Trent Walter is an artist, printer and publisher interested in the intersection of printed matter and contemporary art. Walter's collaborations take the form of artists' books, print series and workshops that explore the social aspects of printmaking practice. The latter has seen his work shift increasingly into the public realm to engage with marginalised communities and ideas of nationhood expressed through print-based media.
Walter’s imprint, Negative Press, is a laboratory where printmaking’s inherent traits of mechanical reproduction, notions of the copy and complex relations to authorship are explored, participating in international dialogues regarding collaboration, materiality and representation.
Recent projects include collaborations with Emily Floyd and Experimental Jetset, Amsterdam, on Floyd’s artist book Female Orgasm: A codex of sorts, after Ursula K Le Guin, and an expansive series of monotypes titled Shifting Landscapes by Emily Ferretti. In 2016, Walter and Brook Andrew were commissioned by the City of Melbourne to create a permanent, public artwork commemorating the lives and public execution of Tasmanian men Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner. The pair were also joint recipients of a Georges Mora Fellowship in 2013–14.
Prints and artists’ books produced by Negative Press are in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Monash University Museum of Art, City of Melbourne, Latrobe Regional Gallery, National Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria and private collections in Australia and New Zealand.
Walter is a board member of Bus Projects and is a sessional lecturer in fine art at MADA, Monash University and VCA MCM, University of Melbourne.