Class Description

This demonstration is an introduction to the Mezzotint technique and takes up to three hours. During this time, I rock a small plate and demonstrate how to scrape, burnish, and print it. Then, I print another plate that I already have made to show more examples of an advanced result. Bio: Mehdi Darvishi was born in the summer of 1988, coinciding with the Iran – Iraq peace resolution. In his war-stricken hometown, Mehdi grew up unexposed to art galleries and museums. In 2007 he left home to earn a BFA in Painting at the University of Tehran where he learned basic printmaking techniques such as relief and intaglio. After receiving his degree in 2011, his interest in printmaking grew into a life's pursuit. He has since exhibited in over 30 countries and has participated in more than two hundred global exhibitions, competitions, residencies, and as a visiting artist. His works have been widely collected by museums such as the China Printmaking Museum, the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Art, Jyvaskyla Museum of Fine Arts, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and the US Library of Congress. He is the recipient of the Southern Graphics Conference Fellowship as well as the Pritzker fellowship from the Arts Institute of Chicago.