The Shark’s Ink. B.A.T. Collection

Since 1976, when Shark’s Lithography opened as a contract print shop, through the past 40 years of publishing prints, Master printer Bud Shark has collaborated with a distinguished group of more than 150 artists and produced thousands of prints. This eclectic body of work has often challenged the assumptions and limitations of printmaking.

The Shark’s Ink. B.A.T. Collection is a compilation of the Bon á Tire, or “Good to Print”, from each edition. These are the prints, signed by the artist after achieving a good proof, to which the edition is matched. Traditionally these prints belong to the Master Printer.

Artists approach the printmaking process in many ways. Some arrive at the Shark’s studio with maquettes or drawings, others with a suitcase full of reference materials and some with an only an idea.

Processes used in the studio have included lithography; monotype- using watercolor, oil pastels and other materials; metal leaf, chine collé, embossing and collage, as well as innumerable innovations for cutting and printing woodblocks and other relief prints; and the engineering and construction of three-dimensional lithographs.

Bud Shark has devised unique methods and materials for realizing the challenging projects artists propose.

Prints published by Shark’s Ink. are included in numerous private and public collections including MoMA, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Yale University Art Gallery, CT; The New York Public Library, NY; The Library of Congress, DC; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; The Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, DC, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and many others.