SOLO Impression

1 Riverdale Avenue, North Store No 9
Bronx, NY 10463

soloimpression.com

SOLO Impression located in Riverdale Bronx, NY is a fine art printmaking studio specializing in hand printing lithography, woodcut, large format inkjet printing and digital embroidery on fabric and paper. Founded in 1975 by Judith Solodkin, the first woman Tamarind Master Printer, SOLO Impression has collaborated with artists such as Ghada Amer, Ida Applebroog, Lynda Benglis, Richard Bosman, Louise Bourgeois, Françoise Gilot, Howard Hodgkin, Beryl Korot, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Whitfield Lovell, Christian Marclay, Michael Mazur, Allan McCollum, Liliana Porter, Elaine Reichek, Betye Saar, Jean Shin, Nancy Spero, John Torreano, Betty Woodman, Andrea Zittel and Joe Zucker, In addition to publishing SOLO Impression contracts to print and fabricate editions for artists and publishers.

Many print shops regard the role of the printer as an artisan, a tool to be used by the artist. SOLO impression takes a more collaborative position, working closely with the artist to use Judith’s knowledge to develop their images to their fullest. Often, she guides the artist through unfamiliar territory, acquainting the artist with the multitude of possibilities, suggesting innovative and experimental techniques.

Works published by SOLO Impression have appeared in museums and exhibitions throughout the world and can be found in many important private and public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum, the New York Public Library Print Collection, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the Tate Gallery, to name a few.

At SOLO Impression you only get one chance to create a first good impression. Of course, in edition printing each print is unique in the context of the whole series and we print many good impressions. Proofing with an artist is a process to arrive at the best resolution of an idea and the repetition of that idea is what makes printing so glorious.

Having mastered lithography and with a personal interest in millinery (many of you have enjoyed my unusual hats) I segued into digital sewing after working with Louise Bourgeois on her fabric book Ode à l’oubli. I see a direct correlation in using a stone or plate to edition and sewing software and high-end embroidery machines to actuate and repeat an idea. No ink but colored threads on paper and fabric which are sometimes preprinted lithographically or with a high-end inkjet printer on paper or fabric. As I age this allows me to participate in the collaborative process with artists and to continue the interaction in another creative form. Rather than stand at a lithography press I can sit at the computer and sewing machine to achieve similar results. This is unexplored territory which extends the idea of print even further using digital contemporary methods.