Blog
Artists Collecting Artwork
February 01, 2024
The GVSU Art Gallery’s first show in 2024, “Full Circle: Teaching, Creating and Curating,” features sabbatical work by Bill Hosterman, and artwork from the collection of Kathy Caraccio, a master printer, educator, and artist born and raised in New York City. Inspired by her mother’s ability to solve problems creatively with her hands as a seamstress, Caraccio studied printmaking at Lehmen College. After earning her BFA, she gained experience at Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop, Inc., a non-profit, community-based print studio. Founded in the spirit of generosity and collaboration, Blackburn’s studio was a haven for diverse and often underrepresented artists, a future model for Caraccio’s print studio.
Our exhibit features over 20 prints selected from the 5,000-plus works Caraccio has collected over her more than 45-year career. While on the surface her collection reflects artists who have come to work with her in her studio, her collection also represents stories, relationships, and a community of artists from which she has gained inspiration.
Communities like Caraccio has created allow artists to share ideas, techniques, as well as materials and equipment. While the collection visually reflects artists she has worked with, it also represents how the artists influenced each other’s thoughts, motivations, and craft.
Over the years, the Art Gallery has worked with other artists who, like Caraccio, have collected prints by artists who they have worked side-by-side with, collaborated with, or simply appreciated their story and artwork. Working with both Caraccio and her collection is a wonderful reminder of how important community, especially within the art world, can be.
The Cyril Lixenberg Collection of Contemporary Dutch Prints
With 500 prints, representing over 200 different artists, The
Cyril Lixenberg Collection of Contemporary Dutch Artists represents
the best of graphic art produced in the Netherlands of the past 50
years. It was amassed by Amsterdam artist Cyril Lixenberg, who over
the decades acquired works by Dutch colleagues he admired -- many
times exchanging his own artwork for that of his colleagues and
friends. His resulting collection is a showcase of the many styles,
movements, and controversies that characterize Dutch works on paper
over the last half century. The collection was generously funded by
James and Donna Brooks and became the first donation to the GVSU Art
Gallery’s Print and Drawing Cabinet.
Pictured first above: Glowat, Lucjan Mianowski, Lithograph,
n.d. 2002.0299.1
Pictured fourth above: My Secret Garden No. 3, Shinkichi
Tajiri, Lithograph, 1975. 2002.0161.1
Explore the entire Cyril Lixenberg Collection of Contemporary Dutch Prints.
Ann and David Keister
David Keister was the Master Printer at Echo Press in
Bloomington, Indiana from 1980 to 1995. By tradition, the Master
Printer receives a printer's proof of each edition. In time Ann and
David Keister, both of whom are retired GVSU Art and Design Faculty,
have amassed more than 200 prints which they have donated overtime in
small groups to the Grand Valley State University's Print and Drawing
Cabinet within the GVSU Art Gallery Collection.
Pictured second above: Night Migration, Arthur Secunda, Lithograph, 1975, 2007.650.1
Pictured fifth above: Tattoo, Robert Cottingham, Lithograph, 1975, 2004.0463.1
Explore the entire Ann and David Keister Collection.
Bill Hosterman
Bill Hosterman is a Professor in Foundations, Drawing and
Printmaking at GVSU. A printmaker himself, he first
met Caraccio as an undergraduate at Penn State University, during a
field trip to printmaking venues in New York City. Making an instant
connection, he later returned as an intern at Caraccio’s printmaking
workshop. This relationship became pivotal in his career, showing
Hostmerman how a shared passion can bind people together and provide
opportunities to express caring through collaboration. Hosterman has
extended that passion into a portfolio he curated representing a
diverse group of artists titled, “The Evolving System.”
Pictured third above: Synaptic Evolution, Karla Hackenmiller, Intaglio, 2014. 2015.20.6
Pictured sixth above: Untitled, Tonja Togerson, Silkscreen, 2014, 2015.20.1.
Explore the entire collection.
View Kathy Caraccio's entire print collection.
Learn more about the "Full Circle" exhibition.