Glen Baldridge
Printmaking has been an integral part of Glen Baldridge‘s practice over the past 20 years. The artist makes editioned prints as well as unique works in sculpture, painting, and paper which incorporate advanced print techniques. Baldridge employs and explores traditional printmaking processes (intaglio, silkscreen, lithography) and creates his own variations and techniques through innovative use of materials. The mechanics and tools of printmaking relate directly to the themes and subjects of his work, stemming from a youth steeped in sub-cultures in which a tradition of subterfuge existed through reproduction and dissemination of underground entertainment.
Along with making his own studio work, Baldridge has published over 50 prints with his peers under Forth Estate (2005-2015), the print publishing company he co-founded with master printer Luther Davis. Through this endeavor, Baldridge’s notoriety grew, and relationships with other printers and publishers were forged.
Three new print projects from Du-Good Press, Flying Horse Editions, and a self-published print under the umbrella of a new venture called 0verrrun Editions are highlighted in this edition of KLAUSGALLERY.cloud
In 2021, Baldridge worked with Leslie Diuguid of Du-Good Press in Brooklyn to create at 28-color screenprint, titled No Way. Diuguid embraces screenprinting as a medium because of its capacity for seemingly endless methods of expression and experimentation. In 2017, she founded Du-Good Press, New York’s first Black woman-owned fine art printshop. She has since gained prominence collaborating with artists, designers, and illustrators to create innumerable lasting impressions in a space tailored to optimize versatility. The results are editions that connect art, industry, and commerce.
Diuguid worked to translate one of Baldridge’s poured-acrylic paintings into a 28-color screenprint. The original painting process employed by Baldridge extrapolates age-old paper marbling techniques to create lush abstractions of camouflaged texts. Diuguid was interested in bringing this “marbleization” back to paper through printing.
Taking on the challenge of capturing the vibrancy of color available in acrylics using printmaking inks proved technically complex. As well, there is an incredible skill evidenced in the perfect registration of 28 screens with intricate edges and overlap to render. The resulting print is a masterful artwork and technical achievement, something new born of its source.
No Way, 2021
16 x 20 in | 28 Color Screenprint
290 gsm Coventry Rag
Edition: 25
$500.00
Published by: Du-Good Press
… Baldridge continue[s his] mining of traditional artisan techniques — in this case the marbled paper tradition that spread from Asia to Europe, and was often used as a method to prevent against counterfeiting documents or spreading false information. Those skilled in developing the “secret knowledge” of the aqueous suspension of sinewy pigment across a field of paper became in demand as books began to be printed. Marbled end-leafs became a bridge between container and content, a bookend for the dissemination of civilization’s achievements.
In Baldridge’s rendition, the technique has lost its connective tissue. It has become the purview of psychedelic cake-makers and pot-paraphernalia. Embedded within the dank depths of acrylic polymers and pigments are base phrases that could be described as “dumb” (although Baldridge is keenly aware of that word’s double meaning as both stupid and inaudible). Burbling below the swampy surface are darkly comic nonsense phrases … that capture America’s descent into primal incoherence. Trumpeting the noise of our era, Baldridge cannibalizes received wisdom and pop culture into a riotous brew.
— David Kennedy Cutler, October 2017
Glen Baldridge, through his new print publishing venture 0verrrun Press, worked at the studios of Carlisle Editions in Maine to produce a screenprint related to his recent gouache works on paper. This No Way comes out of a series of works created with a paintbrush dipped in a rainbow of watercolor paints. Each piece starts with a phrase, most commonly “No Way”, which is obscured by a psychedelic echoing of color.
No Way, 2022
20 color screenprint
Edition of 40
24 x 18”
$900.00
Published by the artist and 0verrrun Editions
Printed at Carlisle Editions
Prints and Their Makers
Glen Baldridge’s work was featured prominently in Phil Sanders book, “Prints and Their Makers” published by Princeton Architectural Press (an imprint of Chronicle Books). In conjunction with the release of the book, Baldridge was a guest speaker with Chakaia Booker at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2020. “Prints and Their Makers” won the IFPDA Foundation Award for 2021.
A print by Baldridge titled, Thin Ice, BFF, (pictured below) is included in the artists edition of the book.
Flying Horse Editions is a non-profit publisher of limited-edition prints, artist books, and art objects at the University of Central Florida directed by master printer Theo Lotz. In 2013, Glen Baldridge worked in residency at Flying Horse Editions to publish two woodcut editions made from multiple solid oak and maple blocks. Baldridge was invited back in 2021 to create a series of monoprints related to his current studio work. For the two-week residency, Baldridge used a process of painting directly on plexiglas which was then run through a press to transfer the paint to paper, resulting in the series No Way Man (Night Owl).
No Way Man (Night Owl) 5, 2021
Watercolor monotype on Hahnemuhle Copperplate
29 × 23 in
73.7 × 58.4 cm
$3,750.00
published by Flying Horse Editions
From the Studio:
Paintings on Paper
In addition to his recent prints, Baldridge has been working in the studio on a group of unique works painted with gouache directly on paper or linen. Each piece is created by loading a brush with several vibrant colors and laying down the paint in successive brushstrokes to form owls or phrases like “No Way”. These works inspired several of Baldridge’s prints, and have in turn been influenced by some of the techniques developed through more indirect processes.
Glen Baldridge’s Work in Public Collections
Hideaway, 2013 installation view, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Asheville Art Museum, NC
City of Orlando Public Art Collection, FL
Dieu Donné Papermill, New York
Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, VA
Jundt Art Museum, Spokane, WA
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
New York Public Library, New York
RISD Museum, Providence, RI
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Yale University Art Galleries, New Haven, CT
Learn more about Glen Baldridge:
Visit Baldridge’s Artist Page on KLAUSGALLERY.com