Submitted Photo “Nightrise V, mezzotint, 2023” by Jacob Cook is featured at the Northwest Arts Center in Minot.

The Northwest Arts Center presents “Umbrae,” a solo exhibition by Mississippi artist and INT’L All Media 2024 Best of Show recipient Jacob Crook, is being presented by the Northwest Arts Center in its Walter Piehl Gallery until Dec. 20.

According to arts center information, the exhibition consists of 20 mezzotint prints depicting landscape and interior settings that imply moody narratives and display the ways in which light transforms ordinary locations into otherworldly environments. Crook’s prints examine how light spills into a nocturnal space, illuminating details while establishing contrasting highlights and shadows. The works create scenes of quiet urban streets, intimate interiors and abandoned commercial areas that invite contemplation from the viewer.

“My intent is not to tell a story directly, but to set the stage in such a way that viewers are compelled to consider the moments before and after the one presented based on their own associations with the imagery,” Crook said in information from the arts center.

Crook works primarily in the reductive engraving technique of mezzotint printmaking and also is trained as an observational oil painter and draftsman. He completed his Master’s in Fine Arts degree in printmaking at Syracuse University in 2014 and received a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts with an emphasis in painting from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 2009. Crook is an assistant professor of art and printmaking coordinator in the Department of Art at Mississippi State University.

Mezzotint is a 17th century printmaking technique celebrated for its deep tonal richness, in which an image gradually emerges from darkness into light. The artist repeatedly rocks a toothed metal tool across a copper plate to create a velvety, ink-holding surface, then uses scrapers and burnishers to smooth selected areas to hold less ink and bring out lighter values. Once the plate is prepared, it is inked and printed on paper using an intaglio press.

Crook’s visit to Minot State is co-sponsored by Flat Tail Press, an educational printmaking studio that brings students and artists together to make limited edition prints. Students will have the opportunity to work with professional artists through hands-on printmaking, and sessions also are open to campus visitors. Crook will print in the Hartnett Hall Printmaking Studio, room 243, through Friday, Nov. 21.

Crook will present an art seminar in Hartnett Hall, room 106, on Friday at noon. Art seminar presentations offer students and the public the opportunity to learn about the work, lives and experiences of guest artists and arts professionals visiting Minot State.

The exhibition is available for viewing Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday from 1-5 p.m. The Walter Piehl Gallery is on the lower level of the Gordon B. Olson Library at Minot State, with its own entrance on the south side of the library. The gallery is closed on holidays. All exhibition-related events are free and open to the public.

The Northwest Arts Center is supported in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts and receives funding from the North Dakota Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.