The Spudnik Cooperative Fellowship Program provides a novel opportunity for four printmakers to have six months access to all the facilities at Spudnik Press, contribute to the day-to-day success of Spudnik Press through leading our Open Studio program, and giving back to our community through leading donation-based community workshops.

This December we welcome our next cohort of artists. We are excited to bring to Spudnik artists who hail from four different schools located in three different states, and will be working in all corners of the studio. In addition to developing their person body of artwork, each fellow will lead on Open Studio session each week through May 2016.

Stephanie Benhaim is a painter and printmaker born and raised in Miami, Florida. She received her BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon in 2014. Benhaim is known for creating monotype portraits that grapple with themes of diaspora and the erasure of identity. Her works have been published in Jai-Alai Magazine and OTPW Zine Works.

Margaret Hitch is a printmaker, illustrator and sometimes poet hailing from the upper peninsula of Michigan. Last year, she received a BFA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she spent a lot of time with litho stones and birch plywood. Margaret’s print works often illustrate or work in tandem with her poems. Through the fellowship at Spudnik, she hopes to make three small books that experiment with relationships between text and image.

Eliz Kaple is a print and new-media artist based in Chicago, Il.  Her practice relies primarily on printmaking, bookbinding, and video.  Through the use of diagrams and architectural structures, she reimagines planes of perspective and reanimates inadequate spaces. Eliz received her BA in Anthropology from DePaul in 2014.  Her work is held at the DePaul Art Museum and has been exhibited in peripheral spaces in Chicago, Providence, and Indianapolis.

Darian Longmire is an interdisciplinary artist currently living in Chicago IL. He studied visual art and graphic design at Illinois State University, graduating in 2013. His work deals with conceptual approaches to exploring cosmology, the study of the universe. Monoprinting and assemblage currently drive his print based endeavors. Darian will be seeking MFA candidacy at a list of chosen institutions for the fall 2016 term.