Professor Brian Kelly and Students Collaborate on Restoring Classic Printing Press

During the summer Professor Brian Kelly and printmaking students Raine Curole and Jacob Gibson worked on the restoration of a 4’ x 8’ Griffin lithographic press for use in the Department of Visual Arts printmaking studio. The Griffin Press will give printmaking students access to a large scale printing press allowing them to explore and develop research at a large format scale. The press will also allow the Department of Visual Arts Marais Press to develop collaborative printmaking projects at a larger scale. 

The Griffin Press played an important role in the development of printmaking education in the United States and were used by printmaking studios throughout the United States to produce prints by many major American artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Nancy Graves, Sue Cole, and many more. American sculptor Reynaldo Terrazas founded The Griffin Press Company in Oakland California in the 1960's. The Griffin Press Company hand-manufactured artist’s printing presses for etching, intaglio and lithography processes until the late 1980’s. The Griffin Press was an iconic press that was even exhibited in the Venice Biennale (1968) and included in the Smithsonian Museum’s permanent collection.