Ink, Press, Repeat: National Juried Printmaking and Book Arts Exhibition

Press Release

ABOUT THE JUROR 

Curlee Raven Holton is a printmaker and painter whose work has been exhibited in more than fifty one-person shows, and one hundred group shows. His exhibitions have included prestigious national and international venues like Egypt’s 7th International Biennale, Taller de arts Plasticas Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. 

Holton’s work is in many private and public collections including: the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Allentown Art Museum, the Discovery Museum of Art and Science in Bridgeport, Connecticut; the West Virginia Governor’s Mansion; the Foundation of Culture Rodolfo Morales in Oaxaca, Mexico; Yale University Art Gallery; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Cornell University Rare Books Collection, The Library of Congress; Boise Art Museum, Philadelphia Art Museum, U.S. Embassy, Costa Rica, Federal Reserve of Washington DC., and The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Holton’s work has been featured and written about in more than fifty publications. As part of his research and study as an artist-scholar, he has lectured and presented demonstrations throughout the United States and abroad in Mexico, the West Indies, Japan, England, and Costa Rica. Holton has been an artist in residence at museums, colleges, and universities. He has presented over one hundred public lectures on the subjects of his own work, African American art, and contemporary printmaking. He has written numerous articles and essays on art and artists that have been published in catalogues and journals. 

Many of Holton’s artworks have been published in magazines, newspapers, and documented on television. He has received awards and grants for his creative research and artwork, which has been described as both powerful and graceful. The breadth of his visual investigations has included traditional and innovative approaches to his art making process. Holton’s mastery is demonstrated in his manipulation of diverse mediums and techniques including printmaking, drawing, painting, and bookmaking.

Holton earned his M.F.A. with honors from Kent State University and his B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Fine Arts in Drawing and Printmaking. Since 1991 he has taught Printmaking and African American Art History at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania and is also the founding director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute. In 2006 he established Raven Fine Arts Editions, In 2012, Holton was named the David M. and Linda Roth Professor of Art at Lafayette College. His awards include the Anyone Can Fly Life Time Achievement Foundation Award, 2015, an Honorary Doctorate from the Institute of Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, 2017, and the Linny Artist of the Year Award (PA), 2018. He recently retired as the director of the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland.