Collingswood: Big Ink

Perkins Center for the Arts and BIG INK present an exhibition of monumental woodblock prints drawn from BIG INK's unique and ever-growing collection — a body of work that stands as a testament to the ambition, craft, and creative range of contemporary printmaking.

Curated by Sharon Keifer, the exhibition brings together 30 artists from across North America whose large-scale works push the woodblock print far beyond its traditional boundaries. Printed on BIG INK's legendary mobile press, The Big Tuna, each piece was pulled from a hand-carved block measuring up to 40 by 96 inches — a scale that demands both physical commitment and artistic boldness.

The works on view span a remarkable breadth of subject and sensibility. Tender and monumental, intimate and expansive, they speak to themes of home, belonging, memory, nature, and identity. Kerry O. Furlani's The Wedlock Series and Maria de Lujan Perez Hernandez's Y Si No Hoy, Sera Manana carry a quiet urgency, while Paul Roden's Prague, David Whitbeck's Lyell, and Rebecca Gilbert's Thatched Mound reveal the medium's capacity for intricate mark-making at an extraordinary scale. Playful, political, and deeply personal works alike find common ground here — united by the grain of the wood, the weight of the press, and the singular moment of impression.

BIG INK was founded in 2012 by artist and educator Lyell Castonguay with a simple but radical idea: that anyone, anywhere, could make a print bigger than they ever imagined. This exhibition is a reflection of that mission — and an invitation to see what happens when artists are given the space to think large.