Fish River, 2019, Monotype, chemical transfer, and silkscreen, 24x 36 in.
Originally from Daphne, Alabama, The Contemporary Print: 5×5 artist John Klosterman IV builds multi-layer mixed print media works that unfold powerful narratives about his experience and struggles with anxiety and OCD. In this week’s artist feature, Klosterman speaks to our friend Jamaal Barber of Studio Noize Podcast about the progression of his prints and how experimentation with printmaking processes have allowed him to work through obsessive compulsive behaviours and embrace the unpredictability of life.
In this introspective and open conversation, Klosterman reveals how he finds a meditative practice in the physicality and laboriousness of woodcuts, and has discovered how his intended narratives of decay are organically amplified through the deterioration of the print itself that happens through the layering of various printmaking techniques.
Olsson’s Rot, 2019, Monotype, chemical transfer, silkscreen, and linocut (chine collé), 18 x 24 in.
Klosterman often compares the building of layers in his prints to his upbringing tinkering with machines and the lessons learned by working on cars and boats with his grandfather. Through muted colors and translucent inks, he creates what he calls “ghost imagery” to provoke that same sense of nostalgia and familiarity for the viewer. The crisp carved lines of specific birds of prey that lay on the top layer in sharp contrast, further relate a narrative where anxiety exists as an omnipresent force in Klosterman’s life.
Railway, 2019, Monotype, chemical transfer, silkscreen, and chin collé, 24 x 18 in.
John Klosterman IV is one of five artists selected to participate in PrintAustin’s virtual edition of The Contemporary Print: 5×5. View Klosterman’s work along with the other featured artists in the virtual exhibition through February 19, 2021.
The Contemporary Print: 5×5
Presented in partnership with Big Medium, PrintAustin’s 8th annual international juried exhibition, The Contemporary Print: 5×5, is juried by Delita Martin of Black Box Press Studio. This virtual exhibition showcases five works by five contemporary artists from the United States, Australia, and Slovenia, giving us a broad survey of printmaking happening across the globe.
This year’s selected artists include Chloe Alexander (Atlanta, Georgia), John Klosterman IV (Tuscaloosa, Alabama), Oliver Pilic (Kamnik, Slovenia), Laura Post (Fort Worth, Texas), and Cleo Wilkinson (Melbourne, Australia).
Studio Noize Podcast
Studio Noize is a weekly art podcast highlighting artists and creators of the diaspora. Artist and printmakers Jamaal Barber and Jasmine Williams talk with other black artists about their art processes and their lives. They engage with painters, curators, singers, dancers, art directors, collectors, and guests of all disciplines. Studio Noize’s creative conversations motivate and inspire while archiving the voices of contemporary black artists. Listen to new episodes every Tuesday on studionoizepodcast.com.
