The California Society of Printmakers, which formed in 1912 as the California Society of Etchers (and merged with the Bay Area Printmakers in 1968, thus changing their name), is showing its 98th annual membership exhibition at Alameda Main Library.

Printmaking is as varied a field as painting — multiple techniques employed in multiple ways can produce a wide variety of results.

This exhibition includes samples of woodcuts, linocuts, monotypes, silk screens, serigraphs, and even solar plate etching. Also look for intaglio, etching with Chine-colle and stone lithography. The featured printmakers also made occasional forays into collage, gold leaf and other mixed media, displaying an impressive range of possibility.

The juxtaposition of Jack Jacobson’s Cole Hardware and Susana Terrell’s Life is but a Dream is especially effective in showing this range. Jacobson’s piece depicts a deeply colored, wet night in front of the hardware store, the light layered and diffuse, the lines smudged and blurry as with rain. Terrell’s woodcut, on the other hand, is all clearly delineated darks and lights, each tuft of fur on the her sleeping dog carefully and cleanly outlined. 

While an individual artist’s technique obviously has much to do with the resulting image, the technical process also affects outcome. In a monotype, inks are applied to a non-absorbent surface (typically metal, glass or acrylic), and then pressed onto wet or dry paper. A woodcut is pretty much what it sounds like — an image cut into a piece of wood, which is then inked and pressed onto paper. 

There are other beautiful examples of the various forms of printmaking here.  Alice Fong’s Marriage of Warm Air and Cool Air displays an exhilarating riot of color — the complimentary colors of purple and yellow exploding across the surface. Daisy Eneix, Patricia Theobald Payne, Katherine Venturelli and Carrie Ann Plank’s imaginative prints bring to mind revamped fairy tales or Italo Calvino-esque fables. 

The richness of texture, color and mood that Anthony Lazorko and Toru Sugita bring to their works is mesmerizing. Lazorko’s Moon Light Motel depicts the exterior of a motel, shrouded in the deep blue of a post-dusk evening.  The neon sign and the orange light of the motel’s window, as well as the bright red “Pepsi” of the vending machine and cars’ taillights, both highlight and act as counterpoints to the falling darkness.

Sugita’s reduction woodblock, Forlorn is equally compelling in its use of color and texture. Reduction printing involves layering colors — a print is made with the wood block using one color, then the top layer of the block is shaved away, another color is applied, and then printed over the initial image. This layering can produce a gorgeous saturation, that in this case plays beautifully against the threadbare lines of a decaying barn and the dry husks of the wheat-colored grass and trees surrounding it.

Don’t forget to check out the continuation of the exhibit in the downstairs conference room (it’s not as well signposted as it might be).  There are some stunning works there, from Herlinde Spahr’s cleanly surreal Lying Awake, First Night to Hj Mooij’s Basquiat-esque The Study of Phonetics by Means of Manipulation.

There are even more printmaking techniques on display here. Gary Comoglio uses woodcut to create an op-art pixilated skull. John Babcock's blind intaglio produces texture and relief to captivating effect, and Beth Fein gives us an entrancing portrait with etching and Chine-colle. 

Robynn Smith’s Penance #2 depicts a cell in smudged, dreary colors — watery blues, algae green and muddy browns say as much about the state of captivity as the upturned rusty bedframe and the small, out-of-reach window. It is an interesting counterpoint to Macy Chadwick’s Walled Towers/Let Me In, in which playful, wandering lines dance beyond a walled cartographic space. 

This exhibit is a lovely demonstration of the possibilities of printmaking, showcasing both technique and artistry. May the California Society of Printmakers have another 98 years of successful shows!

The 98th Annual CSP Show: A Marriage of Opposites will be on display at the Alameda Main Library through Jan. 29. CPS's next show will be at the Berkeley Art Center from April 2 to May 22.