About | Terry Schupbach-Gordon

I make prints and books to tell stories about the body that I live in and to awaken a sense of beauty and strength from unexpected places. The work is about fragility and imperfection. I make images seen through the lens of disability, and as such hope to re-name what can be beautiful and what strength looks like from here.

This is how I plant seeds.

My effort to live gracefully within a body defined by disability requires that I redefine traditional notions of beauty, strength, and fragility. Disability impacts all aspects of my life, and as such is the lens through which I see the world. It is my "view from here". In my work as a printmaker and book artist, I hope to reframe the language around disability and to address not the physicality that we do not have, but the beauty of who we are when we embrace the bodies, we live in. I know that our bodies carry our experience and our voice. Making the body visible and beautiful in its dependence and fragility, its pieces, and its fragments, is about speaking for ourselves and not being described by others. As a person with a disability, growing up in the south, I have always known that telling our own stories is what it takes to meet the world and create a place for others whose stories need to be heard. I have long known that our bodies inform us on all issues: pain, frailty, fragility, strength, dependence, love, and power. The body’s' voice informs how we move from silence to language, and from absence to inclusion.

As I aged, I grew to understand that it was also an opportunity to redesign the world to be inclusive of voices speaking languages that were unknown to us. I know that the body is what carries our experience and our voice. Having worked as a printmaker and book artist for more than 40 years, I am happy to say, that my studio practice is what I do most of my days. Most of my work is seen through the lens of disability, parenting, friendship, aging, grief, identity accompanied by a love of language and poetry. Most recently I have been re-reworking old prints and combining them with new images, as well as text and pieces of print made in the workshops that I conduct with children. I believe that we are all literally "pieced and mended" from our experiences, and our work should be no different. I have often said that we all carry a sort of "suitcase of scraps", a collection of where we have been and what we have experienced. My work is a constant re-shuffling of that "suitcase of scraps".

—Terry Schupbach-Gordon

Terry Schupbach-Gordon

Co-Director Catbird (on the Yadkin) Press 1988-present

Education

MFA Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 1979
BFA Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 1974

Teaching

Assistant Professor Printmaking, Kenyon College 1979-1983
Professor of Printmaking, Minneapolis College of Art and Design 1983-1988

Selected Exhibitions

2010-2025 Spacemakers: Arists with Disabilites in NC, Cameron Art Museum Wilmington, NC, Print Austin, Contemporary Print 2025, Print Houston: NEXT, Ellios Fine Arts 2024, The Contemporary Print, Print Austin 2023, 76th Annual International Competition, The Print Center Philadelphia 2023, Boston Printmakers 2023 North American Print Biennial, 97th Annual International Competition IPCNY New Prints 2022, Turner Print Show 2021, Chico CA, Stand Up Prints, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis MN 2020, Print Austin 2020, Austin, TX, Printmaking Plus, Denver Com 2020, Buckham Gallery, Flint MI, 2019, 36th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibit; Wheaton Biennial Printmaking Reimagined; Art Now(printmaking) Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, MI; Woven Heritage, International Miniature Print Exhibit, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE; Printed Image 6: Todays printmakers on Exhibit, Alice Sabatini Gallery, Topeka, Kansas Beyond Words: Contemporary Book Arts, Foothills Art Center, Golden CO 2015, Southern Graphics Council Traveling Exhibition, 2015, Bent Liked the River, prints and books at the Lincoln Center Gallery, Ft. Collins Co., Rosalux Gallery, Open Door Eight Exhibition, Minneapolis MN., The House that We Built, WARM Gallery 40 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Minneapolis, MN.
2007-2010 Artist Books and Drawings From Catbird (on the Yadkin) Press, Mclean Project for the Arts, Mclean Va. 2010. Prints Drawings and Affirmations by Terry Schupbach-Gordon, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, Ma. 2009.
2004-2006 NCAE fellowship Exhibit, Asheville Museum of Art; Blurring the Racial Barriers, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Salem College, and Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC.
1999-2003 One Woman Exhibit, Chadron State College, Chadron Nebraska, Related Works, Related Lives, Salem Fine Arts Center, Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC, River Rising, University of MN, Morris, MN, Reclaiming Grace, Berkley Springs, WVA.
1996-1999 Rivers Rising, New Work, Spring Creek Art Gallery, Plano, TX; Three Person Show, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL, 1998; Triad Artists Exhibit, Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, 1997; North Carolina Artists Exhibit Program North Carolina Museum of Art, 1996; Print Invitational, Kreft Center for the Arts, Ann Arbor MI, 1996; Printworks 95, Barrett House gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY Prints and the Paper, San Diego Art Institute, CA, Dallas Women’s Caucus for Art Exhibit; Prints and Books Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY, 1995
1992-1994 Three Person Show, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI,1994; Two Person Show Kansas City Artist Coalition, Kansas City, DA, 1994; Maryland Federation of Art Print exhibit, Annapolis, MD, 1993; Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival, Alexandria, Louisiana, 1993; Works on Paper McNeese State University, Shreveport, LA, 1993; 65th National Print Exhibit SAGA, New York City; Third Annual Print Show San Diego Art Institute, CA; University of Texas Invitational Print Show, El Paso, TX; Women Artist Show Matrix Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 1992; International Print Exhibit, Somerstown NY; Three Person Show, Sarratt Gallery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 1992; Artlink 12th Annual Print Show, Ft. Wayne, IN; Ties that Bind two person show, Spirit Square, Charlotte, NC 1992; 17th National Print Show, Hays Kansas; Prints International, Silvermine Guild Center, New Canaan, CT; Two person Show, Hartnett Hall Gallery, Minot ND.
1987-1991 Three Person Show Artspace, Raleigh, NC; Spirit and Ancestors Books, Prints and drawings two person show, University of WI, La Crosse, WI 1991; 7th National Artists with disabilities, NYU, 1991; 21st Works on Paper, Harnett Hall Gallery, Minot ND; Under Cover Artists Books, Torpedo Factory Art Association, VA; 5th Parkside Small Print Show, University of Wisconsin, Parkside; 43rd North American Print Exhibit, De Cordova Museum, Boston, MA; 3rd International Print Exhibit Somerstown gallery, Somerstown, NY; 11th National Exhibit of the LA Printmaking Society Los Angeles, CA; All on Paper, Clary Miner Gallery, Buffalo, NY 1990; Women in the Visual Arts, Erector Square Gallery, New Haven CT, 1990; 20th National Works on Paper, Hartnett Hall Gallery, Minot, ND; Paper in Particular, Columbia, MO, 1990; 14th National Exhibit, Harper College, Palatine, IL; Yellow Banks Celebration, Owensboro Art Museum, Owensboro, KY; 34th National Print Exhibit, Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, NJ; Graphic Art of Printmaking Wichita Art Association, Wichita, KS; Halpert Biennial, Boone NC, 1990.
1979-1986 Forecast Exhibit, Pillsbury Center, Minneapolis, MN 1986; Prints and Drawings St. Olaf College, Northfield MN; A Celebration of Making two person show WARM Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, 1985; Invitational Exhibit, The Gallery, Bloomington, IN, 1985; WARM, the Landmark Exhibit Minnesota Museum of Art and the Tweed Museum, Duluth, MN, 1884; 9th Miniature Print Show, Pratt Graphic Center, NYC; Schohaire National Small Print, Cobleskill, NY,1983; Cabo Frio International Print Biennial, Cabo Frio, Brazil, 1983; Works on Paper College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio; Two Person Print Show, Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH, 1983; One Person Show, Brusher Gallery of Art, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY 1983; Space Group Miniature Print show, Seoul, South Korea, 1982; Indiana University Southeast, one-person exhibit 1982; 7th and 6th National Print and Drawing Show, Fort Hays, KS; 16th National Potsdam Print Show Potsdam, NY; 10th Annual Works on Paper 2nd Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA; Works on Paper FAVA Gallery, Oberlin, OH 1982; 6th National Print and Drawing Exhibit, Charlotte, NC; Wesleyan International Print Show, Macon, GA 1980; Dulin Print Show, Knoxville, TN, 1979, One Person Show, Virginia Intermont College, Bristol VA 1979.

Grants and Awards

Southern Graphics Council Award at Print Austin 2025, Awagami Paper Award, The Print Center, 97th Annual Exhibition.Semifinalist, 2023 76th Annual International Competition, The Print Center Philadelphia, North Carolina Visual Artists Fellowship Grant, NC Arts Council, 2005 Arts in Education Grant, Winston-Salem Arts Council 1989-91, 1998-99, 2000-2001; Women’s Studio Workshop, Book Grant, 1994; Purchase or Jurors Award in the following exhibits: Artlink 12th National Print Exhibit 1992; 20th Works on Paper, Minot, ND; Art Center of MN, 1987; 6th National Print Show, Fort Hays, KS; Wesleyan Print show, Macon Ga. 1980; Mellon Faculty Development Grant, 1980 and 1983, Kenyon College; and 1984 at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Forecast Studio Projects Grant Minneapolis, MN 1986.

Disability Advocacy

1970-present Workshops and lectures that promote understanding of equal rights and

Justice issues as they relate to disability. Programs are geared to a wide range of

audiences that have included the Winston-Salem Police Department, Bowman

Gray School of Medicine, and The National Spina Bifida Association National

Conference, 1998.

Artist Book Collections

Newberry Library at Brown University; Wake Forest University; Messiah College;

New York Public Library; Yale University Haas Arts Library; Bucknell College

Library; Hobart and William Smith College Library; Oberlin College Library;

Wesleyan University Olin Library, Special Collections; Dodd Research Center at

the University of Connecticut; Boston Athenaeum; Lafayette College, Skillman

Library; Toronto Public Library, Special Collections; Duke University Perkins

Library Special Collections, Kenyon College Library, Vanderbilt University

Heard Library, Special Collections.