HOT OFF THE PRESS: Prints Of 2006 From New York Printshops
The Grolier Club

The Grolier Club was founded in 1884 by gentlemen bibliophiles to foster awareness of fine printing and all the related arts of the book. But the club also has a distinguished association with printmaking: Its clubhouse presented the first exhibitions in New York, for instance, of Whistler’s engravings and of Japanese woodblock prints, both in the 1890s.

Janice Carlson Oresman has curated “Hot Off the Press,” a survey of new work by 54 contemporary artists using a host of printmaking mediums. While the show is organized by technique — the layout is heavily circumscribed by the glazed cabinets, designed with books in mind — its defining characteristic is that it exclusively celebrates print workshops in New York City. These include such mainstays as the Dieu Donné Papermill on Broome Street, which works with papers and pulps; Pace Editions Ink, which largely services the printmakers represented by PaceWildenstein, including here Chuck Close, Jim Dine, and James Siena; and Two Palms, which works with artists Ellen Gallagher and Elizabeth Peyton. Ms. Gallagher’s “Abu Simbel” humorously collides an appropriated engraving of ancient Egypt with African-American imagery. It combines photogravure with watercolor, pencil, varnish, pomade, faux fur, gold leaf, crystals, and the artist’s trademark material, yellow plasticine.

Many artists prove the wonders to be had from time-honored mediums: Thomas Nozkowski, for instance, with five intaglio prints made at Simmelink/Sukimoto Editions, who also published the set, and Polly Apfelbaum, whose screen-printed “Flags of Revolt and Defiance” are on display, recall a sense of printmaking as a “democratic art” in their crisp, graphic stridency. Digital printing mediums are appealing to many artists such as Doris Salcedo, whose “Abyss” documents an installation in Turin, Italy, and who before the advent of this new medium would have made do committing more rudimentary photo-manipulations to screen print.

Artists and workshops alike love nothing better than to stretch boundaries and defy odds. Betty Woodman’s “Balustrade 05-7,” printed by Shark’s Inc., is a tour de force of versatility, combining woodcut and lithography with chine collé and collage to produce an intriguing shaped multiple that recalls the unbounded inventiveness of her ceramics.

Until February 3 (47 E. 60th St., between Park and Madison avenues, 212-838-6690).