2009 International Art Assembly, Visegrad

moths from my last trip to Bosnia
This print shows the moths with eyes that I found at the monastery on my last visit.

The International Art Assembly in Visegrad, Republika Srpska, Bosnia, is distinctive for including a group of international printmakers. The August residency is an important cultural event for the Visegrad region. A group of established printmakers from around the world are invited for this program to work in a variety of techniques and to demonstrate their approaches to one another and the general public. This printmaking workshop has become a wide-reaching opportunity to exchange ideas and to has grown into a significant contribution to the artistic, cultural and educational stimulation of the region. Local television stations and newspapers record  film and interviews that are intended to heighten public awareness. The efforts of the printmakers are deeply appreciated by the people of the region.

I am grateful to the organizers for their invitation to Repubika Serpska, Bosnia, which faces difficult environmental, political and religious issues after the devastating ethnic wars of the 1990s. It was a thought provoking visit, made special by the strong connections between participating artists.

Printmaking Participants
Belgium: Dragana Franssen Bojić
Denmark: Inger Lise Rasmussen, Ann-Dorte Nielsen, Bodil Sohn
Serbia: Biljana Vukovic, Ivana Stankovic
USA: April Vollmer, Susan Provost-Dubois

Author: adminapril

April Vollmer is a New York artist who studied mokuhanga after receiving her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking at Hunter College. Her work has been shown widely and she teaches Japanese woodblock regularly at the Lower East Side Printshop. She has participated in many residencies including the Nagasawa Art Park in Japan, and was on the board of the first and second International Mokuhanga Conferences. Her book "Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop" was released in 2015 by Watson-Guptill.