An exhibition of work by the Lillstreet Printmaking & Book Arts Department Faculty and Monitors
August 25 – September 30, 2026
Opening reception: Thursday, September 10, 2026 / 5-8pm
Molly Berkson, Sara Emerson, Matthew Ginsberg, Kasey Grealis, Katie Kiesewetter, Mint Liu, Hannah McMaster, K. Bellamy Mitchell, Alicja Pulit, Kim Raffield, Charlie Smith, Shannon Thompson, Paloma Valencia, Henry Voellmecke & Anna Wagner
Working in contemporary as well as traditional and vintage print processes, the Lillstreet Print department offers classes in etching, letterpress, relief, monotype, collagraph and screen printing as well as bookmaking techniques including accordion, pamphlet, Coptic, and stab-binding. The work in this exhibition is an exploration of all of these techniques and more; works range from artists books to block printing to lithography. “The Matrix” in Printmaking is the physical surface, template, or block that holds ink and transfers an image onto another material like paper or fabric.
Molly Berkson: My recent work aims to describe my experience with sudden hearing loss, disability, and grief. Through graphic shapes and text-as-image, I explore how communication and sound can be described visually. I’m interested in the relationship of grief to nostalgia, ephemera, and collections, and how to invoke a sense of time and place using experimental fiber in hand papermaking.
Sara Emerson is a printmaker and fiber artist living and working in Chicago. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she holds a BA in Printmaking and Social Practice of the Arts from Bennington College. Sara’s experience with printmaking has driven her towards collaborative creative endeavors with others—master printers, print publishing houses, nonprofits, educational institutions, and artists from around the world. She studied as an apprentice printer at Overpass Projects, joined the printmaking department as a technician at Williams College, and completed Tamarind Institute’s Lithography Intensive in 2021. She is a resident artist at the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, member of the Chicago Printers Guild, and 2024-25 Artist Resident in printmaking at the Lillstreet Art Center.
Matthew Ginsberg: As a Chicago artist and musician, I’ve found great joy in melding my two passions to create a series of treated record albums. Using various pigments and techniques, I transform scratched, unwanted LPs into vibrant, textured portraits. I choose each canvas with great care; the labels, scratches, and waxy grooves are rich in history and character, and I’m careful to honor all of that. My imagery and color palette are largely influenced by 60’s rock posters and album covers, as well as artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Chicago’s Hairy Who collective. In Dadaist fashion, titles are culled from text that appears on the untouched side of the records. I value the use of recycled materials in art, and can’t think of a better way to breathe new life into forgotten vinyl. I am also an avid screen printer, and in addition to creating event posters I work with established artists to help bring their designs to life.
Kasey Grealis received their BFA from Florida State University in 2017 where they focused in printmaking and book arts. From 2016-2017, Kasey worked as a preservation assistant at Florida State University’s Rare Books Library and as an intern and assistant at Small Craft Advisory Press where they contributed to artist’s books like VVVVV, A Guide to Florida, and Flashpoint. Kasey then went on to receive their MFA in Book Arts at The University of Alabama in 2021, producing works like Endless, We Know the Struggle, and I Hope This Finds You. Kasey Grealis is a multidisciplinary artist desperately hoping to marry their many interest together. This piece is a material study and part of a larger collection of one poem split into many parts.
As an autistic and non binary artist, I am often fascinated by the juxtaposition of my place in the world and the relationship between light and shadow as a metaphor for that. The interplay between these qualities creates a depth of feeling that reveals the intricate details in the texture of my work. Shadow gives body to the ethereal, intangible qualities of light and without both texture remains unseen, its subtle variations and complexities obscured in nothingness. This delicate balance represents my relationship with the world; my differences seem illuminated by the lack of difference around me and I often feel as though my true essence is lurking somewhere out of sight and difficult to grasp.
Katie Kiesewetter (she/her) is a Chicago-based artist, designer, writer, zinester, teacher, and hospitality professional. Her perzine series, Behind, Sharp!, explores the pleasures and complications of working in restaurants, combining Katie’s on-the-job experiences with feminist theory, labor history, and quippy humor. Find out more about Katie’s work and the classes she teaches at katiekiesewetter.com.
Hannah Kathleen McMaster lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. She received her BFA in Print Media and Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. As a printmaker and the daughter of a professional magician, she loves the thrill of a reveal.
Hannah is a Chicago-based artist, collector, and educator whose practice is grounded in the meditative labor of physically demanding, repetitive forms of artmaking. Her current work engages printmaking and photography in the reinterpretation of memory, incorporating cyanotype, lithography, photopolymer, and mezzotint. With each iteration, viewers are invited to consider how the defining characteristics of different printmaking processes enhance or complicate the images being revisited. Her prints question the significance of pursuing photographic clarity across media and challenge how we recall or reconstruct personal histories.
Alicja Pulit (b. 1987, Nysa, Poland) studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Oakton Community College and has been working as an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL for the past 20 years.
My love of etching, or intaglio, on copper plate began at LillStreet in 2016, where I took multiple printmaking classes and eventually became an open-studio monitor and printmaker. The themes in my work center on symbolic psychodrama, captured in fantastical compositions often inspired by childhood fairy tales and the natural world. For more of my work, please visit my Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/DeeplyEtchedStudio
Shannon Thompson works with fiber and paper, creating layered designs based on cut paper stencils and her photography of the built environment. She creates organic patterns using inorganic inspirations to obscure and reveal original designs and textures. She is interested in the hidden or extinct technologies that are used to create the built environment and that invisibly shape daily lives. She teaches print on paper and bookmaking classes.
Paloma Valencia is a printmaker and painter based in Chicago, Illinois. Originally from Miami, she graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019 with a BFA in Printmedia. Rooted in street photography, her work reflects on American identity by documenting the familiar architecture of laundromats, diners, gas stations, and other everyday spaces.
In 2020, Paloma was the Artist in Residence for the Printmaking and Book Arts Department at Lillstreet Art Center, where she has been teaching printmaking to first-time students for over five years. Her first solo gallery show, SOUVENIRS, took place in Chicago in 2022 at The Martin. Most recently, she presented Bueno Bonito y Barato, a solo booth with The National YoungArts Foundation at EXPO Chicago 2025.
Henry Voellmecke is an artist currently living in Chicago, IL. His practice examines color theory, formalism, and phenomena through the process colors – cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Using geometric forms, Voellmecke investigates and displays the relationships between overlaying colors and patterns. Henry has been a teacher for First-Time Screenprinting at Lillstreet since 2020.
Anna Wagner is an American/Brazilian artist and educator based in Chicago, IL. A dedicated craftsperson, Anna is invested in working with antiquated techniques to explore how marginalized histories resurface throughout time, ever-present and existing in the contemporary world as informed by the past.
Wagner was a 2024 recipient of the Artists Run Chicago Fund and the 2025-2026 Artist-in-Residence in Printmaking at Lillstreet Art Center. She has taught widely, including at Penland School of Craft, Oberlin College, and at Duke University. Her work is held in various collections, including Minia University in Cairo, Egypt, the Kennedy Museum of Art, and the College of William & Mary. She is represented by Hoofprint
