Graduate Lecture Series: Oliver Jackson

The Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies is thrilled to welcome artist and printmaker, Oliver Jackson. Oliver will discuss his work and practice in conversation with Paul Mullowney, founder of Mullowney Printing and Matthew Letzelter, Chair of the MFA in Print Media at PNCA.

Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935, St. Louis, MO) is a painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker, whose works are grounded in figuration. His printmaking, which he approaches as drawing, incorporates varied intaglio techniques, as well as woodblock prints on paper and canvas. For the past few years, his printing has been done exclusively by Paul Mullowney/Mullowney Printing. Jackson has collaborated with musicians, writers, and dramatists who include Julius Hemphill, Marty Ehrlich, Quincy Troupe, Paul Carter Harrison, Michael Harper, and others. His most recent print project is the limited-edition folio Dear Friend, 2021, combining photogravures of Jackson’s drawings with hand-written music manuscripts by Julius Hemphill. Jackson’s works have been exhibited in museums and galleries for more than five decades. In 2019, the National Gallery of Art presented a solo exhibition of his recent paintings, curated by Harry Cooper, Senior Curator of Modern Art. An exhibition spanning over fifty years of works is currently on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Jackson’s works are in collections that include the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and numerous others. His works have been shown in group exhibitions at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Harvard University Art Museums; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art; and many others. Since 1982 Jackson’s studio has been in Oakland, California.

Paul Mullowney is a master printer and founding partner of Mullowney Printing started Mullowney Printing in Portland. Trained at Crown Point Press, San Francisco, He has worked at print studios in Japan and Maui, Hawaii. He has taught at Pacific Northwest College of Art and San Francisco Art Institute, as well as numerous printmaking workshops in America and Japan.

With studios in Portland and San Francisco, Mullowney Printing is a multi-faceted print studio, focusing on publishing and printing fine art prints–etchings, woodcut, photogravure, direct gravure, screen print, and letterpress editions–by leading and emerging nationally recognized contemporary artists. The 5000 square foot studio in Portland’s Northwest District is home to several presses, darkroom facilities. The studio also runs community workshops, internships, and public exhibitions with a focus on community outreach and engagement. In 2020 Mullowney Printing founded the Undergrowth Educational Print Fund, whose mission is to promote printmaking educational programming through dynamic funded apprenticeships and residencies for emerging printmakers.

This conversation will be presented on PNCA LiveVideo, PNCA’s YouTube channel

Free and Open to the Public. All are welcome.

Oliver Lee Jackson Photo by Weston Wells, 2018, Courtesy of Malin Gallery, NY