April Vollmer

Exhibition Dates: October 15–16, 2025
Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 15, 2–4 PM

Image Title:
Flight Plans, 2025
14 × 17 inches, edition of 5
Sumi ink on Mura Udabon washi

Flight Plans

Flight Plans is a series of hand-cut and laser-cut woodcuts depicting patterns of flying birds inspired by photographs taken along the Santa Cruz coast. Printed by hand on handmade Japanese paper, these works explore the spatial contradictions inherent in printmaking, reflecting the intricate and often paradoxical realities of a changing environment.

About the Artist
April Vollmer is a New York–based artist and educator known for her innovative approach to mokuhanga, the traditional Japanese woodcut technique. Holding an M.F.A. from Hunter College, she first traveled to Japan in 2004 through the Nagasawa Art Park Program. Vollmer’s practice combines respect for traditional craft with contemporary experimentation—she carves freely, reorients blocks, and layers impressions to create complex, evolving images.

She serves on the advisory boards of the International Mokuhanga Conference (Japan), Kentler International Drawing Space (New York), and the Mokuhanga Project Space (Washington). Her book, Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop (Watson-Guptill, 2015), is a leading resource on contemporary mokuhanga practice.

Learn more at www.aprilvollmer.com

The See-Through Plantation

Ethnographic Print Media from the Philippine South

by Raty Syka and Alyssa Paredes

April 9 – 20, 2025

OPENING RECEPTION

Thursday, April 10 4:00-5:30 PM

Contemporary Print Media Research Center

Baskin Art Department Courtyard, UC Santa Cruz

https://art.ucsc.edu/event/2025/03/the-see-through-plantation/

Please join us for the opening of “Graphic Ecosystem”, Monday, March 3rd, at the Contemporary Print Media Research Center

Graphic Ecosystems

Artist Books and the identity of invasive plant species by Antia Iglesias

Exhibition dates: March 3-9, 2025

Opening reception: March 3rd 5pm

At the UCSC Contemporary Print Media Research Center

Baskin Visual Arts Studios G-111

Antia Iglesias “Graphic Ecosystem” exhibition CPMRC March 3-7

A collection of prints confronting the facades of misinformation, suppression, and colonial shadows

At:The UCSC Contemporary Print Media Research Center Baskin Art Studio G111

Dates: November 4-15, 2024

Reception: November 4th, 2024 5pm

A graphic collaboration of Barbara Banish and Enrique Leal with Michael J. Shapiro and Sam Okoth Opondo for their new book passages

Exhibition dates: March 15-April 15, 2024.

Closing reception: April 15th. 5 p.m.

at The UCSC Contemporary Print Media Research Center- UCSC Art Department G111

Exhibition dates: November 30 – December 8, 2023 at The UCSC Contemporary Print Media Research CenterBaskin Art Studio G111

Our sixth visiting artist Dav Bell is working on his woodblock print project entitled And it Makes a Fiery Ring.

And it makes a fiery ring is a pursuit of love and healing through the observation of time, not the spiraling incessant tick of the clock, but through the slow, determined physicality of trees. 

Dav Bell is an artist and independent arts organizer who loves collaborating with kind people to cultivate tangible and creative connections. Through encounter, relationship building, and skill sharing, he sees art as a possibility for truth and reconciliation. Much of his artistic practice and thinking is inspired by his upbringing on an ecological preserve in Southern California, where he was raised in a family of wildlife and environmental conservationists. He explores materials reuse and living sustainably through woodworking, writing, and gift-giving and is interested in how storytelling and craft can flourish in gift economies. Prior to making a life in the arts, he worked as a firefighter for the US Forest Service and as a park ranger at the Upper Tampa Bay State Park in Florida. He studied visual art at Metáfora School of Contemporary Art in Barcelona and holds a BFA from the University of California Los Angeles. In 2015 he founded the Los Angeles-based artist project Visitor Welcome Center which he directed through 2021. He is currently an MFA candidate in the Environmental Art and Social Practice program at UCSC, collaborating with L Gilbert on The Greenhouse Project: an intergenerational educational space that explores the relationship between art, food, and climate justice.

Merge, 2022, eucalyptus ash on kitakata paper, 24” x 16”

Our fifth visiting artist Sarah Smelser will be working on her print project October 24 to December 2, 2022.

Sarah plans to develop a suite of monotypes entitled Campus Tour, where she uses walking as an entry point into image making. She writes, “While walking, I measure my mileage by the ground I’ve covered, my loose sense of direction, and the rhythm of my breath and footsteps. I consider how land looks from above and how plots fit together; I imagine a map and wander inside one, looking for what is native, imported, edible, or toxic. I note transitions such as land-to-water, cultivated-to-wild, and private-to-public. These shifts can be felt or heard; they can dictate one’s mood and gait.”

Artist bio:

Sarah Smelser received her BA from UC Santa Cruz, studying with Kay Metz and Zarina Hashmi, and her MA and MFA from the University of Iowa. She has been an artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center; Franz Masereel Center, Artica Bilbao, Kala Art Institute, Jentel Artist Residency, Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Anchor Graphics, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and Tamarind Institute. Her work is in such collections as Readers’ Digest Association, New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Hallmark Corporate Collection, Microsoft Corporate Collection, and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.

Smelser exhibits her work extensively in solo, group, and juried exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. It has been reviewed in Art on Paper: The Journal of Prints, Drawings and Photography, Abstract Art Online, Monotype, Monoprint, & Strappo Ezine and reproduced in New American Paintings. She was recently interviewed by Laura Berman for her blog, Reflections on Color and Printmaking.

Sarah is the Harold Boyd Endowed Professor and Associate Director of the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University. From 2006 to 2008 Smelser was President of the Mid America Print Council, a national non-profit organization of artist printmakers and educators. She later served as co-editor for its quarterly journal.  https://www.sarahsmelser.com/

Shelby Dinh
Is it a Choice?
Exhibition dates: October 17-22
Reception with the artist: Tuesday Oct. 18 at 4:30 pm
at The UCSC Contemporary Print Media Research Center, Baskin Art Studio G111

Is it a Choice? showcases a series of screen and relief prints that reveal the harsh reality following the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. As our government begins to turn the clock back to 1950, it’s important to stand up for those who have lost the rights to their own body. Inspired by popular magazine covers from the 1950s, these prints hope to make a statement as bold enough as the supreme court’s decision.

Shelby Dinh is a recent alumni of UCSC and graduated with a BA in Art and a BA in Economics. Printmaking became an instant passion for Shelby after discovering it in 2019 through the intro printmaking class on campus. After trying a hand at each printmaking medium, she found that relief  and screen printing were the mediums she was most drawn too. Personal life experiences are what inspires her the most to create. She now lives in San Francisco where she hopes to grow and continue her art practice. 

Sage Alucero Juarez – Serenades the Night
Exhibition dates: October 10-15
Reception with the artist: Wednesday Oct. 12 at 2:00 pm
at The UCSC Contemporary Print Media Research Center, Baskin Art Studio G111