NEW YORK.- The International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) will present INK Miami 2006 from Thursday, December 7th through Sunday, December 10th, at the Suites of Dorchester, 1850 Collins Avenue at 19th Street, just two blocks from the Miami Beach Convention Center. Unique among the sprawling group of fairs in South Beach, the INK Miami Art Fair will showcase contemporary works on paper from fifteen of the IFPDA’s leading dealers and print publishers. In choosing the Suites of Dorchester, INK Miami organizers have improved on the popular format of the hotel fair by placing exhibitors in spacious suites surrounding the Dorchester’s lush central courtyard.

Publishers working with internationally renowned artists will bring fresh new editions to premiere at the Fair including works by Peter Doig, Alex Katz, Hung Liu, Jorge Pardo, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Polly Apfelbaum, and John Baldessari. San Francisco-based publisher Paulson Press will present Isca Greenfield-Sanders’ The Swimming Pool Etchings, a set of four new color aquatint etchings priced at $8,000 for the set. Paulson Press will also bring new editions by Kota Ezawa as well as recent abstract prints by the Gee’s Bend Quilters of Alabama; Louisiana Bendolph and Mary Lee Bendolph. Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes’ lush multicolored prints will be among the new editions on view at the Fair at Durham Press. Employing a synthesis of techniques, woodblock and silkscreen, Milhazes has created large vibrant geometric images that use bold INK Miami 2006 Art Fair to showcase the best contemporary prints and works on paper colors and patterns, the large-scale screenprint and woodblock print Noite de verão (Summer night) measures 47 x 98 inches and is priced at $16,000.

INK Miami will also host expert dealers with rare and exceptional 20th century masterworks. Marlborough Graphics will bring Wayne Thiebaud’s iconic etching Gumball Machine, 1970 a classic example of Thiebaud’s career-long engagement with printmaking. Offer at Jim Kempner Fine Art, one of Elizabeth Peyton’s first prints, Bosie, lithograph,1998. This work depicting Oscar Wilde’s lover illustrates Peyton’s remarkable skill as a printmaker even at this early stage. An impression from the edition also resides in MoMA’s permanent collection. A rare untitled Jackson Pollock drawing priced in the six-figure range will be exhibited by Charles M. Young Fine Prints and Drawings.

INK Miami exhibitors have been selected from the prestigious IFPDA membership for their ability to offer the best contemporary works on paper by today’s most important contemporary artists. Exhibitors selected for INK Miami 2006 reflect the vitality of the contemporary membership of the IFPDA. Selection was made by the IFPDA’s organizing committee for the Fair: Glenn Dranoff (Dranoff Fine Art, NY), Paula Panczenko (Tandem Press, Madison, WI), Bud Shark (Shark’s Ink., Lyons, CO) and Diane Villani (Diane Villani Editions, NY).

What is a print? - An original print is a work of art on paper which has been conceived by the artist to be realized as a print, rather than as a photographic reproduction of a work in another medium. Prints are produced by drawing or carving a composition on a hard surface such as a wood block, metal plate, or stone. This surface is then inked and the image is transferred to paper by the application of pressure, thus creating an “impression” or print. Unlike paintings or drawings, prints usually exist in multiple impressions, each of which is pulled from the inked surface. The total number of impressions made is called an edition. Artists began to sign and number each impression around the start of the 20th century.