Gallery 120: Printmaking in Progress

Learn how beautiful prints are made

Close-up of a red linoleum block in the process of being carved for printmaking. The word “WORLD” appears partially carved in large letters, surrounded by sketched text and illustrations. Woodcut carving tools, a wide brush, a box of carving gouges, and a bottle of PVA glue are scattered across the worktable. Curled shavings from the carving process are spread over the block, emphasizing the hands-on nature of creating a relief print.

On view through Friday, Sept. 18, 2026 at Gallery 120, see Printmaking in Progress, featuring work by Jones, Opal M. Juba, and Bethany C. Rahn.

The show highlights the many processes behind printmaking, all built from a matrix; the plate, block, or surface an artist carves or prepares to create each print.

Gallery 120 is located in the lobby of the Fine Arts building on the Inver Hills Community College campus in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.

Gallery hours are:

Mon/Wed 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Tue/Thur 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Closed on Fridays

Below are descriptions from each artist on one of their works.

Bethany C. Rahn

A Remedy for a World on Fire: Tradazone, 2025

Woodcut | 32”x60”

Black and white print of woman holding a box that says "Extra-Strength Tradazone," with the title "A remedy for a world on fire." More text says, "Feel the freedom from: Climate guilt, systemic racism, student loan debt, ICE, billionaire greed, societal collapse, and the haunting awareness of your own complicity."

A Remedy for a World on Fire: Tradazone was created for the Really Big Prints steamroller print event hosted at Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisc. in July 2025.

To create the print, the wooden matrix was stained before transferring the design, sealed with waterborne acrylic polyurethane, and hand-carved over nine days (approximately 40 hours total. Once carving was complete, the block was then resealed for printing.

Printing used oil-based relief ink mixed with plate oil to increase viscosity, and a cobalt drier to accelerate drying time. Once fully inked up, the block was placed in a wooden-framed jig, and “locked” into place using small wedge-shaped wood shims. Paper was placed down, and foam flooring insulation was used as blankets to cushion the impression. A steamroller then drove over the assembly to create the printed image.

Opal M. Juba

Your History Becomes an Idea, 2026

Intaglio, Mixed Media | 6”x6.75”

A gallery display on a white wall featuring two small framed mixed-media artworks, one on each side of a centered exhibition label and artist statement. Each artwork contains colorful rectangular abstract forms in purple, blue, yellow, and green, with lace-like material attached along the top edge.

My work centers around memory and identity. I am interested in exploring how we quantify reality. This interest led me to print. The iterative process of printmaking is parallel to memory, over time the meaning of an object or idea changes. Through the translation that comes with print, I can explore what remains and what shifts into something new. Disregarded moments, objects and patterns serve as my inspiration for memorializing the mundane, and quantifying reality.

Your History Becomes an Idea

The first layer of mark making on this project is soft ground, applied on a hot plate. Lace and embossed stamps were arranged on top; a printing press is then used to apply even pressure to the plate lifting the soft ground and revealing texture. Next the plate is added to an acid bath etching in the design. On the second plate, sugar lift was applied in abstract shapes with a brush, followed by a thin layer of hard ground. When placed in boiling water, the sugar melts revealing the shapes painted on in the previous step. Next, I applied a thin layer of spray paint aquatint, this acts similarly to a halftone, preventing the acid from eating uncontrollably through the plate. Lastly, I added line details with dry point. In order to allow the colors to mix, I added twenty five percent transparent base to each color. I then applied each color one by one with a matte chip using tarlatans, newspaper then Q-tips to remove unneeded ink. Both plates were inked at the same time, with differing colors, which combine when printed. The paper is torn into a long strip, allowing one end to be “caught” under the printing press. This way, after one plate has been printed, the paper can be lifted to exchange for the other plate, keeping the registration precise. After the print dried, I used Pov glue to adhere the mixed media elements finishing the piece

Did I Do Something Wrong

After photographing the images for each page of the book, I used photoshop to create the half tone. Then exported the image into CMYK, creating four sets of photographs. After printing the file on transparency, I used photo emulsion and an exposer unit to burn the design into my screen. I printed yellow, magenta, cyan and lastly, black. The same ink was used for the monotype book covers, which were cut down to size and glued to the previously assembled book blocks. Lastly, I carved my linoblock designs, stamped my screenprints and glued them to the book block.

Jones

Untitled, 2026

Woodcut | Varies; installation

Gallery wall installation featuring three large monochrome artworks at the center: deer on the left, a seated human skeleton draped in red fabric with a stag and fox-like animal in the middle, and a pack of wolves on the right. The central pieces are surrounded by multiple framed drawings of animal skulls arranged above, below, and on both sides. In the foreground, a white pedestal displays a small wooden stand with folded sculptural objects. The exhibition is mounted on a white museum wall with bright, even lighting.

Description source: Don Gorvett Gallery

What is a reduction woodcut?

Woodcut is the oldest form of printmaking, dating back to ninth-century China. It is a relief printing process in which the design is carved into the surface of a wooden block using hand tools. The raised areas that remain after the block is cut are inked and printed, while the recessed areas that are cut away do not carry ink during the printing process.

The reduction process utilizes one block for all colors by layering the inks from light to dark, one color at a time. The block is cut between each color, reducing the block’s inking surface and increasing the negative space, or window, through which the previously printed color is revealed. The edition number, or the total number of prints pulled from the block, is determined before cutting and printing and is limited to that number only. Once the reduction woodcut print is completed, all that remains on the block is the raised surface of the last color printed. The block can not be used to make these prints again.