Screenprinter Artright & the Herald winners at Pride In Print 2023

AUCKLAND, Saturday: An original screen print creation, described as a “genuine labour of love” by the judges, has earned Onehunga-based Artrite Screen Printing won the Supreme Awards at the 2023 Pride In Print ceremony – the 30^th annual edition of the comp.

Artright’s Te Henga Sunset was also presented with the Specialty Products/Limited Edition & Fine Art Prints Category as well as Screen Process awards 

The 1 November 2022 issue of the New Zealand Herald won the Newspapers category; the Herald also took out the Web Offset Coldset category, before an enthusiastic industry audience of 500 at Auckland’s Cordis Hotel last night.

Artrite Glenn Taylor managing director described the accolade as “simply overwhelming”.

“I’ve been in the industry a long time – I started as a 16-year-old, coming straight from school to Artrite – so to get this now is pretty special,” he said.

Taylor said the Supreme Award win fully vindicated the company’s strategic decision to “stick with the knitting” in screen print versus other modes.

“An artist will come up to us with an original work, and our job is to break down that job into single layers and try to recreate that job exactly as the painting,” he said.

“Art is a big thing and we’re having to compete against a digital market. We’re always evolving and learning new things.

“We’re still finding better inks, better machinery, better techniques to achieve what digital can’t do – we’re trying to achieve a painting look, that people say ‘how is this done?”

“I’ve been in the industry a long time – I started as a 16-year-old, coming straight from school to Artrite – so to get this now is pretty special.”

“Artist Matt Payne has expressed a ‘mindblowing response’ to the award.

“He’s with us for most of the process too, so it’s a real collaboration of him and us.

“We are privileged to work with so many talented artists from New Zealand and overseas and it’s just really opened up a good will for us – we love what we do, we have a passion for our craft. It never feels like a job!”

Pride In Print judges described the work as an “incredible example of true print craftsmanship and artistic collaboration”.

“It required the hand-mixing of 33 colours and production of film layers, which the artist needed to sign off each time,” they said.

“With colours prone to change during repeated screen pulls, only 30 could be completed at a time before a clean-up was required – with colours then needing to be remixed, film layers reproduced and artist sign off sought again.

“Taking three weeks and about 2000 hand pulls to complete, the result was an original screen print, produced with great detail and wonderful colour consistency over all areas.

“So many things can go wrong in all of those processes, yet it was so beautiful – we were blown away.”

“This screenprint was a genuine labour of love.”

Senenty-one companies entered work in Pride In Print 2023; there were 475 entries in total – up 30 on 2022; 201 Gold medals were awarded – up 40 on 2022 (including five in the Business Awards section), and 78 Highly Commendeds were bestowed – down nine from 2022

• The full results should be posted this week at prideinprintawards.co.nz