The process-based nature of monotype prints is central to Christchurch based artist Zara Dolan’s practice. Drawing on abstract expressionist gesture, the mark making is direct, intuitive, and mediated only by the application of colour and the printing process. It is Dolan’s intention that her emotive action achieves form, colour and rhythm via the printing process. Her titles (the titles of each work), encode this process referring respectively to paper size, times through the press and the inks and tools used.
Mono prints differ from other forms of printmaking in that they produce one single image. This is accomplished by applying ink onto (in this instance) a large block of perspex, which is then rolled through a printing press and to print the image onto paper. This process can entail several layers of colour blocking and mark making. In this way, mono printing can be very similar to painting, whereby layers are built up and the image contains an immediacy, vigour and depth. However, there are also distinct differences. The way the ink flows so easily over the perspex in mono printing often creates a more dynamic movement than in painting. Also, each mono print in its process brings surprise and innovation. As the paper is rolled through the press, each final print contains subtle changes of colour, mark and depth, that brings with it a uniqueness and immediacy. In this way the constraint of the printmaking process, with its strict structural process, can elicit a surprising and vibrant artistic creation.
Zara Dolan’s mono prints are often very large and her use of fluid lines, bold marks and brilliant colour are informed by her earlier large abstract paintings. Her style is that of abstract expressionism, where the process informs the work. As in works by early twentieth century abstract expressionist painters, vivid colour and energetic line translate the immediacy and intuitiveness of the artist’s process making. Says Dolan, my "relationship between colour and mark is really important.” Her prints involve a complex layering where the paper will go through the printing press a number of times times “to get a really good gradient effect.”
Although the composition is carefully thought out and planned in terms of measurement and form, it is the bold, exuberant marks throughout the layers that suggest the intuitive flow of the body. We can imagine Dolan moving back and forth to gain the long sweeping gestures. The texture and successive large sweeping movement connects the viewer and the artist through a sense of stretching the body, and Dolan’s mark making extends to all edges of the paper and beyond. In order to reach the final definitive work, she will often work on several prints at once in order to really “get me in the flow”. Often the different directions of the marks create a conflicting vibrancy and tension within the work; contrasting dynamism and calm. Dense, saturated colour glimmers amidst the black and white framework, creating layers of optical illusion and depth.
Born in Cavan in Southern Ireland, Dolan gained a fine arts degree in painting and printmaking before moving to Wales, where she attained a teaching certificate in art and design. She then taught in London for three years, before moving to New Zealand and teaching for nine years at Avonside Girls High School. In 2020 Dolan studied and completed a Masters of Fine Art at University Canterbury. Her end of year exhibition at The Den Gallery in Christchurch received resounding success, and Rhythm Loop in 2022 was her first solo exhibition of work with us here at The Central. Zara resides in Christchurch and is a full time art practitioner.