Steel Waves
A3 — the largest sheet in the studio
A roof of glass and steel over a curving ramp, cut into a single plate. At A3 the hatching stops being texture and becomes structure: you can follow one cut across the whole sheet.
A3Framed
Claws · Gramophones · Moka
A5 · framed · larger size possible
The studio
About
My name is Richard Cervenka and I cut linoleum blocks in Bern.
Relief printing forces a decision. There is no grey — only black or paper — and that hardness is what pulled me in. Everything you see as white has been cut away, and a cut cannot be taken back. You can only keep cutting.
I print without a press, by hand. It is slower and it limits how many sheets exist, which is why the editions stay small and why no two prints are ever quite identical.
Every sheet is signed and numbered in pencil on the back, with the place and the date. The framed pieces are set in black wood behind an off-white mat — the photographs on this site are those actual frames.
Bern · Switzerland · Linocut
Cut by hand,
pulled by hand.
Original relief prints from a linoleum block. Every plate is cut by me, every sheet is pulled by hand, and every print is signed and numbered in a small edition.
30plates
3formats: A3, A4, A5
0presses — all by hand
One work from each format
A3, A4, A5
One work from each format. Every A3 and A4 piece on this site is shown in the same frame on the same wall, in the same afternoon light — my own frame, photographed once, with each print set into it. The format written under every piece is the format the plate was actually cut at; nothing is rounded up to sound larger.
Esplanade, Paris
A4 — and the sky is nothing but cuts
A street sign, a lamp post and the tower behind them in one plate. Nothing here is shaded: that sky is several hundred parallel cuts, each one made by hand.
A4Framed
Claws
A5 — and this one can be cut larger
One of three repeat plates. The base format is A5, because that is the size they were cut at. The motif can be re-cut larger on request. The other two are Gramophones and Moka.
A5A5 · larger size possible
Complete catalogue
All works
Every plate in the studio. The A3 and A4 works are shown framed and hung, all in the same frame and the same light; the A5 sheets are shown loose, as they are sold. The exact size is written on every single work — filter by A3, A4 or A5 to see only that size.
No works in this category.
Commission requests
A block cut for you
A commission is a new linoleum plate, cut from scratch for one subject — a building, a portrait, a boat, a logo. It becomes an edition that exists only for you, and the original plate is yours at the end if you want it.
01
You send a photograph
One good image is enough. I will tell you honestly whether it translates into a cut — high contrast works, soft grey haze does not — before you pay anything.
02
A drawing for approval
I redraw the subject in pure black and white and send it to you. Nothing is cut until you are happy with that drawing, because a cut cannot be undone.
03
Cutting and printing
The plate is cut, proofed, and then printed by hand. How long it takes depends on the size and on how full the studio is — I will give you a date once I have seen the subject.
04
Signed, numbered, sent
Each sheet is signed and numbered in pencil on the back and carries a blind stamp pressed into the paper. Everything ships from Switzerland.
Or reach me directly