Shared Impressions: Printmaking from Laney College
Shared Impressions: Printmaking from Laney College
Shared Impressions brings together the work of fifteen printmaking students at Laney College whose practices reflect the diversity and vitality of Oakland and the greater Bay Area. Each student has taken printmaking classes multiple times, using the course structure to deepen their engagement with the medium and refine their craft through sustained experimentation. The prints on view move between abstraction and representation, exploring themes such as identity, place, memory, and social experience. Working across relief, intaglio, and monotype, the artists demonstrate an exploratory spirit that expands the expressive possibilities of the medium.
At the Laney College Art Center, students work in facilities equipped for a wide range of techniques. In addition to the relief, intaglio, and monotype processes represented here, the studio supports stone lithography and screenprinting. Courses provide a comprehensive foundation in printmaking; continued study allows students to hone their skills and clarify their personal artistic directions.
At its core, printmaking involves ink transfer from a matrix—or plate—to another surface, most often paper. In relief processes such as woodcut and linocut, the artist carves a block so that the raised surface carries ink and transfers the image through pressure, applied either by press or by hand. In intaglio techniques—including etching, aquatint, and drypoint—the opposite occurs: ink settles into incised lines cut into the plate. The creation of editions, a set of prints from a single matrix, is one of printmaking’s defining characteristics. Artists frequently introduce variations between impressions or combine printed elements to generate unique results. Monotype stands apart by producing a singular image; because nothing is permanently fixed to the plate, ink is manipulated directly on a smooth surface and transferred to paper only once, resulting in a one-of-a-kind print. Across these varied approaches, printmaking emerges as both a disciplined craft and an expansive field—one that continues to thrive at Laney College and throughout the Bay Area today.
Participating artists include:
Raha Banoo · Julie Bongers · Carol R. Brown · Ash Cable · Penny Flood · Sam Freeman · Penny Jennings · Casey Ngan · Michele Petherick · Angela Roberts · Abigail Shaw · Z. Starks · Rena Tom · Ryan Williams · Gabriela Zambrano
Founded in 1927 as Central Trade School, Laney College has grown into the largest of the four Peralta Community College District campuses, serving about 17,000 students each year. Located on sixty acres in downtown Oakland—one of the nation’s most diverse urban centers—the college offers more than twenty associate degrees in liberal arts and sciences. Its art center, built in 2006, houses studios for ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, digital fabrication, painting, and drawing. With strong programs in fine arts, music, theater, and more, Laney College provides students with extensive hands-on experience through studio work, performances, and exhibitions.
A very special thank you to Alex Echevarria, instructor in the Visual & Performing Arts department at Laney College, for his role in facilitating and co-curating this exhibition.
@SFOMuseum
#StudentartSFO
[image left]
Radical Hawk 2025
Ryan Williams (b. 1998)
woodcut on paper
Courtesy of the artist and Laney College
L2026.1001.001
[image center]
Fireworks Cruise 2025
Rena Tom (b. 1973)
linocut on paper
Courtesy of the artist and Laney College
L2026.1001.004
[image right]
High Line Magnolia 2025
Penny Jennings (b. 1966)
etching and aquatint on paper
Courtesy of the artist and Laney College
L2026.1001.031
©2026 by San Francisco Airport Commission. All rights reserved.