Fine art printmaking is a collaborative effort, a subtle interplay between the artist's vision and the technical skills of the master printer. Fine art printmaking is a collaborative effort, a subtle interplay between the artist's vision and the technical skills of the master printer. It can be an endeavor by artists used to working in different mediums to expand their practices. Paulson Fontaine Press in Berkeley, California emerged from the San Francisco Bay Area's rich tradition of fine art printmaking. Paulson Fontaine Press's philosophy is to facilitate rather than direct an artist, creating an environment where artists can do their best work. Join us for a conversation about the relationship between the artist and the master printer with Pam Paulson, Rhea Fontaine and David Huffman, a Bay-Area artist working at Paulson Fontaine Press. The conversation will be moderated by Essence Harden and Soleil Summer, co-curators of Second Look, Twice: Selections from the Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, an exhibition of fine art prints currently on view at MoAD.

‍Pam Paulson, Founder and Master Printer, came to California to study art, focusing on bay area figurative painting. Pam received her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1982 where she worked as a teaching assistant for Robert Colescott. Pam has a passion for the NY Times crossword puzzle and likes problem solving in general.

‍Rhea Fontaine, Partner and Gallery Director, is one of the first African-American women to publish fine art prints by contemporary artists. Dedicated to contributing to the image archive of artist of the African Diaspora, she was a past curatorial board member at Southern Exposure and currently sits on the board of NIAD where she serves as Vice-President. She received a BA in Fine Art from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998 and a post baccalaureate diploma in museum studies from Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy in 2000. Rhea loves to spend her spare time with friends and family in the Sierra at her rustic cabin in the woods.

‍David Huffman’s paintings stage allegories of the black American experience. His paintings depict stereotypical signifiers of this history. Landscapes of futuristic dreams or nightmares are always handled with humor. His abstract narratives are layered with references to music, politics and art history. Huffman studied in New York and San Francisco and has an MFA from California College of the Arts. He received a Eureka Fellowship in 2007, an ARTADIA Foundation Award in 2006, and a Palo Alto Public Arts Commission Award in 2005. His work has appeared in Art Forum, Art Journal, Art Papers, Frieze, Flash Art, Vibe, NY Arts, What’s On in London, the San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times and is included in the permanent collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Oakland Art Museum, CA among others. He is represented by the Patricia Sweetow Gallery, SF.

‍Essence Harden is a Ph.D. candidate, independent curator and writer. She has curated exhibitions at Charlie James Gallery, Antenna Gallery, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), California African American Museum (CAAM), and Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD). Her writing has appeared in Performa Magazine, SFAQ: International Arts and Culture, Everyday Feminism, Palmss Magazine, and Acres. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Essence graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History from UC Berkeley in 2011. She received her Master of Arts from the department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley in 2013 and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley.

‍Soleil Summer is the Exhibitions Associate at Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD). Previously, she held positions at Pro Arts Gallery and Betti Ono Gallery in Oakland, CA. She has been part of the Bay Area-based arts collective, Blackmail Collective, since 2016.This program is made possible by the generous support of the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation