José Roca and I visited the Santos de Puerto Rico: Carvings of Faith and Sentiment curated by Anabelle Rodríguez. The exhibition just opened at the Lorenzo Homar Gallery located in Taller Puertorriqueño and it includes more than one hundred santos carved from wood. It is a delightful example of the carvings by these masterful craftsman side by side by the wonderful prints showing the intertwined traditions.





For example, to the left is a serigraph
depicting master carver José Orta.

Next to this print is a case (below) containing a delightful a self portrait in wood This thoughtfully arranged mix creates a wonderful vignette which repeats throughout the exhibition--a mix of fine art, cultural anthropology and craft.





Taller Puertorriqueño is located at 2721 North 5th Street (corner of 5th and Lehigh) The gallery hours are Tues-Sat 10am-6pm; 215-426-3311 for more information.

So, I wanted to invite anyone who might be interested to come to my little side project at Space 1026 next week. It is an exhibition about collaborative printmaking.

Space 1026 is located at 1026 Arch Street featuring several different makes and models of print collaboration with projects by local and national artists.

Cannonball Press and Howling Print Studios are brewing up a highly caffeinated, giant relief print mash up, served strong and black, of course. Cannonball Press is the gnarly, but lovable print dudes from Brooklyn, New York--Martin Mazorra and Mike Houston, who crank out more prints than you can shake a stick at. Their co-hort, and partner in crime, Dennis McNett of Howling Print Studios, also of Brooklyn infamy.

And in the opposite corner, facing off against the stark black world of Cannonball and Howling Print will be the tie dye musings of hippie love, featuring an evolving oversize screenprint featuring image casualties from the summer of love, what printer, O. Roman Hasiuk has been describing as "a dynamic collaborative print. It's an organic, process oriented, ongoing large-scale screenprint that features the imagery of many different artists, with no set beginning or determined end." Lucky gallery visitors will be treated to impromptu ink slinging sessions in October by Hasiuk using screenprint printing and his forearms of steel.

Next, a Broadside Battle will be raging on the big wall in the gallery! This "battle" is an open competition for printmakers and artists, featuring single sheet printed matter. The battle promoters are expecting a slew of gig posters, public notices, wanted posters and more. That's when the competition begins...a "printoff," sort of like the NFL playoffs, but no pads or mouth-guards required. Each week the best printed matter (determined by a rag-tag team of judges) will advance until a winner is declared. That lucky winner will receive all of the prints as their prize!

And, Drive By Press will be cranking out the prints, in the gutter outside Space 1026 on Friday night, and Saturday, too. Drive By Press is a traveling print shop housed in the back of a pickup truck based in Wisconsin. Drive By printers Gregory Nanney and Joseph Velazquez will be stopping in Philadelphia on their east coast tour. They bring printing to the streets with their very own brand of print pulling action!

Hope you can make it out!

After many months of planning, I am so pleased that the exhibition is up and beautiful at the Temple Gallery. Re:Print Re:Present Re:View opened during First Friday last week to a steady and engaged crowd. I noticed that people returned to watch Berni Searle's video installation, Spirit of '76, over and over. It is a haunting piece and not to be missed.

We are in the middle of production of the publication to accompany the exhibition and are hoping to have that ready for people to enjoy at the panel discussion! Tony Smyrski is doing a great job as the graphic designer for the project. He designed the project logo seen to the right.


The wallpaper installation at the Paul Robeson House is underway for Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons' project. The house is currently under renovation as part of a multi-phase capital campaign. We are so pleased to be able to raise awareness of the house and its history.

Shown here is the costume made for Paul Robeson in a case to the left of the staircase in the row house. The images in the wallpaper are images of the youth from the neighborhood and a silhouette of Robeson playing football, which creates a celebratory pose. The bright yellow wallpaper energizes the space. Later, this wall treatment will be embellished with window textiles and will be accompanied by a video projection to be installed in October.

Posted by Caitlin, project manager

Re:Print Re:Present Re:View is in installation mode. Berni Searle, one of the artists in the project is back in South Africa (she was working in NYC). We have been coordinating many of the project components long distance. We just received the still images from the video she created for the exhibition at Temple Gallery this morning. (shown here)

Berni purchased a special flat tub here in the States, in order to create this video. In the past, she filmed the water pieces above a bathtub, which has sloping sides. This new flat tub allows her to capture the swirling images in a different way.

We are also very excited because Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons' wallpaper, which she designed arrived yesterday. It will transform the first floor of the Paul Robeson House in West Philadelphia. We also learned that we can move ahead with the performance in the space which will take place on October 13 following the panel discussion at the Church of the Advocate. The performance will be by Neil Leonard her long time collaborator and husband. The jazz composition will be performed along with interpretations of songs sung by Paul Robeson. The musicians will play it twice to accommodate as many people as possible.

The banner production for Rachid Koraïchi is underway as well. The 21 banners will be printed and installed both inside and outside the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. The banners are based on drawings he did in Paris and mailed to us. We held a community meeting at the Church about the exterior banners to make sure that we have support from the community to install them - and we do. They are going to be gorgeous.

That's it for now...I will report back soon as the installations begin going up.
-Caitlin Perkins

Re:Print, Re:Present, Re:View is in full production. It is an exciting time here at Philagrafika. We have been working with curator Salah Hassan, and Temple Gallery Director Sheryl Conkelton for a year on this project. The artists are Rachid Koraichi, Berni Searle and Maria Magdalena Campos Pons. They were asked to create work for a project here in Philadelphia using the printed image and Philadelphia as inspiration. Over the last 6 months we have been working really hard with the artists to realize their projects and the final installation at Temple Gallery will be really rewarding.

The staff is definitely learning from this project. Although the logistics are a daily challenge, overall the experience has been positive. In fact, one of the biggest challenges is to create large installations at three sites, when the artists all live outside Philadelphia, and two out of three outside the country. Berni is in South Africa, Rachid is currently in Tunisia and Magdalena is in Boston.

Rachid has been working with us from overseas - he is an Algerian artist living in Paris. Many of our production meetings have been early morning conference calls to Tunisia; Rachid is currently working on creating an artist residency program in an ancient castle. Our gracious translator Vincent Renou helping us decipher Rachid's production needs for a outdoor/indoor banner project.

Some of the highlights focusing on print are:
Magdalena's use of print to transform an aging interior. to brighten the first floor of the Paul Robeson House, a historical landmark and through what she called an artist "gentrification." Through her wallpaper she hopes to bring interest to a site--using her project to focus attention to this important landmark of African American in Philadelphia.

Rachid's banner project (shown in this post) includes one for William Penn, featuring a stylized map of Philadelphia. This is Philagrafika's first foray into installed city public art. And, as curator Salah Hassan explains about Rachid's project Homage to Love and Memories, "His compositions and production drawings for the banners are rooted in Sufi significations, and their ordering of numbers and their symbolisms suggest the transcendent link between human beings and the divine order. Accordingly, Koraichi's use of the number Seven and its multiples serves as the primary symbol for this banner project."

A detail from the production drawing featuring a stylized map of Philadelphia by artist Rachid Koraichi. City Hall at the center surrounded by the parks appearing as leafy branches, and Eastern State Penitentiary shown in upper left represented as a asterisk shape within the square. The watery designs of our two rivers flank on the right and left.

Papermakers will be excited about Berni's exploration of documentation of a act incorporating hand papermaking - her body is draped with freshly cast paper. A black crepe paper rosette is then placed on the white sheet. Photographs documenting the process as the crepe paper slowly bleeds its color into the wet pulp.

And finally, I am really excited about the simple artist publications - ephemeral artist pamphlets that can be collected over time and supplemented with downloadable PDF components from our website - encouraging audience to collect over the course of the exhibition. A package will be available that can hold all the publication components.

I promise to post more frequently the progress on this project and the upcoming gallery installation and site specific projects develop.

Posted by Caitlin Perkins on August 2, 2007

The 2007 Philadelphia Invitational Portfolio production is underway. One of the selected artists, Anthony Campuzano stopped by our offices today after visiting the Brandywine Workshop where he will be creating an offset print this summer. Each year print shops like the Brandywine graciously offer their time and the expertise of their master printers to work with a regional artist to produce a portfolio of prints for this project.

Here is Anthony posed above the print shop at Brandywine Workshop, holding a fresh copy of the New American Paintings MidAtlantic Edition #69 curated by Steven Bennett Phillips-which features his paintings (and the back cover image!).

We will be following the production of his portfolio print this summer at the printshop (our Philagrafika offices are right upstairs).

We all chuckled when, as he said, he has finally reached success in his parents' eyes because they can now go to Barnes and Noble and see their son's artwork in print.

My fingers are still inky from being part of a steamroller printing event at the Brooklyn campus of Pratt School of Art for Big Damn Prints conceived by artist and faculty, Dennis McNett (also of Howling Print Studio).

The third year for the event was a huge inky wonderful mess as students from Pratt, Parsons (with their faculty Martin Mazorra of Cannonball Press) and a few of us from Philly including fellow printmaker Bill McRight and I joined in the fun printing our large scale blocks. Bill was smart and carved his block in Brooklyn, while I made mine at Space 1026 and carried it in pieces on the chinatown bus...

This event was a great example of the energy and spontaneous fun that is printmaking. You don't see painters running around with heavy equipment and covered in ink...nope this is all about the printed image and the community that gathers around the printshops...









Check out Dennis McNett's photos from the event on photobucket

The energy and work generated by the Common Press, shows the possibilities when fine print and literature meet. This nascent letter press studio, a collaboration between Kelly Writers House, Penn Libraries, and the Fine Arts program in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania just opened their first exhibition.

The opening reception for Mixed Media, Mixed Company Conjunctions at the Common Press on exhibit April 23rd-August 17th juxtaposes examples of letterpress work by artists and students at Common Press with fine press editions from the rare book collection.

Shown here are some of the folks involved with the Common Press (from the left) Chris van Auken, Lynne Farrington of the Rare Book and Manuscript department of Van Pelt Library at UPENN, David Comberg from the School of Design, Matt Neff, Lecturer in Printmaking and Print Shop Manager, and Andrea Gottschaulk, Exhibits and Programs at Annenberg Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

The Digital Debate
Post by Cindi Ettinger of C.R. Ettinger Studios

As I peruse the Art Fairs, and art magazines, I see more and more "digital"
art available through art organizations. Often they are nothing more than
scanned images or reproductions. They're misrepresented and called original
prints and are often used for fundraisers as well as being sold as fine art
prints. They are signed and numbered.

There are many digital prints out there that are created in the computer
with great skill by the artist. Yet, there is no differentiation between
those "works of art" and a copy such as a scanned drawing or painting. It is
high time for a discussion to eliminate this confusion. People need to be
aware that there is a difference and they should know what it is that
they're buying. It is particularly confusing when these "copies" are
available through museums and advertised in art magazines such as Art On
Paper as "original prints." Historically, with every advent of new
technology, which usually involves a photo process, these issues have to be
readdressed. So now with the digital age in full swing it's time to clear up
this confusion.

- - - - -

Interested in the digital debate?

Read Martha Schwendener's article "Even in the Digital Age, a Strong Case for Printmaking" from February 12, 2007.

7/7/08 Update, just found another printmaker positing similar questions on the blog post: Are We Witnessing the End of Fine Art Printmaking?

Generous-T was a public t-shirt printing event at the Institute of Contemporary Art as part of the Locally Localized Gravity exhibition. This public participatory event by the artists of Space 1026 featured screenprinting, the same print technique they used to create the shingle covered installation at the ICA.


This event attracted over 200 people visiting the museum installation, participated in the event Printing with the artists. The results were hung on ropes within the installation incorporating the new prints into the installation, and engaging the gallery space for the event.

The field of print faces challenges from being banned from Art Fairs, to academic print departments abandoning traditional shops for digital printers. The New York Times recent article, Even in the Digital Age, a Strong Case for Printmaking by Martha Schwendener talks about these issues and discusses the exhibition Artistic Collaborations: 50 Years of Universal Limited Art Editions is at the Museum of Modern Art, through May 21.

Schwendener touches on several hot topics for the field of print including the move by many academic institutions to move away from traditional print techniques to digital technologies and the collaborative nature of the print shop. “Artistic Collaborations” marks the half-century milestone for the workshop but Schwendener questions the lack of emerging artists shown in the exhibition.

"Contemporary Art on Paper" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, curated by Innis Howe Shoemaker, features Philagrafika prints by Shelley Spector, Charles Burwell, Kate Abercrombie, Candy Depew and Issac Lin.

The prints are all on view in "Contemporary Art on Paper" February 9 through April 22, 2007 in the PMA's Berman & Stieglitz galleries.

Charles Burwell's Variations shown to left.

To see more of Philagrafika's Annual Portfolio Prints, click here

The printed image serving as a stand in for parents. Flat Daddy are being used to help children stay connected to a deployed parent. He is also filling the blank spaces in family occasion photos, event and trips. The units in Maine created them for all their families so the children can have a visual reinforcement of their deployed parent. Read more articles in Maine Today and New York Times.

The photo here is from a blog I'm Already Home.

Printmaking and the Radical Left in Mexico
Notes from a phone conversation between Caitlin Perkins and James Wechsler, PhD.

I had the opportunity to speak with James M. Wechsler, PhD. and Independent Art Historian and Curator. Dr. Wechsler will be giving a lecture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art called Propaganda Grafica: Printmaking and the Radical Left in Mexico on Sunday, January 7th (information below). The lecture coincides with the exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art called Mexico and Modern Printmaking: A Revolution in the Graphic Arts, 1920 to 1950, curated by John Ittmann, Curator of Prints, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Lyle Williams, Curator of Prints and Drawings, the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum.

Dr. Wechsler contributed to the exhibition catalog and he explained that the essay that he was able to write is the first one in English that addresses the history of this important printmaking revival and the evolution of the organization, Taller de Grafica Popular founded in 1937 in Mexico City where artists like Siqueiros worked.

While most art history survey classes might cover the Mexican mural traditions, the prints in this exhibition are virtually unknown. The exhibition and the catalog pull from the major ideas of post revolutionary Mexico.

Like Philadelphia, Mexico City has a rich printmaking mythology. TGP or Taller de Grafica Popular, where thousands of editions have been published, was originally located (it has since moved) in a neighborhood of the directly ontop of the unexcavated ruins of the Templo Mayor complex and the first printing press in the Americas, a Spanish printing press built during the colonial times!

Dr. Wechsler will outline the printmaking revival sparked during the open air studios which inspired the well known mural traditions of Mexico. In post colonial Mexico, the government sponsored murals, controlled by Jose Vasconcelos, Minister of Education, focused on the themes of national unity and identity. While the artists are certainly well known for their murals, these official art themes didn't necessarily tell the whole picture, and the print mediums allowed the artists more freedom and could be distributed to a wider audience.

For example, Dr. Wechsler explained to me that after the revolution, many of the artists like Riviera, Orozco and Siqueiros worked on a newspaper called El Machete, which had articles, political writings and illustrations. The printed artwork was more radical than what was allowed in the murals-those in power were content with the partial revolution, and they did everything they could to prevent a full communist revolution.

Printmaking, Dr. Wechsler explained, was the vital movement of Mexican expression in the late 1930s, created in a social setting through team efforts. In fact, the artists in the TGP workshop would meet every Friday night for group critiques. Much of the work was ideologically and politically similar created between 1937 until around 1941. I found there to be many similarities in his descriptions to contemporary urban artists working in print mediums, like the fact many of the TGP artists created prints to be wheat pasted up around the city on newsprint, but would often print the same images on fine art papers for the collectors market.

There is often that interesting mix in the print tradition of the collectors market and those using print for political message, I was intrigued to find out that artists such as Orozco, Siqueros didn't start making prints until the director of the Wehye Gallery in New York asked them to create prints based on their murals, and were not necessarily a revolutionary tool.

Dr. Wechsler will trace the history of Mexican artists as they break the colonial traditions creating a new socialistic aesthetic, and the difficulties they encounter during governmental regime change, war and the disintegration of their endeavors during the Cold War.

As he pointed out to me, while the Mexican mural tradition is taught in art history classes, the printmaking workshops he will discuss are virtually unknown, and it is rare to see these prints. This is the most extensive exhibition in years, and the text is the most inclusive in years.

This conversation was by phone on December 22, 2006 with Caitlin Perkins and James Wechsler.

Lecture information:
Sunday, January 7th 1:30 pm at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Propaganda Grafica: Printmaking and the Radical Left in Mexico
This lecture will be followed by a conversation with Dr. Guadalupe Rivera Marin, founder of the Diego Rivera Foundation and daughter of the famous Mexican muralist.

Tickets are required, and are free with museum admission, which is the Sunday museum entrance fee of "pay what you wish.". For more information, please call the ticket office 215-684-7469 (there will be a $3 handling fee to reserve in advance, but the tickets are going fast - so to guarantee your seats, get them in advance)

Lecture information
Exhibition Information
Catalog information
New York Times Review of exhibition

From the we make money not art blog here is an interesting article on temporary body imprints making into the fashion world by artist Emily Jane
Atkinson with her Tatoo-me boots

Print and fashion continue to walk hand in hand.

Art wall paper or A-WAL is "adorning the vernacular one email at a time". This web tool allows users to upload their own photos and images to be displayed as background wallpaper. The company is also featuring specially curated artworks to serve as image backgrounds for users. Adorning the artworld. Note - they do charge for this service - but an interesting idea as a means of creating virtual printed surface...

Saw this on an e-flux announcement this morning. The press release explained that for this installment, they are featuring independent writer, lecturer, and curator Dr Kathy Battista, who is based in London. Kathy’s abiding interest in and support for experimental art forms and innovative practice has been displayed through her past involvement and work with esteemed organizations such as Artangel, Tate Modern, and the Serpentine Gallery. Kathy has regularly contributed to Contemporary, Frieze, Third Text, and Art Monthly amongst other publications, is an editor of Art & Architecture Journal.

The artists featured in this exhibition include:
Daniel Jackson, Delaney Martin, Jamie Robinson, Sans Facon (Tristan Surtees & Charles Blanc), Dallas Seitz, Krisdy Schindler and Heather Sparks.

from Caitlin

Artist Rafael Trelles, since the summer of 2004, has been working on an experimental graphic art project on walls, sidewalks and lamp-posts throughout San Juan, Puerto Rico. Using a pressurized water hose and plastic stencils, he engraves elaborate designs on years of dirt and grime that cover the concrete.

José Roca brought a documentary about Trelles' project, En concreto (gráfica urbana) by filmmaker Roberto Tito Otero to show us on a recent trip.

www.rafaeltrelles.com

Ciudadlab: Documental y Charla: Rafael Trelles - En Concreto: gr?fica urbana

José Roca, the new artistic director for Philagrafika has been here this week and has introduced us to many new artists and projects which incorporate the printed image into their artistic practice and works.

One amazing use of the print is this online educational videogame - which uses imagery from linocuts animated with Flash animation.

Tropical America fuses the new world of video games to a compelling past through a journey to unravel the mysteries of the Americas. Developed in collaboration with Los Angeles artists, teachers, writers and high school students, the game features a bilingual, thematic gameplay, accompanied by an online database of educational resource materials, source texts and imagery.

The game website is located at www.tropicalamerica.com

Another artist that José presented this weekend was Betsabeé Romero who carves and etches car tires with images which she then rolls through sand, sugar or onto cloth. Sometimes the tires are put back onto cars and driven through paint leaving a printed trail as the car drives.




We will continue to upload artists and images from José's presentations with future posts.

The ultimate in portable art...Drive By Press. Part of the Prints Gawn Wild event in Brooklyn this past weekend, hosted by Cannonball Press, Joe Velasquez and Gregory Nanney drove in their portable press. Bringing art to the masses these two guys travel the country spreading the ink one stop at a time. Drive-By Press is a completely mobile printmaking studio built to promote the growth and democratization of art through printmaking.

Angel Chang A pleated tunic in a silkscreen print that changes color according to body heat. From the New York Times Fashion Week Wrapup 9/20/2006.

So where does this ink come from? More investigation needed...

See more images from Angel Chang's show on flikr

Article on Angel's clothes on Craftzine blog