MGC Juried Show: 2026 National MGC Community Print Studio Exhibition
Ongoing
Small Hall
Exhibitions are a cornerstone of MGC Community Print Studio’s programming, which aims to provide access and visibility to artists working in a broad range of printmaking processes. Building on MGC’s legacy as a vital home for prints since 1986, we are excited that this will be our first open call print exhibition in our new home in Powerhouse Arts (PHA) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Coinciding with PHA’s second annual Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair, MGC is pleased to announce our 2026 National Print Exhibition, a juried competition and exhibition devoted to fine art prints, which will be part of a series of events celebrating the 40th anniversary of MGC’s founding.
Last year, the Fair’s inaugural, saw 7,500 visitors. Anticipating even larger crowds of print enthusiasts, collectors, curators, and journalists, the exhibition will provide expanded opportunities for professional community building, sales, as well as open dialog during the Fair’s four days, April 9–12, 2026. The MGC Community Print Studio National Juried Exhibition will become a recurring highlight of future fairs.
Ann Shafer is an independent curator, art historian, and a leading expert on intaglio printmaking by Stanley William Hayter and Atelier 17. Formerly Shafer was associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where she curated a variety of exhibitions and hosted myriad classes and visitors. She also organized the museum’s Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair in 2012, 2015, and 2017, featuring an international array of twenty presses, publishers, and dealers. In April 2022, she mounted a new, independent print fair in Baltimore, and in 2025, she consulted Powerhouse Arts on its inaugural Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair. She hosts the podcast Platemark: prints and the printmaking ecosystem and writes a blog about favorite works of art (annshafer.com). Shafer has a BA from The College of Wooster and a MA from Williams College, both in art history. In addition to the BMA, Ann has worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Williams College Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art.
Diya Vij is the Vice President of Curatorial and Arts Programs at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn, NY and is committed to critically investigating the evolving role of art in politics and civic life. Most recently, she served as the Curator at Creative Time where she commissioned and stewarded large-scale public art work, launched the public programming space CTHQ, re-launched the Creative Time Summit, and initiated the R&D Fellowship for socially engaged artists. Over the past decade, she has held programming, curatorial, and communications positions at major New York City Institutions. As the Associate Curator of Public Programs at the High Line, she organized dozens of live events and performances with artists, activists, practitioners, and healers. At the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Vij launched and co-directed the Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) program. Additionally, she helped lead the Agency’s citywide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative, and played an active role in public monument efforts, as well as CreateNYC—New York City’s first strategic long-term plan for culture. She was a curatorial fellow and the communications manager at the Queens Museum from 2010–2014. She currently serves on the Boards of A Blade of Grass, the Laundromat Project and the Poetry Project and was co-curator of the Counterpublic Triennial 2023 in St. Louis, MO.
More Programs
Mindreading since 1997 with Glenn Ligon and Luther Davis
Small Hall
Apr 11, 2026 4:00 PM
-
5:00 pm
For almost thirty years artist Glenn Ligon and master printer Luther Davis have collaborated on some of Ligon’s largest works including two of his series Come Out (2014-2015) and Debris Field (2018– ). Most recently Ligon produced a body of work titled Blue (for JB); the foundation of these monumental works on paper start with a silkscreened image based off of Ligon’s rubbings on top of one of the paintings from his Stranger series. In order to create the ideal ground or working surface for Ligon, he and Davis developed various iterations until the screened image resonated.
Glenn Ligon is an artist living and working in New York. Throughout his career, Ligon has pursued an incisive exploration of American history, literature, and society across bodies of work that build critically on the legacies of modern painting and conceptual art.
He is best known for his landmark text-based paintings, made since the late 1980s, which draw on the influential writings and speech of 20th-century cultural figures including James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Genet, and Richard Pryor. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. In 2011, the Whitney Museum of American Art held a mid-career retrospective, AMERICA, organized by Scott Rothkopf, that traveled nationally. Important solo exhibitions include Break It Down, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO (2025); All Over the Place, The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, England (2024); Post-Noir, Carre d’Art, Nîmes (2022); Call and Response, Camden Arts Centre, London (2014); and Some Changes, The Power Plant Center for Contemporary Art, Toronto (traveled internationally) (2005). Select curatorial projects include Grief and Grievance, New Museum, New York (2021); Blue Black, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis (2017); and Encounters and Collisions, Nottingham Contemporary and Tate Liverpool (2015). Ligon’s work has been shown in major international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2015, 1997), Berlin Biennial (2014), Istanbul Biennial (2019, 2011), and Documenta XI (2002).
Luther Davis has been the Master Printer and Director of the Powerhouse Arts Print Program since 2016. Luther teaches printmaking at Parsons School of Design and The Cooper Union. He was the co-founder of Forth Estate, a fine art publisher focused on producing limited editions with emerging artists, and from 1999-2016 he was the Master Printer and Director of Axelle Editions, a fine art print atelier specializing in screen printing that produced over 300 editions a year with more than 100 artists.
-
Please note seating is first-come, first-served. Plan to arrive early to secure your seat(s).
We provide live-captioning services and ASL interpreters at every conversation over the weekend.
Hello, Print Friend & Platemark BYO Coffee Meet-Up
Lobby
Apr 10, 2026 10:00 AM
-
11:00 am
Calling all print nerds! Start your Friday at the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair with a caffeine boost and great conversation.
Join Ann Shafer (Platemark), Miranda Metcalf (Hello, Print Friend)m and Reinaldo Gil Zambrano (Hello, Print Friend) for an informal BYO-coffee meetup at 10:00 am before the doors open at 11:00. It’s the perfect chance to talk shop about the printmaking ecosystem with fellow print people before heading into the fair!
Print Ecosystem 101: Navigating Curators, Galleries, and Academia with Clara Lieu and Ann Shafer
Small Hall
Apr 10, 2026 4:00 PM
-
5:00 pm
Demystify the print industry with Clara Lieu (Art Prof) and Ann Shafer (Platemark) as they map out a "who’s who" of curators, gallerists, academics, and publishers. Learn how to approach these gatekeepers with confidence through a series of professional insights and tips designed to help artists find their place in the printmaking ecosystem.
Clara Lieu is the founder of Art Prof, an online educational platform for learning visual arts.
Artist grants include ones from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and the Puffin Foundation. Her work has been exhibited at the International Print Center New York, the Danforth Museum of Art, the Currier Museum of Art, and the Davis Museum and Cultural Center.
She spent 16 years in academia teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design, Wellesley College, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and Lesley University. For 7 years she taught at RISD Project Open Door, an art program for underserved teens in Providence public schools.
She has written for the New York Times, and lectures widely. Her work has been profiled on WBUR, Artsy, Hyperallergic, Inside Higher Ed, WCVB’s Chronicle, and KPCC. She provided expertise on articles for NPR Weekend Edition and The Washington Post.
Ann Shafer is an independent curator, organizer of the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair, and creator and host of Platemark, the popular podcast dedicated to the world of prints and the printmaking ecosystem. A former curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Ann has spent her career immersed in the print ecosystem, organizing major exhibitions and building significant collections. She is currently editing a definitive multi-author volume on the history and legacy of Atelier 17, bridging the gap between mid-century modernism and contemporary practice. Through her scholarship and her insightful interviews on Platemark, Ann has become a vital connector for artists, curators, and collectors, offering a rare 360-degree view of how the print world functions from the inside out.
-
Please note seating is first-come, first-served. Plan to arrive early to secure your seat(s).
We provide live-captioning services and ASL interpreters at every conversation over the weekend.