Bernice Ficek-Swenson
"I've been using French Tool Presses since I was a kid taking my first printmaking class. It's my favorite press for printing etchings. I am incredibly fortunate to have a custom French Tool designed by Tom Conrad. I've been printing beautiful copper plate photogravure editions on my press for a number of years now...it gives me the pressure needed to print a photogravure. "
Artist/ Printmaker
Professor of Art,
University of Wisconsin - River Falls
Bio
Bernice Ficek-Swenson
-B.F.A. University of North Dakota, 1974
-M.A. State University of New York, 1977
-M.F.A. University of North Dakota, 1994
Bernice Ficek-Swenson's prints explore aspects of the four elemental forces of nature and landscape in constructed photographs of stones, ashes, fire and water which are made into copper plate photogravures: a 19th century process which she has worked with since 1995.
Ficek-Swenson's photogravures have been shown nationally and internationally; Including the AIR Gallery, NYC, Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, Technohoros Gallery, Athens, Greece, Galerie-Par-ci Par-La, Lyon, France and the Grafikens Hus, Sweden.
Her explorations of fire and stones are in major collections of: Minneapolis Institute of Art: Museum of Contemporary Photography @ Columbia, Chicago: North Dakota Museum of Art: Polaroid International Collection: Arizona State University Art Museum-Tempe: Frederick Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis MN and the Athens School of Fine Arts; Athens, Greece. She has been an Artist in Residence at Anchor Graphics, Chicago and at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
"Bernie" lives and works in Golden Valley, MN and she is a Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls where she teaches printmaking and drawing. In Spring 2012 she has been invited as a Visiting Professor to the Hong Kong Institute of Education, China. You can find more of Bernie's work at www.berniceficekswenson.com.
