Beth Grabowski

Kappa Kappa Gamma Distinguished Professor of Art
beth.grabowski@unc.edu
www.bethgrabowski.com

Beth Grabowski is an artist, author, and educator.  Her work predominantly utilizes processes of photography and printmaking to explore communication– constructions of narrative and meaning.  Mediating between past, present, and future, she considers unfixed, ambiguous messages that can sometimes signify chaos, but can also become the poetry of wonder and possibility. Intentionally manipulating images toward strangeness, she seeks to convey the often-paradoxical nature of understanding: containing both desire and ambivalence toward familial and cultural relationships.  She does not seek conclusion; rather intimates facets of truth, fantasy, desire, pride, and regret.

Grabowski’s work has been represented widely in national and international venues, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, the North Carolina Museum of Art, Art Helix (Brooklyn, NY), Jill Krutick Fine Art (NYC), Islip Art Museum (NY), Manifest Creative Research Gallery (OH), the Guanlan Printmaking Museum (Shenzhen, China), Novosibirsk State Art Museum, (Russia), the Câmara Municipal de Alijo (Portugal), and at the SCOPE Art Fair (Basel Switzerland.)

Beth Grabowski has served the field of printmaking through her involvement with SGC International, the largest professional organization for print artists, educators, collectors, and enthusiasts, serving as its president of from 2012-2014.  Grabowski is co-author, with Bill Fick (Super-G Labs/Duke University), of Printmaking, a Complete Guide to Materials and Processes, (Laurence King/Hachette, 2009, 2014).  Grabowski is a three-time recipient of support from the North Carolina Arts Council (two Artist Fellowships and a Project Grant.) She has held several artist residencies including at Proyecto ‘ace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Sanbao Ceramics Institute in Jingdezhen, China, the Frans Masereel Centrum in Kasterlee, Belgium and the Tom Blaess Atelier, Bern, Switzerland.  Other professional activities include curating an international portfolio honoring Käthe Kollwitz, which debuted at the Kollwitz Museum-Berlin in September 2005, and co-organizing Visualizing Human Rights conferences at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008, 2010 and 2011 and 2012.

Classes Taught:

ARTS 208      Print I
ARTS 238      Screen Printing
ARTS 358      Letterpress
ARTS 368      Print II
ARTS 409H/BIOL 409L     Art and Science: Merging Printmaking and Biology
(co-taught with Professor Bob Goldstein, Biology)
ARTS 428      Book Art
ARTS 458      Photo Printmaking

Education

BA                 University of Virginia
MFA              University of Wisconsin-Madison