Richard Kegler has spent the last four decades as a multi-disciplinary artist orbiting around typography, book arts, and relief printmaking. He formed P22 Type Foundry in 1994 and, after starting the Book Arts Center in Buffalo, New York, became the director of the Wells College Book Arts Center in Aurora, NY. Richard has spent his career combining an interest in traditional printing crafts with entrepreneurial initiatives. His current project, Dry Inc., involves pre-digital letterpress printing technologies, typography, and new printing tool development. His printing studio, also called Dry Inc., focuses on experimental letterpress printmaking. Kegler is currently the president of the Print Club of Rochester.
“My work is centered around letterpress printing using historic printing tools and blocks with a painterly approach. Many of the prints that are created as small run editions have some direct or indirect reference to art history (in such cases often name-checked in the title or description.) The raw materials of commercial letterpress printing allow for an almost instant evocation of Pop-Art and nostalgia with found images and discarded production tools. But not quite. The effects of inks on top of inks metallic opacity and faded translucency are still things that cannot fully be captured within any digital realm. This excites me. Now that letterpress is rarely taken up as a viable commercial trade, the tools and vernacular of letterpress printing have been embraced as a hands-on bridge between ‘fine” and “commercial” art. This blurred area between fine art prints and mass-produced graphic design posters strikes me as an area still full of potential for work in the Post-digital age. The concept of printmaking as an accessible and affordable way for art to reach a wider audience is always a consideration in producing an edition. More recently I have been working on a series of built-up monoprints which use painting techniques combined with intentional and random wood textured block printing.”
