of the inks.”

Alba Urquia is currently studying at Royal College of Art and co-curates Pri’s Art Salon, an art collective based in London. Alba is interested in exploring the duality of the human condition. Her practice touches upon philosophical concepts related to existentialism, absurdism, and phenomenology. Alba is currently developing a series that uses the imagery of vessels to represent the physical body as a container of consciousness.

“We’re really enjoying discovering Emmett’s humorous mis-en-scenes.”

Merrill's work uses the lithographic process to create narrative prints which combine Americana imagery with that of myth and legend. The prints deal with the emptiness of the American landscape, the derivation of ghost stories, local legends, objects of Art History, and the culture surrounding the highway system. The work also explores how time can move within a single visual space. Objects and foliage appear scattered along the ground in the works, as if a tornado whipped through a gas station and a history museum and all artifacts landed together in the same field.

“We’ve recently had two babies and these gentle depictions of motherhood really resonate so much with us.”

Katherine is an artist living and working in Sussex. Primarily a figurative artist, the themes that run through her work are focussed on women, domesticity and motherhood. Katherine’s work is a reflection of her current stage in life and is a way for her to work through the delicate balance between her multiple roles as mother, professional and artist.Therin Pethers, Swans as Thatchers as Women, 2022, 42 x 29 cm, Edition of 50, Chine-collé, Digital Monotype

“This work demonstrates a really beautiful use of materials with an old master feel.”

Therin Pethers’ work stutters on the threshold of the perceivable. By combining her own coding technique with an age-old tradition of draughtsmanship, she manipulates imagery and pushes it to the extent of the knowable. It teeters between the sublime and the known. Pethers has exhibited across the UK, in Paris and the US. Her work is housed in many private collections, including the S&S foundation in Sydney, Australia and the Douglas and Spruce partnership in Brooklyn, New York.

“We love this and have it purchased for our children’s nursery.”

Alli Eynon’s work explores relationships - real or imagined, abstract and figurative. Inspiration varies but observations of family dynamics, childhood and animals are recurrent motifs. The use of props invite the viewer to consider the inner world of the protagonists. Ambiguous characters take centre stage in Alli’s semi-real world, where the viewer is invited to create their own narrative. Alli’s 'Portrait of a Girl' series is informed by observations of her daughter and memories of her own childhood. The figure is centre stage and looking out - the child is in charge here. The props she holds symbolise her emotional, inner world. Her work is held in numerous private collections.

“We love Natasha’s painterly feel to her beautiful monotypes. They’re always quite cheeky, especially this one with the nipple poking out. We have invited Natasha to join us on a residency at our gallery in ”

The origins of Natasha Michaels' recent monoprints lie in historical paintings from the renaissance to the 19th century. Exploring and reinterpreting traditional conventions and genres, Michaels’ work is an investigation of her own ambivalence towards the originals. At once subverting and celebrating, she uses her own expressive language to recast and redirect the sitters, reimagining them as fictional characters.

“Becky’s work is so complex and technical, we were drawn to her moody depictions of skyscapes with the subtle hints of pink and grey. It invites you to look closer and longer.”

Becky Haughton’s work considers recollections of landscape via digital and traditional drawing and printmaking processes. In recent work Becky has explored a mokulito and monoprint layering process developing a series of cloud images collected from her drawing books. Prints made since lockdowns see these skyscapes through apertures, framed as from the perspective of a passenger and various themes of night travel have emerged through the printmaking. She aims to allude to fleeting visual moments and how they might be re-imagined.