Alexander Brodsky was born in 1955 in Moscow, where he lives and works.

Ilya Utkin was born in 1955 in Moscow, where he lives and works.

The imaginary architectures of Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin rethink the city as a dream landscape, blending memories of the past with visions for the future.

From the early 1980s, Brodsky and Utkin collaborated primarily on etchings, working on each copper plate for years. Their dense style of engraving emulates the antique appearance of prints from the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.

The etchings in this display are all taken from their Projects portfolio (1980-90) and draw upon a variety of architectural, literary and visual sources, from classical mythology to science fiction. They depict absurd proposals and fictional cityscapes as eclectic mixes of ancient mausoleums, early industrial structures, neoclassical utopias and constructivist towers. 

Brodsky and Utkin's work uses light and dark tone, called chiaroscuro.

These etching pieces remind me of another artists work called Piranesi, their work connects in light and tone.

Andy Warhol is an artist was born in August 6, 1928, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, died February 22, 1987, New York City, New York, United States.

Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image, Warhol's pieces are also silk screened.

The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate.

A fill blade or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink through the mesh openings to wet the substrate during the squeegee stroke.

Andy Warhol makes pop art and also has silk screened images of Marilyn Monroe.

Warhol’s work is very bright and funky, he tends to repeat the same image down and across.

Pablo Picasso is an artist that is famous for his paintings, sculpture and prints.

Born: October 25, 1881, Málaga, Spain

Died: April 8, 1973, Mougins, France

Picasso's linocuts were made by gouging out a sheet of linoleum which had been fused onto a harder block of wood.

Using gouges, he would cut out the areas of his intended image that were to be absent of color (and therefore appear the color of the paper when printed).

The relief areas that remain would be inked, usually with a brayer. 

Paper would be put on the inked linoleum block and pressure applied, after which the inked image is transferred to the paper.

If there were to be multiple colors, Picasso would create a separate linoleum block, each corresponding to a different color, each printed in succession.

This is how he worked since his first linocuts were created in 1958.

Picasso’s work is interesting and very detailed, the disfigured faces and his great choice of colors makes it stand out of the crowd and look very sharp and edgy.

Paul Catherall is a London-based printmaker and illustrator, renowned for his clean, sharp linocuts of architectural landmarks as well as his illustrations for high profile clients.

Drawing influence from classic mid-20th century poster designers, such as Tom Eckersley and Edward Wadsworth, and inspired by the semi-abstract landscapes from Cezanne, Catherall combines an expert eye for composition and colour with consummate draughtmanship to create striking and iconic images.
The subjects of his prints include controversial London buildings (Elephant and Castle shopping centre) and celebrated landmarks (such as Battersea Power Station, Tate Modern and New York's Flatiron).

Each limited edition is created using high quality oil-based inks and acid-free paper, and produced entirely by hand, from the intial design and sketches through to carving, inking and editioning.

Artist: Banksy (British, b. ca. 1974)

Title: Love is in the Air (Flower Thrower), 2002

Medium: Paintings, Stencil, spraypaint on raw canvas

Size: 36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm.)

Movement: Contemporary

Banksy is a pseudonymous English graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter. Although his identity has not been proven, reliable sources report that he is believed to be Robin Gunningham, a former public schoolboy at Bristol Cathedral Choir School.

His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencilling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Observers have noted that his style is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris. Banksy says that he was inspired by "3D", a graffiti artist who later became a founding member of Massive Attack.

Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces.

I really enjoy Banksys artwork because it sends a very strong message about society and the government.

Banksys work is so interesting, the fact that he combines things together that do not belong together and creates something different, for us to question and see how artists see things in their perspective.

The colours in this piece 'Love is in the air' are quite simple, but very sharp.

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of a same piece, which is called a print. Each print produced is not considered a "copy" but rather is considered an "original". This is because typically each print varies to an extent due to variables intrinsic to the printmaking process, and also because the imagery of a print is typically not simply a reproduction of another work but rather is often a unique image designed from the start to be expressed in a particular printmaking technique.

Woodcut

Woodcut, a type of relief print, is the earliest printmaking technique, and the only one traditionally used in the Far East. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, and by the 5th century was used in China for printing text and images on paper. Woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Europe, and slightly later in Japan. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text.

Engraving

The process was developed in Germany in the 1430s from the engraving used by goldsmiths to decorate metalwork. Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface of a metal plate, traditionally made of copper. Engraving using a burin is generally a difficult skill to learn.

To make a print, the engraved plate is inked all over, then the ink is wiped off the surface, leaving only ink in the engraved lines. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the engraved lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times; typically several hundred impressions (copies) could be printed before the printing plate shows much sign of wear, except when drypoint, which gives much shallower lines, is used.

Etching

The process is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer (circa 1470-1536) of Augsburg, Germany, who decorated armor in this way, and applied the method to printmaking. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving which requires special skill in metalworking, etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing.

Etching prints are generally linear and often contain fine detail and contours. Lines can vary from smooth to sketchy. An etching is opposite of a woodcut in that the raised portions of an etching remain blank while the crevices hold ink. In pure etching, a metal (usually copper, zinc or steel) plate is covered with a waxy or acrylic ground. The artist then draws through the ground with a pointed etching needle. The exposed metal lines are then etched by dipping the plate in a bath of etchant (e.g. nitric acid or ferric chloride). The etchant "bites" into the exposed metal, leaving behind lines in the plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate, and the printing process is then just the same as for engraving.

Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The image is then transferred onto a sheet of paper by pressing the two together, usually using a printing-press. Monotypes can also be created by inking an entire surface and then, using brushes or rags, removing ink to create a subtractive image, e.g. creating lights from a field of opaque colour. The inks used may be oil based or water based. With oil based inks, the paper may be dry, in which case the image has more contrast, or the paper may be damp, in which case the image has a 10 percent greater range of tones.

Although subsequent reprintings are sometimes possible, they differ greatly from the first print and are generally considered inferior. A second print from the original plate is called a "ghost print" or "cognate". Stencils, watercolor, solvents, brushes, and other tools are often used to embellish a monotype print. Monotypes are often spontaneously executed and with no preliminary sketch.