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Briar Craig, MFA
(He, Him, His)Professor
Creative Studies, Visual Arts
Other Titles: Printmaking, Photography and DrawingOffice: CCS 165
Phone: 250.807.9765
Email: briar.craig@ubc.ca
Graduate student supervisor
Research Summary
Popular culture; sustainable practices in printmaking; innovations in print-related media; curatorial practices; artist books
Courses & Teaching
Visual Art, Printmaking (ultra-violet screen printing; stone lithography; etching; relief printing; letterpress printing); drawing; introductory photography
Biography
Briar Craig received a BFA in printmaking from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada in 1984 and an MFA in printmaking from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada in 1987.
Craig has always made extensive use of text in his multi-layered screen prints. He often uses words and letters like pieces in a game often scrambling or otherwise jumbling them in order to create some confusion and to initiate a re-thinking of what the words might actually be saying. This is a reflection of the ways in which we are all fed information by those in positions of authority and power. Information is often jumbled, fragmented politically biased and therefore misleading.
Increasingly, Craig has been using texts in an increasingly socio/political manner (sometimes jumbled and sometimes not) as a form of commentary on the current state of the world. Given the divisiveness of the federal governments in Canada and the US; polarization and political unrest; the battle against systemic racism; and the current global pandemic; etc Craig’s work provides the viewer with words and phrases for interpretation and reflection that will lay bare their own biases and personal points of view.
Craig’s work has been exhibited around the world in over twenty-five solo and over three-hundred and seveny-five juried group exhibitions, biennials and triennials. Works are held in the permanent collections of the International Print Triennial Association in Krakow, Poland; the Istanbul Museum of Graphic Arts, Istanbul, Turkey; Purdue University Galleries, West Lafayette, Indiana; the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; the Japan Print Association, Yokohama, Japan; Guanlan International Print Biennial, Guanlan, China; Penang State Art Gallery, Penang, Malasia; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Split, Croatia; The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, Romania; The State Art Museum, Russia; Museum of Kozara, Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina; etc
He is the co-founder and co-curator for the Okanagan Print Triennial – a partnered exhibition between UBC Okanagan, the Vernon Public Art Gallery and the Kelowna Art Gallery. The OPT has been running since 2009.
Websites
Degrees
MFA (printmaking) – University of Alberta – 1987, BFA (printmaking) – Queens University - 1984
Research Interests & Projects
My studio practice and art making interests focus almost exclusively in the area of screenprinting. One of the reasons that I have become an ardent printmaking advocate is for its ability to amalgamate and synthesize diverse imagery, materials, and approaches to art making. For me, print media allow incredible creative latitude and they perfectly reflect and form the foundations of much of our mass media-based culture.
My subject matter has evolved from my interests in the nature of photo-generated media and contemporary consumer culture. I am interested in the kinds of seemingly incidental and often peripheral experiences that we all have on a daily basis. I have always been a dedicated hunter, gatherer and channel surfer and for a number of years I have been photographing and collecting a reserve of visual flotsam and jetsam – torn magazines, rusty signs, advertisements, graffiti, fragments of text, de-contextualized photographs, textured surfaces, found objects, television images, National Geographic magazines, etc. – things that we encounter so frequently they are almost no longer visible to us. I am interested in the process of selection, interpretation and association that I go through when confronted by these sorts of things and I mainly use the technologies available to me through the media of printmaking to facilitate my fragmented assembly of this imagery.
My intention is to allow for the creation of an almost narrative-like dialogue between the viewer and their interpretation of the various parts. Ultimately, I am attempting to make personal, idiosyncratic sense of the barrage of imagery and information that we are bombarded with every day. In the so-called ‘information age’ we have been conditioned to absorb and respond to ever increasing quantities of sensory information and I am suggesting the things that catch our individual attentions share common thematic threads.
Selected Publications & Presentations
Okanagan Print Triennial 2018, introduction and juror’s statement in the exhibition catalogue, Kelowna Art Gallery, ISBN 978-1-896749-89-1
It is Brave to Want to Be and Artist, 2017, exhibition catalogue essay for Emergence, Vernon Public Art Gallery ISBN 978-1-927407-35-6
Nostradam Us: The National Geographic Series, 2013, Geographical Review (vol 103, issue 2), edited by Dr. Bimal Paul, ISSN: 1931-0846
Richard Suarez and the Grown-Up Sandbox, 2013, exhibition catalogue essay for Richard Suarez: Quantumspaces, Vernon Public Art Gallery ISBN 978-1-927407-07-3
Print Making – the Democracy of a Mobile Art Form, 2013, Paper Exchanges exhibition catalogue essay, Lake Country Art Gallery
Building a Community of Printmakers, 2012 exhibition catalogue essay, Contemporary Bulgarian Printmaking, Vernon Public Art Gallery ISBN 978-1-927407-04-2
Traditions and Transitions, 2010, exhibition catalogue essay; catalogue design (with Laura Widmer), Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, ISBN 978-0-9809827-2-5
Okanagan Print Triennial 2009, exhibition catalogue essay, Vernon Public Art Gallery, ISBN 978-0-9812147-0-2
Selected Exhibitions
10th International Printmaking Biennial Douro 2020, (invited artist- curated by Nuno Canelas), Lamego Museum and Douro Museum (Régua), Alijo, Portugal (exhibition catalogue produced)
Delta National Small Prints Exhibition, 2019 (curated by José Diaz, chief curator of the Andy Warhol Museum), Bradbury Art Museum, Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA
4th Global Print 2019, (invited artist), Lamego Museum and Douro Museum (Régua), Alijo, Portugal (exhibition catalogue produced)
The Naked Print, (juried by Stephen Fisher), The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Innovations in Printmaking – a National Juried Show, 2019, (juried by Jonathan Thomas), Cade Gallery, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold Maryland, USA
9th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro 2018 (invited artist- curated by Nuno Canelas), Lamego Museum and Douro Museum (Régua), Alijo, Portugal
Light/Matter: Art at the Intersection of Photography and Printmaking, 1954 – 2017, (invited artist), FAB Gallery, the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2018 Pacific States Biennial North American Printmaking Exhibition, (juried by Helen Frederick), Hilo Center Art Gallery and the East Hawaii Cultural Center, University of Hawaii, Hilo, Hi, USA (Juror’s Award Winner)
2018 Screenprint Biennial, (juried by Miranda K. Metcalf, Taryn McMahon, Nathan Meltz and Travis Janssen), Opalka Gallery, Albany, New York, USA
Novosibirsk International Triennial 2018, (invited by Derek Michael Besant curator of the Canadian representation – Pandora’s Box), State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia
Global Matrix IV, 2018, Cleveland State University Galleries, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
TEXTUALITY, 2018, the Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
4th Annual Hand Pulled Prints: the Current Practice in Printmaking, 2018, Site:Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Light/Matter: Art at the Intersection of Photography and Printmaking, 1954 – 2017, (invited artist), Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
91st Annual International Competition, 2017,semi-finalist at the on-line exhibition (BOMB Magazine Award winner)
Global Matrix IV, 2017, (juried by Kathryn Reeves, Kimberly Vito, Sean Caulfield and Craig Martin), Robert L. Ringel Gallery and the Stewart Center Gallery at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
3rd Global Print 2017, (invited artist), Lamego Museum and Douro Museum (Régua), Alijo, Portugal
Groteskowe Wariacje, 2017, International Centre for Graphic Arts, Centrum Gallery, Krakow, Poland
2017 Wheaton Biennial: Printmaking Reimagined, 2017, Beard and Weil Galleries, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts, USA
Stand Out Prints 2016, (curated by Elizabeth Wyckoff, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at the St. Louis Art Museum), Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, MN, USA (Prize Winner)
International Print Exhibition, Canada and Japan, 2016, (curated by Liz Ingram and April Dean), Kyoto Municipal Art Museum, Kyoto, Japan; and, The Tokushima Museum of Modern Art, Tokushima, Japan
International Print Alliance Exhibition 2016, (invited by Mark Bovey), Taimiao Art Gallery at the Beijing Working People’s Cultural Palace, Beijing, China; Nanjing Jinling Art Museum; Tianjin Art Museum; Shijiazhuang Art Museum; and Shenzhen Guanlan Original Printmaking Museum, China
8th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro 2016 (invited artist- curated by Nuno Canelas), Lamego Museum and Douro Museum (Régua), Alijo, Portugal
International Print Triennial Krakow-Falun 2016-2017, Art Gallery at the Dalarnas Museum, Falun, Sweden and at MEKEN, Smedjebacken, Sweden
I Witness: Activist Art and Social Movement Politics, 2016, (juried by Krista Wortendyke and Margaret LeJeune), Heuser Art Center, Bradley University Galleries, Peoria, Illinois, USA
International Print Triennial – Krakow 2015, Main Exhibition, Contemporary Art Gallery Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland
Resonance, 2015, (curated by Jiaqi Wu with the assistance of Guy Langevin), 30 Canadian Printmakers, Shengzhi Art Centre, Beijing, China
2nd Global Print 2015, (invited artist), Lamego Museum and Douro Museum (Régua), Alijo, Portugal
35th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition, 2015, (juried by Beth Grabowski), The Contemporary Art Center of Peoria and the Heuser Art Gallery at Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, USA
Selected Grants & Awards
Awards & Distinctions
Briar Craig’s prints have been awarded a number of prizes: the Stand Out Prize at Stand Out Prints 2016 at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking (Minneapolis, MN); Merit Award Winner, America’s 2014 all media exhibition (Minot, ND); the Juror’s Selected prize at the 2013 North American Print Biennial (Boston MA); Honorable Mention at the Pacific Rim International print Exhibition 2013 (Christchurch, New Zealand); 2nd Prize at Imprima 2012 (Sobral, Brazil); 2nd Prize Winner (one of his students achieve first prize) at the Open Studio Canadian Printmaking Awards (Toronto, Canada) and Special Prize Winner at the 1st International Print and Painting Biennial 2008 (Istanbul, Turkey).
He has been nominated for and won a number of teaching awards at the University of British Columbia – (Teaching Excellence – 2016; Teaching Honor Roll – 2008 and 2017); and at Okanagan University College (Teaching Excellence – 2000)