Residency Report: Printmaking in South Korea
School of Art students and alumni travel all over the world to expand their knowledge and exchange ideas with other scholars and artists. Eliza Frensley (MFA 25) , a recent graduate of our printmaking program, spent several months this past fall and winter in South Korea as a resident artist. Scroll down to read about Eliza’s experience at the Print Art Research Center and Naughty Muse Studios.
This past fall, I traveled to South Korea to participate in two artist residencies. I was the Winter Resident at the Print Art Research Center (PARC) in Seoul and also spent two weeks as an artist-in-residence at Naughty Muse Studios in Busan. Both residencies were production-based, allowing me to focus on creating new work while also immersing myself in an unfamiliar cultural environment.
After graduating from the School of Art at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, I wanted to explore more of the world while continuing to develop my artistic practice outside of academia. I have long had a passion for travel. Prior to Korea, I visited several European countries and studied abroad in Germany through UTK Cinema Studies’ Cinematic Cities: Berlin program. Those experiences left me eager to see more of the world and to understand how different cultural environments shape artistic communities.
Printmaking is one of the most powerful forms of cultural exchange because it exists at the intersection of collective knowledge and individual expression. The craft depends on techniques developed, shared, and preserved within communities: skills passed from printer to printer across generations. At the same time, the reproducible nature of prints allows a single individual’s ideas to travel far beyond their own studio. In this way, printmaking transforms communal knowledge into a vehicle for personal voice, allowing culture itself to circulate. Printmaking is a huge component of cultural exchange.
Although printmaking is a global practice, I noticed that Korea’s printmaking community felt relatively small and operated within certain limitations. The peninsula’s distance from common printmaking supply channels makes it difficult for studios to access materials that are widely available in the continental United States, such as felts, chemicals, and hard grounds. This realization made me aware of how often I take these resources for granted. At the same time, I was struck by the ingenuity of the studios I worked with. Artists frequently reused, substituted, and adapted materials in inventive ways. Witnessing this resourcefulness reshaped how I think about materials in printmaking and encouraged me to experiment more freely. I was also able to share my own knowledge of printmaking processes with members of the community, who welcomed these exchanges with enthusiasm despite language barriers.
During my residencies, my goal was to produce new work for an exhibition that would culminate my time in Korea. The underlying theme of the exhibition was the observation of cultural narratives between South Korea and the United States. In particular, I focused on the magpie, a bird that I encountered constantly during my residency.
The Bird That Speaks Twice is a visual and cultural exploration of one of the world’s most intriguing symbolic creatures: the magpie. Across continents and centuries, this unassuming black-and-white bird has carried a range of meanings. In Korean culture, the magpie is often associated with good fortune and joyful news, while in Western folklore it can symbolize superstition, bad luck, or layered legend. The exhibition invited viewers to consider the magpie as a creature with multiple “voices,” reflecting the power of observation, interpretation, and storytelling. Through this work, I invite viewers to look beyond black and white and discover the richness that emerges from differing cultural perspectives.
Reflecting on my time in Korea, I formed lasting friendships, found mentorship, and began a new chapter in my journey as an emerging artist.
I encourage every artist to seek opportunities to travel, learn from others, and engage with new communities. Experiences like these strengthen our understanding of artistic exchange and reinforce the collaborative spirit that has always been central to print culture.
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Bio: Eliza Frensley, born and raised in Middle Tennessee, received an MFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) with a focus in printmaking and a minor in art history and a BFA in printmaking from Tyler School of Art & Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
Her portfolio transforms archival and family images into layered visual narratives that illuminate subtle social and economic divides embedded in inherited domestic histories and constructions of American identity. Her practice investigates how printmaking and photography mediate the construction, fragmentation, and reimagining of personal and collective identity. In her most recent work, Frensley uses animals and architecture as analogical frameworks to examine family dynamics, social hierarchies, and modes of communication and culture.
Frensley was the recipient of the 2025 Frogman’s Graduate Student Scholarship, a nationally competitive printmaking award and received recognition from UTK for Excellence in Graduate Student Research. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in numerous juried exhibitions with her current body of work exhibiting in the Bankers Alley Hotel gallery in Nashville, TN.