Katie Geha firmly believes art can and should happen anywhere.
Geha once ran a gallery, called SOFA, out of her apartment while studying at The University of Texas at Austin. She also turned an old tire store in Athens, Georgia, into a 5,000-square-foot contemporary art space known as The Athenaeum.
Now, Geha has come to Madison to lead Tandem Press.
Located on Commercial Avenue, near train tracks just east of Lake Mendota, Tandem Press has worked with artists to publish fine art prints since 1987. Though located off campus, the organization is affiliated with the School of Education’s Art Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Paula Panczenkopreviouslyled Tandem Press for more than 30 years until she announced her retirement this year. Geha described Panczenko as an incredible legend.
Part of what drew Geha to Tandem Press, she said, was the opportunity to “rethink this next phase of Tandem.”
“What happens to an institution after 30 years? What is that next iteration?” Geha said.
Seeing Tandem’s legacy, with its enthusiastic staff dedicated to dreaming up what artists create, Geha said she knew she’d get to work with people who “were interested in experimentation” and “trying new things.”
Geha arrived in Madison this summer from the University of Georgia, where she worked as the director and chief curator of the galleries at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Without a background in printmaking, Geha said she’s spent her first weeks on the job listening and learning about how Tandem Press runs and “what we might want to do in the future.”
Collaborating with artists on ‘ambitious’ prints
Stop by Tandem Press, and you’ll start to appreciate the intricacy and beauty of prints, Geha said.
On Wednesday, Geha led a tour of the studio and gallery where employees and students work. Patrick Smyczek took a quick break to explain a project that he’s spent months on.
“It's a screen print that's composed of 62 different colors, and I am about 45 colors into it,” said Smyczek, a collaborative printmaker at Tandem Press.
Smyczek adds colors a layer at a time through a “very, very precise” process to create 40 editions of the print, he said.
The 3-feet-by-3-feet piece — titled “Where My Girls At?” — comes from a painting by artist Derrick Adams. It features four faces with red, blue and orange hair. On Wednesday, Smyczek added a pink, glittery color to the lips.
When people think of prints, they might imagine pushing a button to create a finished image that comes out of a machine. But that’s not what Tandem Press does, Smyczek said.
“Every single thing is done by hand, and everything is printed by hand,” he said. “All the colors are mixed by hand, and we work directly with the artist to go choice by choice on everything that is in the print.”
“We tend to do projects in our studio that are really ambitious and ... require a lot of time,” Smyczek said. He added, "That's what we love to do here.”
As Smyczek focused Wednesday on the Adams piece, Jason Ruhl worked on prints of Alison Saar’s art. One piece is printed on cotton seed sacks that Saar stitched together. Another, titled “L’il Big Sister,” shows a person whose hair stands like branches with bottles hanging off.
The studio at Tandem Press is scattered with larger versions of the drying racks that students use in elementary school art classes. There are also empty frames leaning against walls that wait for Seth Klekamp, a preparator at Tandem Press, to put prints into and send out.
Upstairs on Wednesday, curator J Myszka Lewis created a model to show what Tandem Press’ booth will look like next month at The Armory Show, an art fair at the Javits Center in New York. A miniature version of the print that Smyczek was working on is taped on one of the white walls, along with Saar’s art.
“Collectors and advisers and artists and people who are just interested in art will walk through, see these works and decide whether they might want to buy them or not, or just to chat with us,” Geha said.
Tandem Press attends a handful of art fairs a year. Geha said the events are a good opportunity “to show what we've been working on.”
How to see prints
People can see the prints that Tandem Press creates without traveling all the way to New York, though. Residents can visit the Apex Gallery from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays at 1743 Commercial Ave.
Exhibitions change a handful of times throughout the year. The most recent one ended Aug. 16 and was selected by Devon Stackonis, Tandem Press’s 2023-24 UW-Madison graduate student curatorial assistant. The show, titled “On Tenterhooks,” featured prints by filmmaker David Lynch and others.
Geha said Tandem Press is unique from other presses because it doesn’t just work with traditional printmakers. Tandem Press connects with creators from a variety of backgrounds, like Lynch, to make prints, she said.
“We're often reaching out or looking at artists that we think might fit within the roster of Tandem,” Geha said. “Recently, we've really been representing a lot of artists of color and Indigenous artists.”
Tandem Press has an incredible reputation so creators often come back or recommend the Madison studio to their peers, she said. Going forward, Geha said she wants to continue to showcase “incredible artists” at different stages of their careers.
Geha also wants to hold more public programs at Tandem Press, in addition to the Friday Jazz Series and other events it already hosts.
By welcoming people to visit Tandem Press, Geha hopes “everyone in Madison and everyone at the University of Wisconsin sees this institution as a real gem and asset to our community.”
