WHERE: SGCi
WHEN: 2014 - 2016

"Flux: Attended Conference" (Portland, OR) - Mar. 2016

"Sphere: Artist Fair" (Knoxville, TN) - Mar. 2015

"Bridges: Vendor Fair" (San Francisco, CA) - Mar. 2014

I learnt about SGCi through Ryan, who co-owned Intellectual Property Prints with me. And I think he knew about it from being an MFA student at RiSD in their printmaking department. Basically, SGCi [Southern Graphics Conferences, international] is the largest North American printmaking convention - they host lectures, talks, academic papers, portfolio reviews, a vendor's fair, and more and all of the universities send their printmaking students out to it. Each year, it takes place in a different city and there are also a bunch of satellite events put on by galleries trying to grasp hold of the printmaking audience that flies into town.

The first year I attended was 2014, when we were part of the vendor fair, which was a total bust. They had put all of us in the basement of the main hotel where the conference was happening. There was poor signage and the fair ran from something like 8am - 6pm everyday for about 3 or 4 days. Since, very few people knew about it, not that many came down and we were stuck there for fear of missing out on a great sale. Plus, we were one of the only vendors with affordable works (under $100).

We did end up meeting the right people during the fair and at night we would go to the different events to meet even more. It was especially great because we were fairly close to the same age as a lot of the attendees, so we could hang out with everyone as peers. And through the convention I ended up meeting some of my closest friends from all across the country. Many of whom I ended up staying with during my epic solo road trip across America.

In 2015, I returned to SGCi (which was taking place in Knoxville, TN), but by this time Intellectual Property Prints had already ended so I was there to scout out new artists to bring to Daniel Rolnik Gallery. I also realized that the open portfolio sessions had more people attending them than the vendor fair, so I set up during one of those and it went great.

In 2016, I solely went as a scout to seek out new art. That year, the convention was in Portland, OR.