ECHO | International Student Exchange in Printmaking | Poland and Canada

ECHO | International Student Exchange in Printmaking | Poland and Canada

Venue: Aula Gallery, 29 Marcinkowskiego Ave.
Duration of exhibiton: 9-15 February 2026
Finissage: 13 February, 6:00 PM

Artists:
Abigail Lam Cervantes, Ailah Carpenter, Aleksandra Bilik, Alexander Sylvestre, Alicja Tacakiewicz, Emilia Kot, Fern Sych, Hanna Lee, Hannah Duke, Izabela Wituski, Jan Dyczko, Jayde Solberg, Jewel Charles, Maia Houle, Małgorzata Rydlewska, Marlo Turk, Mary French, Nicole Parker, Noah Lukan, Oliwia Kużdowicz, Penelope Tweten, Rajesh Rodney, Sasha Prut, Susan Clark, Tomasz Lubocki, Tymon Lewandowski, Weronika Remus, Yana Kharewicz, Zuzanna Dembińska, Zuzanna Gruszczyńska

Curatorial team:
Agnieszka C. Maćkowiak (UAP), John Graham (USask)

The exhibition ECHO presents the results of an international student exchange project in printmaking, carried out between the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznan and the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada.

The starting point of the project was the word echo, understood both literally and metaphorically. In printmaking, each print is an echo of the matrix – a repetition of a gesture, a trace of a process. This logic of repetition also became the axis of the exchange itself, firmly rooting the project in the specificity of printmaking as a medium based on transfer and impression. Ideas for the students’ works circulated between the two countries, responding to one another across geographical, temporal, and cultural distances. Each print functions here as a voice – sent, received, and resonating anew in a different context. In this way, the exhibition creates a polyphonic dialogue.

The word echo also carries linguistic universality, sounding identical in both Polish and English, becoming a shared field of meaning for both groups and allowing for free interpretation.

The exhibition presents 30 postcard-sized works created using various printmaking techniques – 15 prints by students from each institution. The small format refers to the idea of mail art, which for many years served as a form of ongoing contact between artists worldwide and enabled the circulation of artworks outside official channels.

Simultaneously, at exactly the same time, the ECHO exhibition is presented in Canada at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. This dual presentation emphasizes the idea of reciprocity and reflection that underpins the project. The same works function concurrently in two different cultural contexts, confirming that echo is a process of the continuous movement of meanings.