Fred Williams: Etchings

This exhibition brings together a selection of the artist’s etchings, offering an opportunity to explore his experimentation and mastery of printmaking. While best known for his rigorous reimagining of the Australian landscape through painting, Williams turned to etching throughout his career, exploring the vastness of the landscape through the disciplined language of line and tone.

Williams’s etchings reveal the same clarity that defines his paintings: a vision that distils the Australian landscape into spare, rhythmic notations that hover between abstraction and observation. The exhibition presents several images in multiple states of a plate, a window into his process of refining images by adjusting weight, depth and spatial balance until they captured the essence of place.

Seen together, the etchings highlight how printmaking served as both a companion and catalyst to Williams’s paintings. They demonstrate his commitment to seeing the landscape anew, and to crafting a visual language that could hold its expansiveness, complexity and quiet energy

SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY

Artist & Printer Talks
2 – 3 pm

Sean Smith, BSG Studio on his work with First Nations artists

Artist Ella Dunn, Sunshine Editions
Artist Richard Lewer, Kaleidoscope Editions 

3 – 3.30 pm
George Baldessin and the History of Baldessin Press

Join Tess Baldessin, director of Baldessin Studio in conversation with artist and curator Nicole Bowller, as the shares their insights into the short but stellar career of the late George Baldessin (1939-78) and how establishment of the Baldessin Studio has built upon the artist’s legacy and shared his passion for the creative possibilities of printmaking.

FREE WORKSHOP
12 – 2 pm

DIY Poster and T-Shirt Printing with Troppo Print Studio

For adults and children. Visit Linden for bookings.

Create a screen-printed poster and T-shirt using hand cut stencils. In this beginner’s screen-printing workshop with Matt Feder from Troppo Print Studio, you will come up with a slogan, image or pattern that is influenced by the work on display at Melbourne Art Print Fair. We will be looking at the exhibited prints, having a conversation about the works and then you will create a screen-printed poster and T-shirt inspired by the works. You will be able to take your poster home with you.

You will also have a chance to print your slogan or image on a T-shirt. Please bring a new or used t-shirt with you to print on(op-shop shirts are great). We will provide Permaset water-based inks and card to print on.

SUNDAY 8 FEBRUARY

12 - 1 pm

Fred Williams: Etchings. Vincent Alessi and Cathy Leahy in Conversation.

Join Dr Vincent Alessi, Artistic Director + CEO of Linden New Art, and Cathy Leahy, Senior Curator of Prints & Drawings, National Gallery of Victoria, for a discussion of the exhibition Fred Williams: Etchings as they share insights into Williams as a printmaker and the importance of the medium to his practice.

Artist & Printer Talks
2 – 3 pm

Max Gosling, Press Studio Manager & Megalo printer and Greta Cooper, Education Manager, Megalo Print Studio, Canberra

Artist Emily Ferretti at Negative Press

Sarah Murphy and Matt Feder at Troppo Print Studio
3 – 3.30 pm

In Conversation: Happy 60th Birthday Print Council of Australia (PCA)!

PCA’s board member Sally Foster and Curator, Prints and Drawings at the Baillieu Library University of Melbourne, in conversation with Clare Humphries, PCA’s Victorian Committee member and Studio Lead, Printmaking, at RMIT University will discuss the 60-year history of the Print Council of Australia and its vital contribution to printmaking in Australia. 

FREE WORKSHOP
12 –3 pm

Letterpress Workshop with Firestation Print Studio

Open to the public on a walk-in basis, for both adults and children

A wood type letterpress experience delivered by Firestation Print Studio. Drop in to Linden’s studio, ink-up and pull your own prints of wood type forms while encountering the artefacts of printing history and learning a little of the letterpress lingo.

Children will have a chance to create prints of their initials with wood type using a simple method that still requires a pull of the press.

Prize

In 2026, Melbourne Art Print Fair will introduce the M.E.S. Materials Award, supported by Melbourne Etching Supplies. Judged by Linden New Art Director Dr Vincent Alessi and a M.E.S. representative, the award will provide $500 worth of M.E.S. materials to one of the artists exhibiting at the Fair. This new initiative strengthens the Fair’s commitment to supporting contemporary practice and recognising excellence in the field.