Beaufort West with Sanguine II

Zhané Warren, born in 1976 in Johannesburg, is the master printer and director at Warren Editions, a Cape Town-based printmaking studio.

She studied Fine Art at Stellenbosch University and in 2006, achieved a master’s degree in Technology of Fine Art from the University of Johannesburg.  She was awarded a scholarship and attended the Karel de Grote Hogeskool in Antwerp, Belgium and remained in Belgium for five years, working alongside renowned artists and printmakers. 2007, she returned to South Africa as a recognised master printer and founded Warren Editions.

As a visual and performance artist, Zhané Warren has staged numerous performances and participated in exhibitions in South Africa and abroad. Solo Exhibitions include Live with me (KZN Gallery, Durban, 2007), Recurrence (Art on Paper, Johannesburg, 2006), and In between here and there (with Robert van Dromme at Contemporary Wei, Antwerp, Belgium). Her work is represented in various collections in South Africa, Belgium and the USA.

Zhané Warren is a respected printmaking and fine art publishing authority and a passionate educator.

For her print Warren used photogravure, the technique is both an intaglio and photomechanical technique. The technique combines the details of photography with densely pigmented intaglio inks. Using pigmented inks and acid-free pulp paper makes photogravure the most archival print technique. For photogravure, a continuous tone positive is exposed to light-sensitive pigmented gelatin tissue bonded to a rosin-coated copperplate. An aquatint is critical to this tone-based technique. After the gelatin is developed, the copperplate, with the image containing gelatin, is etched in baths of ferric chloride of different strengths. The etching commences with the extreme darks, moving through the tones to the lightest tone – pulling the etched copperplate from the ferric chloride once the bite reaches the extreme highlights. The technique accomplishes a full range of tones and attests to a high-quality original print.