Hot Type is a Portfolio of 25 hand pulled prints by members and staff of the Providence Art Club.

This portfolio project was conceived in 2018 as a submission to the Southern Graphics Council (SGC) 2021 Conference that was scheduled to take place in Providence, Rhode Island. Although the conference was canceled due to the pandemic, all of the artists agreed that it was important to continue and see the project to completion. The prints in this portfolio speak to both personal and national issues. Collectively they document a unique time, a time when the use of superlatives -- unprecedented, incomprehensible, unfathomable -- became commonplace. A time when artists sought to understand a world of distortions, discord, and disease and responded with various measures of wit, clarity, and integrity. Printmaking has a long and proud tradition as a visual voice; it is exercised here using both beauty and ugliness to speak through these prints.

Each participating artist received a copy of the portfolio for their personal collection, and the first portfolio (ed. #1/28) was donated to the Providence Art Club’s Permanent Collection. The second portfolio (ed. #2/28) was auctioned off to raise funds for the purchase of Providence Art Club studio equipment and then donated by the collector, Dr. Joseph A. Chazan, to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum Graphics Collection at the request of curator Jan Howard. 

Initially, two additional portfolios were reserved to be donated to collections that support contemporary printmaking. Institutions interested in acquiring a portfolio should use the contact page to submit their request to the portfolio coordinator.

Smithsonian curator Joan Boudreau featured Hot Type in her blog article Artistic inspiration in the face of pandemic (March 9, 2023). 

Each individual print represents the views of the printmaker who created it and does not reflect those of the Providence Art Club.

Specifications

25 hand pulled prints from 25 artists
Produced in a limited edition of 28
Print size 11” x 11”
Includes: Archival clamshell box crafted by Portfoliobox.com
Introduction by Michael Rose, gallery manager, art historian, and appraiser
Artist Statements and other documentation

Collections

Edition #1/28 was donated to the Providence Art Club (PAC) Collection

Edition #2/28 was donated to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum Graphics Collection

Edition #3/28 was held for possible inclusion in the Southern Graphics Council (SGC) 2024 Conference

Edition #4/28 was acquired by The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History Graphic Arts Collection

Edition #25/28 was donated to The Mystic Museum of Art (MMoA)

The remaining portfolios are in the collections of the participating artists.