Person

Semenoff, Nik

1928- .

Nik Semenoff was born in Arlee, Saskatchewan on December 14, 1928 and received the majority of his education in the province. He is known as a researcher, artist, teacher and inventor. Semenoff started working at the University of Saskatchewan with Extension as an artist and media specialist in 1967 and moved to the faculty of the Department of Art and Art History in 1987. He retired in 1992 and was named Artist-in-Residence. During his career he has made jewelry, designed graphics, developed audio visual equipment, drawn illustrations and constructed architectural models. Before joining the U of S, he worked at the Western Producer, CFQC and ran a business out of his home as a free lance artist, designer and photographer. He is probably best known for his cutting-edge, original research into safer printmaking processes which has placed the University of Saskatchewan in the forefront of non-toxic printmaking research and education. Semenoff invented a number of printmaking processes, in particular the "waterless lithographic process", high resolution screen printing and specialized inks, which have made major contributions to his discipline. Printmaking is both safer and less expensive using the techniques and materials developed by Professor Semenoff. Considered revolutionary, his work has generated considerable interest in the international printmaking community, and he has been regularly invited to present the results of his research at academic conferences and workshops. He has been invited to conduct workshops at universities, art centres, professional printmaking studios and academic conferences in Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States as well as in Canada. In 2004 he was invited for three weeks to give a series of talks and workshops throughout Japan from a special grant of the Japanese Government. Professor Semenoff has published his research findings in such refereed academic journals as Leonardo: Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology and the British journal Printmaking Today, and he maintains a popular web site where papers on his most recent discoveries and processes are posted. His papers have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian. He has received numerous awards and honours including the Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and an honorary degree from the U of S in 2006. Dr. Semenoff is known and respected as a "local" artist and has long been active in and supportive of the provincial artistic community. He was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Society of Artists and served as its President in 1962. He was a founding member of Gallery 9 in Saskatoon and has been a Board Member of the Mendel Art Gallery. He served as Associate Director of the Fine Art Committee of the Saskatoon Industrial Exhibition for a number of years.

Professor of Art; printmaker