Shift-lab: Ten Years of Collaboration
Shift-lab is Katie Baldwin, Denise Bookwalter, Sarah Bryant, Macy Chadwick and Tricia Treacy. This collective of five women artists, working across the United States, has produced print and book-based projects for more than a decade.
Since 2013, Shift-lab has cultivated a collaborative practice through writing, curating, and making print- and book-based projects.
Historically rooted in collaboration, artist’s books bring together the skills of artist, writer, printer, and binder. Shift-lab expands on the collaborative nature of the book, investigating shifts in the digital and analog experiences of reading. The work is interdisciplinary and seeks to find the intersections among language, sequence, structure, and narrative.
This exhibition will feature ten years of artwork by Shift-lab, shown for the first time together—including four significant artists’ books, individual work, and a selection of prints and zines.
Visit the exhibition during our open hours, Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm and Thursdays until 7pm.
Free and open to the public
WhereMCBA Main Gallery
WhenFebruary 17, 2024–June 1, 2024
ReceptionFriday, March 8; 6–8pm
WorkshopPostcard Pocket Notebook: Collaboration and Exchange, Saturday, March 9; 9am–5pm
About Shift-lab
Shift-lab is a collective of five artists who expand their studio practices to collaborate on artists’ books and multiples. Shift-lab is Katie Baldwin (Huntsville, AL); Denise Bookwalter (Tallahassee, FL); Sarah Bryant (Tuscaloosa, AL); Macy Chadwick (Petaluma, CA); and Tricia Treacy (Lebanon, NH).
They have exhibited their work at Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum (Two Rivers, WI), Seager Gray Gallery (Mill Valley, CA) and San Francisco Center for the Book (San Francisco, CA). They have presented their creative research at the Philadelphia Art Book Fair and have participated in the Codex Book Fair since 2015. Their work is included in numerous collections, including: Dartmouth College Special Collections, Rhode Island School of Design Special Collections, Yale University Art of the Book Collection, Jack Ginsberg Book Arts Collection, and Mary Austin Book Arts Collection.
Since its founding in 2013, this collective has produced three major artists’ book projects as well as a number of smaller projects and printing events. Its most recent project, REF (2019), investigates the transition from traditional reference texts in dedicated physical spaces toward the use of algorithmic relevance and keyword searches. Working together, members of the collective created fifteen responses to traditional reference texts using dates related to this transition as an organizational principle. The development of the project took place online, through contemporary technology such as Skype and Google docs, as well as in person in several locations and libraries across the United States.
These women members work from across the US to expand dialogue through exhibitions and projects that investigate narrative, communication, and the book. Shift-lab continues to study the shift in contemporary perspectives relating to studio practice, collaboration, and both digital & analogue experiences.
Katie Baldwin is a printmaker and book artist who received her MFA from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and and a Fulbright Scholar at National Taiwan Normal University in the International Printmaking Center, Department of Fine Arts.
Denise Bookwalter is a printmaker and book artist living in Tallahassee, Florida where she is a Professor of Art at Florida State University and Founding Director of Small Craft Advisory Press, a collaborative book arts press. She has exhibited extensively and her books can be found in collections nationally and internationally.
Sarah Bryant is a book artist who produces work under the name Big Jump Press. Her work can be found in dozens of collections in the US and abroad. She is an Assistant Professor for the MFA Book Arts Program in the School of Library and Information Studies at The University of Alabama.
Macy Chadwick is the Director of In Cahoots Residency in Petaluma California–an artist residency with a focus on artist books, letterpress, printmaking, writing, and collaboration. Macy received an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts, and taught at the Academy of Art University and San Francisco Art Institute.
Tricia Treacy is an interdisciplinary designer, artist and educator. She was awarded fellowships/grants from American Academy in Rome, DesignInquiry and the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. She is an Associate Professor and Chair of Studio Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.
Watch the shift-lab artist panel:
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