Southern Africa, particularly artists who specialize in printmaking. So by word of mouth, artists got to know about the studio and what we offer. Each time I meet the artist in person first. It is important and there has to be a click for this to work. The American connection is because of Michael Barnes. Michael is head of printmaking at the Art department at the University of North East Illinois. Thanks to him I have met a few talented American printmakers and I would like to think they have all enjoyed their experience here at Atelier le Grand Village. Daks : Can you tell me about some of the artists that you represent and who visit the atelier? As you know I am a big fan of Diane Victor! van der Riet : Diane Victor is South African, and she specializes in printmaking. It is her first love. She is also an excellent drawer and is well known for her smoke drawings. Diane is interested in all forms of printmaking and stretches the boundaries in this field. I first met her in Johannesburg in 2015. I invited her to come and explore stone
lithography at Atelier le Grand Village. She’s been back every year since then. She loves it here and the potential stone lithography offers as an art form. I also got to meet two young talented South African artist printmakers when they were in Paris at the Cité Internationale des Arts on a residency program: Bambo Sibiya and Mongezi Ncaphayi. They knew little about stone lithography and I offered them the opportunity to discover it. They have also been regular visitors to the studio. Daks : Can you tell me a bit about some of your themed exhibitions? I remember the Don Quixote from a few years ago. van der Riet : I decided that with all these different artists coming here it would be great to create group works. So each time an artist comes, I ask them to create a work for one of these editions. I started with Don Quixote. It is a portfolio of lithographs from sixteen different artists. We also created a portfolio called The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. This is a portfolio of twenty lithographs done by Nina
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