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Ketty La Rocca: Estorick Collection

Ketty La Rocca at the Estorick Collection : October 2025. Subassa and I visited this exhibition today at our local gallery in Highbury. Very unusual work, very 60s feminist oriented, collages, but nonetheless interesting.

A founding member of the avant-garde collective Gruppo 70, La Rocca merged art with poesia visiva (visual poetry), confronting the limitations of patriarchal language structures and advocating for alternative forms of expression. Her practice often centred on the human hand – an expressive tool for both gesture and communication – and expanded into striking sculptural works, including large-scale alphabetic forms in black PVC.

La Rocca’s work has garnered growing international acclaim in recent years; it has been featured in major exhibitions including the Venice Biennale and can be found in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Centre Pompidou and the Uffizi. Resonant and urgent, La Rocca’s work feels remarkably contemporary – interrogating consumer culture and gender dynamics with clarity and force.

Melanie Ley, https://www.culturecalling.com/london/events/ketty-la-rocca-you-you

Courtauld exhibition

Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Alice Adams : Abstract Erotic

In 1966 Lucy Lippard the art critic curated a ground-breaking exhibition Ecentric Abstraction in New York, which showcased a new approach to sculpture. This was distinct from the rigidly geometric forms previously created at that time. The sculpture produced a ‘sensuous response’ in the viewer. The materials comprised papier mache, plastic mesh, netting, chain-link fencing.

The Courtauld exhibition brings together the three women artists. Women artists at this time were not regularly shown in galleries or well-known. She said that at the time I can see now that I was looking for ‘feminist art‘

Whether this type of once new sculpture has any relevance today, is debateable. I had already seen previous works by Louise Bourgeois, far more impressive and ground-breaking. The room full of her sketches and drawings were very unimpressive and it is doubtful why they were included in the show.

All in all, my partner and I appreciated seeing these works, however, there are many women fibre and sculpture artists now. Next week we are going to Tate Modern to look at the permanent exhibitions.

Working with Gelli Plates

My own experience of working with gelli plates includes single and multi layer printing and a failed attempt at image transfer using ink jet printed photos – I can’t get image transfer to work at all and in fact the information I have found states that only laser printed images work with transfers. Below are two of my attempts at multi layer method. Using flora from my local park. Image transfer is where you transfer a printed photograph onto the plate and use it as the base for an image. There are lots of tutorials on youtube on this method.

Gelli plates are about half an inch thick and have a soft surface on which is rolled Acrylic paint with a soft brayer/roller. It is an excellent medium for making prints if you don’t have access to a press.

The size of my plate is 10 x 8 ins. Acrylic ink is rolled thinly and evenly onto the plate using a good quality rubber roller, don’t use those cheap school type rollers, they are too hard. Then leaves or other surfaces such as paper strips and shapes, etc. can be laid on the colour and a print taken. You can use plastic or paper stencils or work into the painted surface with soft scrapers.

Paper: the paper can be quite thin Japanese paper or cartridge which is laid on the plate and then you can press down with your hand or use a baren, which I use for a more even print.

Ghost prints: once a print is taken you can remove the stencils and take another print, in this way you get a nice ghost print which works well with other layers. Try to use colours that complement each other.

The prints dry very quickly. Clean the plate of excess paint; then apply the second colour and continue in this way. I don’t tend to water clean the plate in between colours but you could, as long as you make sure the plate is dry. For final plate cleaning I use washing up liquid and water with a sponge.

Leave to dry overnight and store between tissue paper. One of the most interesting uses for gelli prints is that if you print on a thin enough paper you can collage them into new designs. Or, as I do laminate them with pva and use them for book covers.

Gandha Key, zyarts2011@gmail.com

Drypoint with Perspex

Drypoint is the name of a method of printmaking in that marks, lines and areas of tone are made on a plate; in this case perspex, usually about 2mm in depth. It is similar in some ways to etching but there is no acid used to imprint lines into the etching metal plate.

Perspex is best for long editions, as opposed to the fragility of Tetra Pak and Enviromount. It is worked with a drypoint or etching needle. You need an etching press to print these; it won’t work by hand.

Making the image. Lines are made with a drypoint needle by scratching into the surface. For dark areas you need to cross hatch; the dark areas in the print above were made by lots of cross hatching. It is probably the best surface for drawings as you can make wavy and circular lines more easily on perspex than other surfaces. You can also get mid tone areas with light cross hatching.

You can place your drawing, photo or copy under the perspex to work directly.

Inking the plate: I recommend Akua inks which are quite liquid and spread easily. Ink the plate as you would an etching, applying ink evenly with a brush or piece of card, working the ink into the lines. Clean off with tarletan, newsprint and tissue paper for a good plate tone. Use cotton buds for inkless areas. Paper: I use Somerset 280 gsm paper soaked for 30 minutes. I don’t recommend lightweight paper as it won’t be soft enough to pick up detail.

Chine Colle: you can attach pieces of thin Japanese paper or strong tissue paper to the plate before laying on the paper; I used prit stik and also Japanese rice glue, both worked equally well.

Leave overnight under weights with tissue paper to flatten and dry.

City Road Series 2 and Ordinary Things 2: Scissors: drypoint showing chine colle in 1 and hatching in 2