Overview
The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree is a full-time, two-year course of study. Graduate students take printmaking classes to hone their technical skills and refine their methodology and conceptual interests, further developing a studio practice that is self-directed, preparing the student for a career as professional artists and educators.
The Printmaking Program offers an expansive educational experience for students, exposing them to technical, conceptual, and professional skills for sustainable careers in the arts. Courses are designed to foster experiential learning, creativity, and a deep appreciation for materials that are integral to art making practices. We value the rich historical printmaking traditions and integration of contemporary technologies available today.
Students are encouraged to think about printmaking in the expanded field and to seek inspiration from and/or engage with other disciplines as part of their research. The printmaking program also contributes to campus community initiatives and provides outreach for off-campus educational projects.
Additional Learning Experiences
MFA printmaking students are exposed to Images of historical and contemporary prints throughout the printmaking curriculum. In addition, faculty members organize field trips to major print collections and institutions in the Hudson Valley such as: The Samuel Dorsky Muesum of Art, the Sojourner Truth Library, Women’s Studio Workshop, Vassar’s Print Collection, and Bard College’s Hessel Museum to view and study works of art in person. Also, faculty organize field trips to New York City galleries, public print collections libraries, museums, and alternative venues. Students attend artist lectures given by guests invited to our classes and through the Student Art Alliance lecture series. These experiences help students develop an understanding of printmaking in art and contemporary culture.
Students have many opportunities to enhance their learning experiences through fieldwork with print shops, art organizations, and artists working in a range of disciplines, from fine art to commercial industries. They also can experience studio visits with guest artists and work with faculty members to pursue an independent study project. There is financial support for MFA research through the competitive Research and Creative Projects Awards (RCPA) program.
Faculty
Libro de colores II / El Monte y el Mar, 2016
Aurora De Armendi, Assistant Professor
Aurora De Armendi Sobrino was born and raised in Cuba. She earned a BFA from the Cooper Union and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her work explores the poetics of place and displacement, and the individual and collective memories therein, through a balance of scholarly and material research. Recent projects have taken the form of prints, artist books, and ceramics. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Wave Hill Garden, the International Print Center (NY), Instituto Cervantes (NY), San Francisco Center for Book Arts, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the MDCC Museum at the Freedom Tower in Miami, Fototeca de Cuba, and Biblioteca de Cantabria (Spain), among others. She has participated in the AIM program at the Bronx Museum and was a fellow at the Center for Book Arts (NY) in 2013. In 2016, she completed artist residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Colorado), Jamaica Flux (Queens, NY), and was a finalist for the Cintas Foundation Fellowship (Miami). Before joining the SUNY New Paltz faculty in 2020, she taught printmaking and book arts at Parsons School of Design at The New School and the Cooper Union. De Armendi has worked collaboratively in educational initiatives in the United States, Central America and the Caribbean. Alongside her artistic and teaching practice she has worked in fine arts print publishing with Two Palms, the Lower East Side Printshop, and independently.
Systems Complex, monotype on kozo, 2019.
Emilie Houssart, Lecturer
Emilie Houssart is a Dutch American interdisciplinary artist and curator. Born in the UK, she gained a BA Hons. from the University of Durham, UK, studied on a teaching scholarship at Charles Cecil Studios, Italy, and holds an MFA from SUNY New Paltz. She is a returning Sustainability Faculty Fellow and member of campus flow collective Eddy at SUNY New Paltz.
Through printmaking, performance and living installations, Houssart’s work explores colonial legacies related to industrial food and land practices in the US. Previous projects include shifting public monument Columbian X-change at Swale House, Governor’s Island, NY, with Creature Conserve and Urban Soils Institute; installation Co-co-codac! for Owning Earth at Unison Arts, NY, curated by Tal Beery; and cyclical work Forest Geometries at Frans Masereel Centrum and Koningsbos forest, Belgium. Houssart’s initiative The DIRT Project hosts playful, interactive explorations of earth, linguistics and belonging, nurturing relationships with invisible life forms inside the body and underfoot. Public DIRT Project collaborations include the Dorsky Museum and Walkill Valley Land Trust, New Paltz, NY, and The Art Effect, Poughkeepsie, NY.
Houssart has held residencies at Swale House, NY; Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY; the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, NY; Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium; and Print to the People, UK. She was a founding Studio Assistant of community print studio PUF Studios in Poughkeepsie and a member at Slugfest in Austin, TX. She has been teaching internationally since 2003.
On Trail, Silkscreen, Kilnformed Glass, 2021
Kate Collyer, Instructional Support Technician Printmaking
Kate Collyer is originally from Buffalo, New York and currently lives and works in the Hudson Valley of New York. She is a PhD in Studio Art candidate at the Burren College of Art and National University of Ireland, Galway. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz Printmaking Program, as well as a bachelor’s degree in art education from the State University of New York at Potsdam and Saint Lawrence University.
Printmaking: Studio Space & Facilities
The Printmaking Program’s expansive studios offer nearly eight thousand square feet of total space, and are considered state of the art in both design and safety. A highly efficient central ventilation system creates continuous, safe air quality throughout the entire printmaking studio. Contemporary printmaking art processes include multi-media applications where traditional and cutting edge techniques merge. A partial list of equipment includes: five lithography presses, (including a 3’ x 5’ Takach press); a large inventory of stones ranging from small to very large; four relief/etching presses, (including a 4’ x 8’ Takach press), a photo-silkscreen studio with two exposure units and five vacuum printing tables large and medium format, a medium size hand paper making facility. The computer lab-room holds six computer stations with two wide-format and three medium size printers. A critique room is equipped with three walls for displaying work, a digital projector a large screen, and a long hallway gallery well suited to the display of work.
Learn more about our Printmaking facilities and equipment
Internship, Residencies and Fieldwork
Our students have many additional opportunities to work on and off campus while enrolled, complementing their academic studies. We are in close proximity to many mid-Hudson Valley art venues and artists’ studios, and there is easy access to NYC via bus for opportunities at galleries, museum’s, art studios, and numerous non-profit organizations. Several MFA Printmaking students have been awarded the Graduate Assistantship at the Samuel Dorsky Museum on campus, and Creative Research Project Grants that assist them with specific artistic projects, supporting workshops off campus and/or materials. Printmaking students have had summer internships at Pace Editions in NYC, the International Print Center innNew York, Simmelink/Sukimoto Editions,nand have worked with leading artists in the field as assistants.
Student Success
EXHIBITIONS: Our alumni are invited to exhibit at top venues around the world, including the Venice Biennial, SMTG Krakow Triennial, Tallinn Triennial, Oldenburg Triennial, Graphica Creativa Triennial, Douro Biennial, and many museums, universities and galleries.
AWARDS: Alumni awards include the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Printmaking, Drawing, and Artists Books; Fulbright Award; Southern Graphics Council International MFA Award. Several recent alumni were awarded internships at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NYC; two have also gone on to work as the Studio Technician there. Other residencies and internships alumni received: Lower East Side Printshop, NYC; Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY; and Artist in Residence at The Arctic Circle, Svalbard, Norway. Our alumni are also awarded public and privately commissioned projects.
EMPLOYMENT: In addition to working as actively practicing artists, many of our alumni are professors, studio technicians, artists’ assistants, printers for leading fine art printing publishers, and exhibition specialists at universities and art venues around the world. Some recent alumni have founded their own print studios, paper studios and publishing companies, completed the Tamarind Professional Printer Program and co-founded an international art book fair.
Visiting Artists
Our close proximity to NYC facilitates visits to campus by artists, printers, critics, curators, and alumni to share their experiences. A brief list includes: Lynn Allen, Charles Beneke, Luis Camnitzer, Alicia Candiani, Combat Paper, Devraj Dakoji, Dean Dass, Ismael Frigerio, Daniel Martinez, Liliana Porter, Andres Serrano, Richard Noyce, Andrew Raftery, Phil Sanders, Tanja Softic, Juan Sanchez, Paula vonSydow, Carol Wax and Linda Weintraub. We schedule field trips to Print Week in NYC each November, and also visit area venues, and NYC print collections, galleries, studios, and museums. Print Club organizes a trip to Southern Graphics International’s Printmaking Conference each year.
