Visual Arts / Visible but Intangible: A print exchange portfolio, Sydney Printmakers. At Megalo Print Studio, until March 29. Reviewed by KERRY-ANNE COUSINS.

Sydney Printmakers was founded 60 years ago with a membership capped at 60 members.

The group come together periodically to show their work in exhibitions such as the current one at Megalo Print Studio.

Interestingly, the group operates without a permanent home, artists either work in a group workshop or operate in their own studios. The objectives of the group include the development of their own art practice skills as well as advancing the knowledge and appreciation of printmaking in the general community.

Sydney Printmakers were invited each to contribute one work 38cm x 28cm to a portfolio of prints to be shown in this exhibition. Thirty-eight artists responded to the theme, Visible but Intangible, the interplay between what we can see and what remains beyond the reach of our perception.

This is a challenge that all creative practitioners grapple with… how to make what they feel, see, hear and think take on a tangible reality that can be communicated to other people.

Karen Ball’s mixed print media work, Heavy, addresses the brief succinctly. An image of a white paper bag has the work YES printed on it. In a contemporary context of the 2024 Indigenous Voice to Parliament debate, the word yes is pregnant with meaning and the artist does not need to add more.

Rew Hanks’ linocut Fleeced is an image of an old petrol station, patrolled by a strange hatted figure and a solitary ibis. Its complex imagery narrates an equally complex debate about sustainability, exploitation of resources and our fragile ecosystem.

Rafael Butron in his work, Invictus Inevitabilis, depicts a lone rosella parrot perched on an oil drum. It poignantly contrasts the fragility of nature and the inevitability of industrial destruction.

The visible yet intangible effects of nature and the way we respond is the subject of several works.

Angus Fisher’s etching, Gravity, a beautiful image of the moon in a dark velvet universe suggests that our scientific knowledge is only one aspect of its mysterious and unknowable nature.

Graham Marchant’s detailed woodcut, Intangible Shadows, illustrates the play of light and shadow that defines his favourite view through his garden gate.

Flutter and Fall, a digital print by Therese Kenyon uses the form of a tree and its rhythms of life to suggest the cycle of death and renewal.

Anne Starling’s linoprint, Forged in Flight, is inspired by the flight of birds across the Parramatta River mangroves and the environmental threat to their habitat they are unaware of.

The ignorance we all share of what is to come is perhaps suggested by Olwen Evans Wilson’s work Script depicting a column of indecipherable symbols constituting an unknowable language.

Two images of femininity are found in Denise Scholz-Wulfing’s work, All That Remains, and Mark Rowden’s Pink Dress. In Scholz-Wulfing’s image a dress that carries the form of an unknown woman is all that is left behind of a life. In Rowden’s print, Pink Dress, an image of a young woman is brought alive by the addition of a bright pink dress. How do we read this image? Can it be seen as an image of sexual desirability and envy or is it an image of outdated femininity.

The artists in the exhibition make use of a wide variety of printmaking skills. They demonstrate in these small and intimate works that big themes and complex concepts are not restricted by size. The works are testament to a reflective and thoughtful response by the artists to the world around them as well as to their skill to communicate their concerns in such tangible way.