MSU - INT'L PW 2026

INT'L PW 2026

The Northwest Arts Center is excited to announce the 54th year of the Paperworks juried exhibition at Minot State University. Founded to enhance the study and appreciation of contemporary visual arts in our region, the exhibitions attract excellence in works on paper each year. INT'L Paperworks 2026 continues to welcome entrants from around the world. We are grateful to the many artists who have shared their work and passion for art with our audiences. It is our honor to invite you to contribute to this enduring dialogue of creative exploration and exchange.

INT'L Paperworks Juried Exhibition
February 12 through March 26, 2026
Walter Piehl Gallery
Northwest Arts Center
Minot State University
Minot, North Dakota

Reception & Online Viewing:
Friday, March 20, 2026
6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. Juror's Talk and Awards
Best of Show, Merit and Purchase Awards to be announced at the reception.

Juror: Dave DiMarchi, New Hope, PA

DAVE DIMARCHI is a queer, multi-disciplinary artist working in printmaking, papermaking, and sculptural book forms. Nurturing ideas into singular and editioned works, he engages in a relentless material practice. As a multi-disciplinary artist, he has exhibited works on paper, installations, and books in the US and internationally. In addition to teaching printmaking, papermaking and book forms throughout the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania area, he maintains a collaborative studio and art space, the Judith K. Brodsky Printmaking Studio, at the Arts Council of Princeton. In autumn of 2022, he was selected as the Arts Council of Princeton’s Anne Reeves Artist-in-Residence, through which he developed a practice of collage-based multimedia and print works. He serves as the Arts Council’s Studios Manager and Master Printer and lead Printmaking Instructor, in addition to leading the Printmaking Curriculum at Mercer County College. For nearly 16 years, he has created his own work, curated exhibitions, provided print exchange opportunities, and published fine art prints as 9INHANDPRESS, a fine art printmaking and education studio.

JUROR'S STATEMENT

Being asked to serve as the Juror for INT’L Paperworks 2026 is both an immense honor and incredible responsibility – and I am grateful (if also a little hesitant, and maybe scared) to serve in this role. Jurying the nearly 300 individual works was no less than a daunting task, and one that left me both excited by the state of contemporary works on paper and eager to dive back into the studio myself. As a traditional printmaker, papermaker, book artist, and educator, I have vast appreciation for the craft of works on paper, and a deep love for artists who chose to make work on the supple fragility of pulped fibers.

As in any jurying process, I have tried to mettle out the overarching structure of this exhibition; is there a prevailing theme among the submitted works, or a cohesive line I can thread through this body of art? While looking at the works, removed from their context and creators, I came to find myself drawn to the quiet pieces - the ones that seem to pull me in, allow me to turn off the world and investigate their makes, marks and meanderings. I realized the INT’L Paperworks 2026 exhibition was one of stillness, quiet, and calm, in a world that is increasingly loud, chaotic and harried. I invite you to sit with these works, feel their emotions, understand their makes and makers: find quiet in the noise.

The works included in this exhibition are only a small portion of what was submitted, and that, only the smallest portion of what every artist is creating in their studios day to day. The exclusion of works from INT’L Paperworks 2026 does not, through their absence, indicate any dismissal of talent, unique perspective, or technical mastery. Undoubtedly, a different juror (a painter! A photographer! A sculptor!) could have easily developed an entirely different -and still beautifully satisfying- exhibition from the considered works.

I want to extend my deepest thanks to Northwest Arts Center, Minot State University, Greg Vettel, JoHannah Grosz, and the team who work in front and behind the scenes making this exhibition and Art Center the beacon it is. I would be remiss if I did not also thank each of the nearly 100 artists who submitted their works for consideration, and the artists, curators, gallerists, educators and staff who support this exhibition and Northwest Arts Center.

Congratulations to all of the exhibited artists, and to those honored with Merit Awards! It has been my honor to be able to peek into your practices; I am in awe of your works and truly look forward to following your artistic pursuits.

— Dave DiMarchi