Open Press Ltd.
Sharon Strasburg standing with her three monotypes.  Open Press 15th Year Retrospective Show at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Contemporary Art Center.  Through October 1.

"Open Press, at 15 Year Retrospective" is the largest show every at the Gallery of Contemporary Art - at least by square footage. I've have more pieces in a show, but lots of them were tchotchkes," says curator Gerry Riggs. "Lots of these are huge."

The exhibit showcases Denver's Open Press, the printing studio that opened in December, 1988. Since then, founder Mark Lunning has helped hundreds of artists create prints - a catch-all term for any technique in which an artist creates a piece on one surface (such as stone or copper) and then transfers the image to another surface, usually paper. (mass-produced prints, even when signed and numbered by the artist, are more properly termed "reproductions.")

This exhibit features some 200 pieces by 30 of them. "These are active artists at Open Press," says Lunning. "This is the core group plus a couple of newer people."

Lunning is both artist and master of the bewildering range of printing techniques, which he outlines for interested parties on a 24-box flowchart. "I like to make art, and I like to help other people make art," he says.

Lunning's specialized knowledge and well-equipped facility - which includes a 44-by-84-inch intaglio press that gave birth to many of these huge works - enables Open Press to fulfill an important artistic niche. It and Shark's Ink in Lyons are the only fine art presses in the state not affiliated with a college or university.

Lunning also has an outgoing, empathic personality that enables him to get along with the many artists who come through Open Press' doors. "Some artists want to stay focused on the creative process," says Lunning. "They don't want to worry about adjusting the press, or how long to leave the acid on the plate."

At the other extreme is an artist such as Joe Higgins, whose massive "Man with Torch" is one of the show's most striking works. "When he first came to Open Press 14 years ago, I helped him a little," says Lunning. "Now he comes in and works on his own." The range of styles justifies the exhibit's size.

Lynn Heitler's massive screen is a Baroque jumble of layered images that would take hours to view attentively; Reed Weimer's prints are straight black-on-white miniatures that reveal their musical rhythms at first glance. There's everything from Ken Elliott's Impressionistic sunsets to Dave Yust's amorphous abstractions.