Hot Bed Press in partnership with Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Salford Community Leisure and University of Salford Art Collection, supported by Arts Council England, are pleased to announce a major new printmaking exhibition taking place from May to September 2018.

The exhibition will involve new work by 4 artists. There will be 2 new commissions selected from submissions with a further 2 commissioned artists currently resident at Hot Bed Press’s Print Lab studios, [Lubna Ali and Claudia Alonso, who are supported through University of Salford Art Collection’s scholarship scheme]. We are inviting artists whose work challenges and questions perceived constricts and rules around printmaking; such as material, scale, authorship, craft and the concept of the limited edition.

The resulting work will be exhibited at Salford Museum & Art Gallery from mid 2018, (dates to be announced ), in a specially created space within the gallery. There is also a budget for gallery installation, framing, hanging and presentation, as well as full marketing of the exhibition, supporting events and private view/launch.

We are looking for two artists either from Hot Bed Press membership or via our networks of printmakers. Work should be dynamic, challenge the norms of printmaking and open up new dialogues & debates on the nature of print. The selection process will consider how the artists’ work will be installed together and how the work will engage audiences, inspire debate and challenge traditional perceptions of printmaking.

Each artist will be given £1,500 fee including materials, plus free access to Hot Bed Press facilities and resources plus dedicated time in our new Print Lab professional studios, where needed. There will also be mentoring and technical support tailored to suit the artists’ needs within Hot Bed Press.

As part of the commission the selected artists are asked to gift artwork (or an element of the artwork) to the University of Salford Art Collection after the exhibition to be in the university’s permanent collection.

Deadline for submissions is no later than 10.00am on Monday 26th February.

Selection:
Selection of the remaining two artists, to join the University of Salford scholars; Claudia and Lubna, is by a panel made up of Sean Rorke, Artistic Director of Hot Bed Press, Lindsay Taylor, Art Curator at University of Salford Art Collection and Amy Goodwin, Exhibitions Officer at Salford Museum & Art Gallery. The panel will meet on Thursday 1st March and applicants will be notified by 2nd March.

The selected artists are expected to be available to dedicate enough time to research, develop and produce a new body work over the next few months leading up to the show, to be able to meet and collaborate with the other artists and the Director of Hot Bed Press to create a dynamic and thought-provoking exhibition of outstanding quality.

Submission Details:
Please send a description/explanation of the work you intend to make, outlining why you feel the work challenges the norms and expectations of printmaking. This should be no more than 500 words. Include your full contact details, your phone number, and any links to websites or social media that shows the nature of your work/artistic career.

Please also include a current c.v. and up to 10 jpeg images of recent or past work. You may also wish to include drawings, sketches, digital images or photographs that illustrate the ideas for the work you intend to create for Print Unlimited.

Please send all applications to sean@hotbedpress.org no later than 1.00pm Monday 26th February.

More details
Print Unlimited is a pilot project led by Salford Museum & Art Gallery & Salford Community Leisure in partnership with University of Salford Art Collection and Hot Bed Press. Highlighting the wealth of creativity in Salford it aims to engage new audiences, whilst celebrating and challenging contemporary printmaking.

As well as the 4 new commissions there will also be a programme of workshops and talks at Salford Museum & Art Gallery. More details to be announced in the run up to the exhibition.

What are we looking for?
The brief is open. The content of the work may be abstract, literal, political, social or none of the above. We do not know what the work will look like or how it will be made. Digital print could marry up with traditional printmaking, traditional printmaking maybe subverted. New ways of making prints may be utilised, machinery and processes not usually associated with printmaking taken advantage of and/or alternative materials investigated.

The work may be collaborative, individual, multiple, singular, open ended or closed and can be of any scale. Themes may overlap between artists or may be widely divergent. The linking thread will be printmaking and radical thinking.

With thanks to Arts Council England; Grants for The Arts and University of Salford Art Collection for supporting this project. Thanks also to Salford Museum & Art Gallery and Salford Community Leisure [and Hot Bed Press] for facilitating and making it happen.