Island Press Publishes Shaun O’Dell Series

Island Press, the Sam Fox School’s in-house printmaking studio, will publish a series of prints by artist Shaun O’Dell, “Cartophantasms from the Tongues Above.”

O’Dell worked collaboratively in residence with the studio in fall 2022, producing a series of four mixed technique prints in editions of 14.

The work will also be on view this December at the INK Miami Art Fair.

“Working within a hieroglyphic lexicon of abstract and figurative marks, O’Dell investigates the colonial histories of his ancestors and their contemporaries to reveal the imperial roots of modern-day ecological change.” —Grace Earick, brochure essayist.

Shaun O’Dell earned a Bachelor of Arts from the New College of California, San Francisco, in 2002 and Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University in 2004. His work explores the intertwining realities of the human and natural orders. His work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. O’Dell is represented in New York by Susan Inglett Gallery, in Houston by Inman Gallery, in San Francisco by Gallery 16, and on Long Island by Halsey/McKay. He has won numerous awards and honors including the Tournesol Award (2009, Headlands Center for the Arts), Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship (2006, SF Art Institute), Artadia Award (2005, San Francisco) and The Fleishhacker Foundation Award in 2002. His work is included in a number of permanent collections, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Bronx Museum of Arts, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Berkeley Art Museum, and the DESTE Foundation of Contemporary Art.

Founded in 1978, Island Press is a research-based printmaking workshop at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis that is committed to creating and publishing innovative prints and multiples, educating students and the broader community about print media, and advancing the printmaking field.

In the context of intensive visiting artist residencies, Island Press explores the expansive theoretical and material terrain of the print. The press is project-driven, tapping into the place where the artist’s creative activity intersects with the philosophical underpinnings of printmaking. Experimentation with new modes and technologies is a natural part of this pursuit, resulting in the creation of innovative and ambitious editions in a wide range of media.