Roland Poska was a pioneer of handmade paper in the world of contemporary art. He was born in Scotland in 1938 to Lithuanian parents who immigrated to the United States in 1948, and made a home in Rockford, Illinois. The artist’s paintings are accumulated works made of cotton fibers churned with pure powdered pigments—colorful arrangements that have sculptural attributes and which he referred to as “Papestries." Poska also created sculptures from his handmade cotton paper called “Sentinels.” With the textures and appearance of vibrantly hued felts, these pieces are as idiosyncratic as the process, some featuring pastoral scenery of houses and sunsets, and others with abstractly radiating circles and organic shapes. He also makes sculpture of the same Poska’s work at once presents whimsicality and imaginative novelty with the gravitas of artistic rigor.
In 1967 Poska purchased a beater in which to break down and blend cotton fibers with water and pigment. His process involves arranging the premixed paper pulp, some wet some dry, into patterns within a sheet metal frame. "It all looks pretty haphazard, but I really do agonize over every little space," he said. The frame is removed from the front of the dried work, the final piece is revealed. In addition to the starting his papermaking process, in 1967 Poska started Fishy Whale Press and Lithography studio in Rockford, Illinois where he printed lithographs for himself and others on one of the biggest presses in the United States at the time. In collaboration with artist John Doyle, Poska produced a series of prints called The Great Human Race, a project that lasted over thirty years. Many of The Great Human Race prints appear in the collections of American museums.
Roland Poska attended Rockford College and Cranbrook Academy of Art. In 1963 Poska moved to Milwaukee where he taught at Layton School of Art and founded and taught at Milwaukee School of Art and Design when Layton closed. His works are included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Poska was an activist for human rights and was frequently an outspoken attendee at Rockford town hall meetings. He died February 2, 2017 in Rockford, Illinois.