The Boston Printmakers 2026 North American Print Biennial

The Boston Printmakers will return to Boston University to present its 2026 North American Print Biennial, to be shown in the 808 Gallery. The juror for the exhibition is Esther Adler, Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, New York.   Ms. Adler has selected 120 prints from 2017 entries for this exhibit.   She writes, “…having traced certain themes and commonalities through this group of prints, it seems there are key criteria that I used to make my choices. At a time when there is increasing nervousness (panic, even, in some circles) about artificial intelligence and the expanding realm of the digital, I remain in awe of the handmade – both the mark carved into wood or linoleum or drawn on an intaglio plate, and the mechanism of rolling a matrix and a sheet of paper through a press. There is great diversity in this selection of prints, but all of them show the hand of the artist in one way or another. My selection was also heavily influenced by the natural world, and by images that revealed magic in both the mundane and the vast. Finally, and surprisingly, I seem to have gathered a group of “beautiful” prints… Given the times we live in, I allowed myself to prioritize visual pleasure and joy above all else. The result is an exhibition I want to see, and prints with which I want to continue to spend time.”

The exhibit features a broad array of contemporary prints and artists books, spanning traditional to contemporary/integrated media approaches, with both emerging and established artists from across North America.  The exhibition includes examples of etching, lithography, woodcut, linocut, screenprint, digital printmaking and dimensional works, in which the artists explore a rich diversity of conceptual and narrative content.