Karl-Peter Penke sources his playful etchings from observations of his behaviour and those around him. The complexities which bombard our day-to-day interactions, together with our nagging historical baggage, are pulped, filtered and regurgitated as pictorial vignettes:

"My anachronistic, apocalyptic superheroes, sometimes headless, were born from the same concentrated immersion by which a child draws a story. Reality through fiction."

The work submitted for the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2021 is a random component of 9 etchings, brought together here to serve under the title ‘Onward & Upward’. Although each etching has its own identity (and title), they belong – with about 700 siblings – to a grander narrative: Sausage, Dogs & Schadenfreude (Don’t Lose Your Head). The project was nominated for the Signature Art Prize 2021.

Karl-Peter was awarded the Thames-Side Print Studio Prize at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2019, where he also ran an etching workshop for visitors. His work is found in private and public collections in Germany, France and the UK.