Associate Professor of Printmaking

About

  • Website

    http://@jplastini

  • Office Hours

    by appointment

  • Role

    Faculty

  • Position

    • Associate Professor of Printmaking
    • Graduate Advisor of Printmaking

  • Concentration

    • Printmaking

  • Department

    • Art and Art History

  • Education

    • M.F.A. (2012 Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University), B.A. (2008 University of California, Santa Cruz)
    • Professional Certificate in Craft Brewing (2024 Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences)

  • Curriculum Vitae:

Biography

Johnny Plastini employs historic analog and post-digital printmaking, book arts, and papermaking processes through an interdisciplinary lens. His contemporary artworks materially and visually connect vital resource engagement with issues concerning environmental sustainability, site-specific responsivity and the poetics of agential realism. He currently is awarded a fellowship through the Joe Blake Center for Engaged Humanities at Colorado State University for the 2026-2027 academic year. Throughout the fellowship year, Plastini will be hand-printing from sections of regional fallen trees with handmade inks formulated from local materials and hosting a series of public participatory workshops surrounding his research.
Associate Professor Plastini has previously been awarded artist residencies both nationally and internationally at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and MUDHOUSE in Crete, Greece. He has been hosted twice as an international researcher-in-residence at Temple University, Rome for documenting urban lichen symbionts on ancient architectures through lithographic, cyanotype, and RISOgraphic printmaking technologies. He also was awarded a resident research fellowship through the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University for his work regionally with lichen symbionts of the Colorado front range, sub-alpine and alpine tundra ecosystems.
Plastini has exhibited extensively at museums, conferences, non-profit spaces, art fairs, and galleries, nationally and internationally. Recent exhibition venues include: Manhattan Graphics Center, Washington Printmakers Gallery, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, SITE: Brooklyn, CU- Boulder Art Museum, SPACE Gallery, Ulrich Museum of Art, Bradbury Art Museum, New Bedford Art Museum, Lee Gallery at Clemson University, and McMaster Museum of Art, among others. Plastini has been featured in numerous publications including New American Paintings, CRED, West Branch (Bucknell University Literary Arts Journal), Studio Visit, Embodied Forest, and The Earthkeepers Handbook. Plastini’s work is held in the permanent public collections of Zayed University in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), the Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University in Georgia (USA), Witchita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University in Texas (USA), and the Nickle Museum at the University of Calgary (Canada). His work is also held in the Special Collections Archive in the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the Mid-America Print Council archive in the Eskenazi Museum of Art at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, and in the Artist Printmaker Research Collection (AP/RC) at the Museum of Texas Tech University.

First Generation Story

My father worked in the trades as a general contractor, mostly doing residential remodels and light commercial construction. I learned a lot from him during summers in high school and undergraduate school working on various job sites around the Monterey Bay Peninsula of northern California. Many of the hard skills he instilled in me have translated well to my active studio practice as a professional hands-on artist, educator, lab-manager and researcher. My mother left her position as a technician at the CHOMP blood bank, shortly after I was born, to focus on the work of raising me and my sister. She taught me patience, compassion, empathy, and all the necessary soft skills that drive the daily pulse of face-to-face classroom pedagogy.

Courses

  • ART 265: Introduction to Printmaking

    Syllabus

    This course at its core focuses on introductory processes in both intaglio and relief printmaking. Historic East Asian processes of woodblock printing and Renaissance era methods of Central European etching from copper plates will be explored in depth as well as contemporary approaches to these media. There will be six required projects in total: three in relief and three in intaglio. In addition to the six hours of in-class time, students will be expected to work independently outside of class for an additional six hours a week on their projects. Due to the small workshop nature of the course, more projects can and should evolve based on the artistic sensibilities and interests of individual students, however at minimum there are the basic required six, which will provide a necessary foundation in intaglio and relief.

  • ART 366: Community and Sustainability in Printmaking

    Syllabus

    This course focuses on expanding students’ intermediate knowledge of printmaking to incorporate sustainable non-toxic methods and community-based art projects. Historical as well as contemporary topics will be addressed throughout the semester and students will be expected to confidently articulate, not only what a print is and how to make one, but also what creative potential printmaking, as a medium, has to offer from a democratic standpoint. All project prompts are intended to catalyze student engagement towards issues of environmental, cultural, and/or economic sustainability. Students are encouraged to take risks and view each required project as an experimental starting point for what may evolve into a more cohesive series of advanced works in 400-level course engagement.

  • ART220: Book Arts – History, Meaning, and Form

    Syllabus

    This team-taught course focuses on book arts and their histories from a diverse perspective. Students explore and apply conceptual, theoretical, and historical frameworks of the book as an expressive art form. There are six required assignments: Four tangible art projects: paper/ink making, eastern and western binding samples, relief printing, and contemporary book arts making. Historical and theoretically relevant topics are reinforced through reading, writing, and discussion modules and two written responses. Instructional conversation that is collaborative, inclusive, and supportive creates a sense of community in a class that may already have familiarity with the book as a form but will now explore their sense of the book as a concept and a vital creative opportunity for artistic expression.

  • ART 465: Printmaking Research in Art/Craft/Design

    Syllabus

    This course provides an opportunity for students to advance their study of printmaking toward professional standards. Individual instruction and guidance will develop each students’ sensitivity to issues surrounding their own personal artistic voice and group critiques will provide an opportunity to discuss how those narratives could evolve over the duration of the semester and beyond. Special attention will be paid to how personal studio work engages our larger sociological sphere from both a historical and contemporary perspective. Students must demonstrate a relatively strong grasp of printmaking as a process-based medium and formulate a honed artistic vision in which to engage pertinent issues surrounding art, craft, and design within 21st century discourse.

  • IDEA310N: Post-Digital Printmaking

    Syllabus

    Develop proficiency with specific prototyping skills utilizing post-digital printmaking methods. Students explore the open source software GIMP in the digital space and then translate imagery from that software into the physical world through innovative ECO-UV printing, historic cyanotype, non-toxic relief printmaking methods from laser-engraved woodblocks, and non-toxic screen-printing on paper and fabric. Learning occurs in an interactive classroom environment and online discussion/research through a hybrid modality. The instructor presents course information through lectures, collaborative group discussion, and hands-on demonstrations. Students complete a variety of tangible assignments designed to integrate conceptual information from the lectures and develop crucial skills. Evaluation and assessment is based on real-world applications that demonstrate each students’ understanding of the material. Our goal together as a class is to cultivate a socially responsible space that reflects professionalism and integrity through inclusive community support.