The 미니print team on building community spaces
Written by Valentina Buzzi (@cenestpasvale)
"Serigraph is a fancy name for screen printing.” Samantha is explaining the name of her recent exhibition. She is one half of the founding duo of Miniprint, Seoul's leading community-driven screenprinting studio. The exhibition features work by Samantha and Albert, the other half of Miniprint. "We are both driven by our love for screen printing and exploring its possibilities," Samantha informs us. "That's why we chose to call the show 'Serigraph'. It connects us.”
The most striking thing about Serigraph is the strong contrast between the two artists' works. Albert draws from the imagery and symbolism of metal music filtered through a derivation from art nouveau. Samantha explores the nostalgia of past internet language while playing dichotomously between physical and digital art.
What brought these artists together despite their apparent aesthetic differences? "Albert and I run a printing studio a few blocks away," Samantha tells us while we're interacting with one of her artworks. It's an augmented reality piece with a fascinating glitch aesthetic and consequent throwback style of a forgotten Windows XP landscape. It somehow simultaneously sounds distant yet feels remarkably familiar. "You should come and visit our studio," Samantha invites us. We, of course, accept.
Miniprint is a space where local and overseas members can create print-based art, participate in workshops, or learn the secrets of screen printing.
"This is actually our second studio," Sam tells us about the history of Miniprint. "Our other space had a gallery that we ran as a cultural collective. We held exhibitions that tackled the socio-cultural themes that the mainstream often overlooks, such as mental health. We would also hold film screenings and workshops." While that all sounds very exciting, the Miniprint team insists that their new location is superior. "That space wasn't the best. We relocated a couple of years back and switched to only having it as a studio. Miniprint is open to any artist interested in working with screen printing."
The interior of Miniprint is adorned with an array of printmaking paraphernalia. Everywhere you look, there are screen-printing tables, tools for creating prints, long-finished artworks and some pieces that are still drying off. One of the most interesting things about Miniprint is the community-driven ethos that underlines everything they do. "We try our best to create a sense of community in this space. That goes beyond the idea of selling art or making money. Our aim for this place is to make art more accessible. We want to hold events that get people involved, both artists and non-artists alike,” Albert tells us. "Screen printing is the most democratic and clean way of printmaking. That's what draws us to it," adds Samantha. "We want to organise different kinds of workshops. I used to run art integrated support groups for women coping with trauma. That's the kind of thing we'd like to do. It's our goal to create a safe and neutral space for our community. This is one of several reasons why most of our members are women."
The passion and dedication of this duo are evident in our surroundings. The artwork of Samantha and Albert is all around us. Some of it is new and some old. There are all kinds of different aesthetics, distinctive inspirations, and diverse results. Albert's work seems to take inspiration from the art nouveau style, but he explains that's not quite right. "Art nouveau is influenced by Japanese woodcut printing, and that's what I find intriguing."
Albert started as an illustrator and did a lot of work with metal bands. His aesthetic style and choice of references connect with metal culture, such as the occult, mysticism, and death. "In society," Albert continues, "we often give special meaning to things we don't understand, breathing life into symbols. These symbols then manifest into stories like fairy tales and urban myths. That aspect of storytelling interests me, and I want to create art about those stories. I don't want my art to be about my story; I want every viewer to connect to it in their own way."
Samantha's journey stands in stark contrast to Albert's. Despite studying printmaking and painting, Samantha has always had a strong interest in digital and macro culture. "I have always been drawn to the aesthetic of the emergent internet era from the late 90s." Samantha previously worked entirely with digital art, focusing on meme archiving and gif making. "I'm interested in how specific digital trends disseminate," Samantha adds.
Samantha's latest projects explore the lines between the digital world and the printed one. They begin by producing screen-printed surfaces that she later expands into augmented reality. Samantha creates a juxtaposition with this work which occupies real physical space yet doesn't really exist in the physical realm. In a way, they are a perfect hybrid of the possibilities in art today: a blending of traditional printmaking, future focused-tech and a nostalgia-soaked glitch aesthetic.
Despite the philosophical and stylistic differences between Samantha and Albert's art, the two share some deep connections; the careful love they put into their studio, and the drive to create unique visuals. We urge our readers to take the opportunity to see their work or schedule a workshop with Miniprint because, as the sticker on the front door of their studio affirms, Print is Not Dead.
For more information on Miniprint, follow them here.
