Comprising selections from the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, this exhibition continues the museum’s celebration of creativity, talent, and collaborative spirit synonymous with The Lawrence Lithography Workshop (TLLW).

Master Printer Michael Sims (born 1944) established TLLW in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1979 before moving it to Sunland Park, New Mexico, in 1997. Since 2001, the shop has operated out of Kansas City, Missouri, drawing artists as diverse as the subject matter and techniques represented in their prints. Artists have come from around the corner and across the country. Some are well-versed in printmaking, while others are new to lithography and interested in exploring its possibilities. Many have returned again and again—a testament to the shop’s reputation and Sims’s expert guidance.

Among the hundreds of artists who have collaborated with Sims at TLLW are the following whose prints are on view in this exhibition: Ron Adams, Richard Dishinger, Archie Scott Gobber, Tom Gregg, Tom Hück, Benito Huerta, Kelley Kapfer, Alden Mason, Ed Paschke, Roger Shimomura, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Robert Stackhouse, Akio Takamori, Tom Uttech, Theodore Waddell, and William T. Wiley.

About The Lawrence Lithography Workshop Collection at the Nelson-Atkins:

Over the years, generous gifts and purchases, including a recent significant gift from C. Richard Belger and Evelyn Belger, resulted in a repository of prints made at TLLW between 1980 and 2018. The archive ensures the legacy of this influential print shop, the artists with whom it has worked, and the community it has fostered.

Organized by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Header image caption: Michael Sims in The Lawrence Lithography Workshop booth at a print fair in New York, October 2023. Image courtesy of Emily Sims.