About the Artist
Chantal Hildebrand is a Kenyan-American linocut printmaker based in Oakland, California. Her intricate prints and carvings depict Black bodies at rest in hyper-detailed surroundings.
Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Chantal draws from years working for racial and gender justice in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. Her art engages with themes of imperfection, embodiment, and self-love, as well as memories of her mother.
Chantal’s art emphasizes varied human forms amidst African patterns, lush flora, and revolutionary Black literature. Her prints play with dynamics of stillness and motion, detail and void, line and texture.
Her art depicts what happens behind closed doors, when Black bodies are at rest: free from being perceived, assessed, or categorized. It manifests a world where Black bodies are honored, valued, and admired.
About the Process
Linocut printmaking (also known as lino printing or linocut block printmaking) is a printmaking technique where a sheet of linoleum is used as the surface that the artist then carves an image. Woodcut printmaking is one of the oldest forms of relief printing that follows a similar process to that on the linocut process.
For Chantal, the process begins with an original sketch that she wants to turn into a print. She redraws her sketch either directly on the linoleum block/piece of wood or traces her drawing on the surface of the block. Using a selection of gouges, she then carves out the areas where she does not want ink, leaving the uncarved areas as the parts that will be printed (the image carved on the block serves as a mirror image of what will be impressed on to paper).
Once the carving is complete, Chantal inks the block with a roller and places a piece of watercolor paper on top of the newly inked block. Using her own body weight, and the help of a wooden spoon to smooth out any areas where the ink needs a bit of encouragement to latch on the paper, she transfers the ink from the original block to paper. The process can be repeated numerous times until the linoleum or wood block deteriorates and is no longer usable, or if Chantal decides to discontinue the print. Variations occur between each print, leaving each final result as a unique and special piece.
