Black and White brings together a collection of exceptional, small-format, black and white prints. Created by nine artists who have taken advantage of printmaking's constellation of complex techniques to produce intense, highly wrought, and, sometimes, idiosyncratic images, the collection functions as an anthology of printmaking possibilities. Observations, dreams, and reflections underlie the wide range of imagery presented here. The unique sensibilities of the individual artists are very much in evidence. Themes of nature and architecture, narrative and abstraction find surprising and satisfying expression in labour-intensive traditional forms such as wood engraving, etching and aquatint, drypoint and monotype. Newer digital processes and experimental techniques add their varied comtemporary flavours to the mix.

With consummate skill and sensitivity, Gerard Brender a Brandis practises the age-old technique of wood-engraving. Exacting and meditative in his execution, Brender a Brandis produces, in the black field of the ink, a tapestry of white lines remarkable for its purity as well as its complexity. Whether taking on the intricate shapes of flowers or of a landscape, his line exudes a vitality of its own that adds to the pleasure of subject matter lovingly observed.

The practise of observation informs Sharon Goldberg's prints as well. Working in etching and aquatint, techniques of metal plates and acid baths, needles and rosin dust, her images transform the perceived into metaphor and allusion. Figures and other creatures in ambiguous settings suggest anecdote and unspoken relationships. Sometimes introspective, other times playful, Goldberg's prints tease and engage the imagination.

The images of Elizabeth Whalley's small etching plates, from the series "Natural Patterns," are derived from seemingly random natural elements. The compositions of the final prints have variable dimensions as the etching plates are reprinted and reconfigured in different ways to produce patterns that echo systems of growth in nature. The printing process itself, with the variations introduced by hand-inking, wiping, and printing, becomes part of the image-making. The exponential number of variations possible with a few motifs suggests the economy of means from which nature generates endless pattern and form.

Dan Ford's remarkable hardground and aquatint etchings entrap within their small dimensions fascinating fictive pictorial worlds. Witty allegory and satire add pungency to the exquisite refinement of tone and line that characterizes his technique. Political icons, subjects from tarot cards, a melancholy landscape with a gallows, and many other mysterious images will reward patient and thoughtful looking.

The prints of Lawrence Bass capture moments in intimate human dramas that seem to be playing out in the psyches of the characters portrayed. A young woman works at a table in the moonlight in an emotionally charged atmosphere created with a stunning range of aquatint tonalities. In another, a humorous couple flirt in a cafe, their jauntiness expressed in lively drypoint lines. The titles suggest the significance to the artist of an intermingling of art and life.

Evocative night scenes of the city are the subjects of the painterly monotypes of Kellyann Monaghan. Each unique image, created on an unbitten metal plate with brush, rag and brayer, and printed in a unique impression, preserves Monaghan's spontaneous response to her subject. The effects of light penetrating the pervading darkness and picking out architectural forms from the shadows are magically transmitted to the image. So is the stillness of empty streets and buildings caught in an atmosphere of dreams and even loneliness.

Architecture is the central motif of Kristie Valentine's unusual transfer prints. Using a drawing as a guide, Valentine generates her monotypes from a boldly textured chipboard "plate." There is a unique, automatic quality of line resulting from this interaction. The physicality of the chipboard surface asserts the presence of the materials and Valentine's interaction with them and seems to communicate her presence within the rigorous images of interior space and light. interiors. Bleeding to the edges of the paper, the interiors seem to lead us far beyond what we can see.

Paul Ballard's prints introduce new technologies of printmaking. His archival digital prints suggest familiar things that have been mysteriously transformed into pure abstraction. Our imaginations travel from the familiar to the mysterious in his work. In his Navigations Suites he expertly uses electroetching (an innovative technique used to bite metal plates without using acid). He creates evocative simple forms that suggest, perhaps, massive planets scientifically imaged, remote and fascinating.

In the complexity of Olga Ines Magnano's prints imagery that mingles suggestions of science and nature magically evokes interior, psychological landscapes, memories, and things forgotten. In her work she calls upon digital imagery, lithography, woodcut, etching, chine colle, orchestrating them in harmonic and living compositions. Their subtle tonalities add an atmosphere of reverie and color to this collection of black and white prints.