BFAPrintmedia
Explore the traditions of printmaking and book arts within an innovative studio practice.
Overview
The transformative power of print
Our program teaches you to expand upon the rich traditions of printmaking and books arts, including intaglio, lithography, relief, monotype, screenprinting, and photo printmaking. You’ll explore the medium’s potential as a platform for both creative expression and cultural change. With the San Francisco Bay Area as your backdrop, you’ll draw inspiration from museums, galleries, and alternative art spaces, world-renowned print publishers and studios, and socially engaged nonprofits. Our position within a top art and design college gives you daily access to a creative, collaborative culture, challenging you to push beyond your notions of what art can accomplish in the world.
Studios & Shops
Merge traditional practices with innovative making
In our fully equipped facilities, you’ll learn a full range of printmedia techniques in addition to digital printmaking, letterpress, and papermaking. We encourage you to experiment whenever possible and collaborate with your peers in fine arts. By incorporating drawing, textiles, sculpture, and other media into your projects, you’ll discover that print can do things like leap from walls and transform rooms into hypnotic installations.
Hamaguchi scholarships
The Yozo Hamaguchi Printmaking Scholarship Awards, made possible by a generous endowment fund, are open to all undergraduate and graduate majors whose work is engaged in the practice of printmedia and printmaking. The graduate recipient is chosen from the pool of incoming MFA students who have applied through Print. Each year, the college celebrates the multiple awardees’ accomplishments during an annual awards exhibition.
Emerging artist residency at Kala
During their final semester, undergraduate printmedia majors can apply for the Hamaguchi Emerging Artist Residency. The recipient is given part-time access to the prestigious Kala Art Institute, located in Berkeley. They have total freedom to explore independent projects in various printmaking techniques, photo processes, book arts, and digital media. Culminating in a group exhibition, this is the perfect experience for those who want to continue their studio practice or pursue their studies in master's programs.
Printmedia equipment
- Large-format American French Tool etching press
- Takach Lithography Press
- Additional etching, lithography, and sign presses
- 100-plus lithography stones
- Vandercook letterpresses
- Dedicated digital film printers
- Photopolymer platemaker
- Bookbinding equipment
- Molds for papermaking
- Couching screens for drying paper
- Screenprinting exposure unit
- Screenprinting washout area
- Darkroom and screenprinting coating room
- Hollander beater for papermaking
- Screenprinting coating room
Additional resources for studio practice and research
Faculty
Socially engaged artists
Our exceptional faculty are immersed in the local, national, and global printmedia arenas. With a focus on craft and conceptual investigation, their interests span various media beyond printmaking, including book arts, drawing, painting, photography, sculptural objects, textiles, and video. Faculty mentor you as you refine a socially conscious art practice that asks important questions and pushes the boundaries of craft.
Aspen Mays, Chair of Photography, Printmedia, and Painting & Drawing. Photo by Taylor Johnson.
Chair Aspen Mays has been called a “Postmodern mystic.” Her work challenges the expectation of photography as a documentary and categorical medium, and her research explores the visualization of knowledge in both visual art and observational sciences. She is interested in the fantasy of objectivity in photographic processes, the artifacts and archives of these processes, and the desire for transcendence in the ordinary and prosaic.
Mays' solo exhibitions include Tengallon Sunflower and California Dreaming at Higher Pictures in New York and Every leaf on a tree at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. She was included in a national survey of contemporary art, State of the Art, at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Her work has been written about in Artforum, Art Papers, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Mays’ publication (made in collaboration with Dan Boardman) Where We've Been, Where We're Going, Why? was shortlisted for the First Photobook Award by the Aperture Foundation and Paris Photo in 2016.
BA, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Curriculum
We think with our hands
Investigate ideas through every dimension
Before diving into their chosen major, every undergraduate participates in the First Year Experience. Students explore a wide range of materials and tools over the course of two semesters. Faculty from different disciplines guide studio projects, group critiques, and theoretical discussions, setting students up for success throughout their major coursework.
BFA Printmedia
Core Studio
- Drawing 1
- 3.0 units
- 2D, 3D, and 4D
- 9.0 units
Printmedia Major Requirements
- Printmedia Level 1 (Printmedia courses in two different media)
- 6.0 units
- Printmedia Level 2 (second semester of selected Printmedia courses)
- 6.0 units
- Digital Tools
- 3.0 units
- Advanced Printmedia
- 6.0 units
- Printmedia Studio Electives
- 6.0 units
- Junior Tutorial
- 3.0 units
- Senior Project: Printmedia
- 6.0 units
Additional Studio Requirements
- Interdisciplinary Critique
- 3.0 units
- Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio
- 3.0 units
- Critical Ethnic Studies Studio
- 3.0 units
- Studio Electives
- 15.0 units
Humanities & Sciences Requirements
- Writing 1
- 3.0 units
- Writing 2
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Arts
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Modern Arts
- 3.0 units
- Foundation in Critical Studies
- 3.0 units
- Media History: Printmedia
- 3.0 units
- Critical Ethnic Studies Seminar (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Literary and Performing Arts Studies (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Philosophy and Critical Theory (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Social Science/History
- 3.0 units
- Science/Math (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- History of Art and Visual Culture (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Humanities and Sciences Electives (2000 or 3000 level, at least 6 units must be 3000 level)
- 12.0 units
Total 120.0 units
Careers
Establish a lifelong creative practice
Chelsea Ryoko Wong (BFA Printmaking 2010) shares her creative path from CCA's printmedia studios to today.
Our students combine interdisciplinary interests with skills in traditional and contemporary printmedia to pursue a range of creative practices. Many establish their own studios and exhibit work in both commercial and nonprofit spaces. Others create political work and support their communities through public education projects. While each finds a unique pathway to the professional art world, they all share a desire to participate in an enriching cultural dialogue.
Potential career paths
- Studio artist
- Master printer
- Educator
- Arts or nonprofit administrator
- Owner of a contract printing studio
- Owner of a printed goods brand or business
News & Events
What’s happening in our community?
How to Apply
The full spectrum of printmedia
Our students want to learn and master the visual language of print. From intaglio techniques, when ink is pressed into etched lines, to screenprinting, they’re eager to build a cohesive body of work that reflects their interests and artistic influences. When they join our program, they join an inclusive, supportive community that embraces the full spectrum of printmedia.
Find your creative community at CCA
