09/10/2026
Not quite goodbye yet!
While Extreme Pressure was originally scheduled to close today based on our previous gallery hours, our newly expanded Friday hours means you have one last day to see the show before we say farewell until 2028.
As we bring the show to a close, we would also like to extend a very special thank you to this year’s juror, Donald Furst, for lending his time and expertise to the exhibition and for selecting this year’s works and placement awards from an outstanding pool of submissions from artists across the country.
We invite you to read Furst’s full juror’s statement below, and have included images of the award-winning pieces he details  specifically in his statement:
“In our anxious era of AI, it is gratifying to see people putting themselves out into the public arena with hand-made prints.
There were 278 hopes and dreams, but space for no more than 60. My congratulations to those included and my condolences to those who felt the sting of non-inclusion.
Etching, linocut, monotype, stone lithography, and screen prints are more or less equally represented in the entry pool. Cyanotype, color reduction relief, and mezzotint processes were unexpectedly numerous as well. Even viscosity, traditional Moku Hanga, photogravure, and solarplate appeared.
The prize-winning prints are those “hitting on all cylinders.” Each has a gripping idea, a love of the process, a mastery of the materials, and a strong clarity of design. Such pieces compel the viewer to linger for additional insights, surprises, and discoveries.
My five choices fall into two extremes: either intricate symbolic pieces or ordinary moments of daily life. First Prize: “Becalmed” is a gorgeous etching with a masterful tonal range from delicate to densely dark, all in the service of an enigmatic, sharp-tongued critique on human foibles and folly, perhaps echoing Goya or Bosch. Second Prize: “The Witness” is a burin-engraved labor of love similarly jam-packed with pictorial elements, yet it retains an overall clarity of design. Third Place: “Things I Touch Everyday” is a delightful sequential presentation of ordinary daily moments in a crisp linocut rendering.
One Honorable Mention likewise features a moment of life lived: two sleeping kids in car seats in “Long Day,” a relaxed, brushy monotype with no lofty pretensions, just fond recollection of a past moment. The other Honorable Mention goes to “Portal,” a lush screen print with a happy mash-up of architectural abstraction, tart color interaction, and crisp moire patterning.
It was an honor and a pleasure to serve as juror for this impressive image pool.”
-Donald Furst
Thank you again to our juror, all of the participating artists, and everyone who visited and helped make this year’s Extreme Pressure such a wonderful exhibition.
Image credits: juror Donald Furst, David Avery “Becalmed”, James Ehlers “The Witness”, Sara Bogdal “Things I Touch Everyday”, Rachel Updegraft “Shift”, & and Rachel Mindrup ”Long Day”

