An art agitator wandered through Tucson, Albuquerque and El Paso poking, annoying and commissioning local talent to create large prints—and found gold in our desert.
The artists delivered the kind of prints that want to “get out of the studio” and be shared—such as Cimi Alvarado‘s vivid “Esto es un Rio,” depicting 6 men crossing the Rio Grande on a raft. Martin Quintanilla‘s “El Ultimo Taco” jolts us with 13 individuals disguised in Mexican wrestling masks, dining in a familiar scene. Nani Chacon entices with a beautiful young woman in front of Navajo motifs in her piece titled with symbols “+++.” All 30 prints will shine on the ground floor of the El Paso Museum of Art, from January 31st to May 22nd. Almost half of the prints (14) come from artists in the El Paso area, including those working in 2 collectives from Ciudad Juárez.
In 2013, Tucson crashed the Chalk the Block festival in downtown El Paso (where printmakers have been showcasing their art in pop-up galleries for several years, like those run by DOArt and the Maintain Collective) when Krrrl the agitator brought random prints in as the “YayBig Southwest” pop-up gallery. The next year, YayBig copied the Horned Toad Print Exchange (of El Paso) and both print exchanges exhibited the small framed works together in a Chalk the Block pop-up gallery.
Aching to crank it up a couple of notches, Krrrl approached the Maintain Collective pop-up and proposed making a carpeta (print portfolio in Spanish) of large, colorful works, with the impact of psychedelic posters and Chicano prints that could be seen and appreciated from across the room, as if they were paintings.
Just after conception, the carpeta project followed in the wake of the “Estampas de la Raza—Contemporary Mexican American Prints from the Romo Collection” exhibition. Harriett and Ricardo Romo collected many prints from Self-Help Graphics and Modern Multiples of Los Angeles, and the Serie Project of Austin. Self-Help and Serie make co-editions of 50 prints splitting them evenly with the artists, so the Desert Triangle offered the same deal and paid for the production costs at a studio suitable to each artist. There was no theme (though abstract images were discouraged), and artists were paid an extra fee to sweeten the deal.
While Proper Printshop of El Paso pulled many of the prints, over a third of the prints were produced in Mexico. Taller 75 Grados, in Mexico City, silk screened 10 editions and they will come for a live print demonstration during the reception on April 14th.
Manny Guerra traveled to La Ceiba Gráfica near Xalapa, Veracruz, to produce his lithographic masterpiece. Francisco Delgado went to Oaxaca, currently a printmaking paradise, to create his relief print edition at Taller Libre. The rest of the prints were produced at various studios in the Southwest, such New Grounds Print Workshop in Albuquerque, the Tucson Community Printshop and the Gloo Factory in Tucson.
The prints of Zeke Peña and Krrrl have been enhanced with augmented reality, by “Augment El Paso,” to bring the media into the 21st century. When a visitor passes his or her cell phone in front of the print, new elements show up on the screen, interacting with the printed image (after downloading the appropriate app, of course).
Hopefully this exhibition will encourage artists to make and show more prints, keeping the momentum going in the Southwest. As a stretch goal, Krrrl will agitate for 30 more prints before the exhibition closes on May 22nd. Artists ambitions do not have to get lost in our desert.
Desert Triangle Print Carpeta Exhibition at EPMA is from January 31st to May 22nd. Special reception on April 14th.
El Paso Museum of Art
One Arts Festival Plaza
El Paso, TX. 79901
Museum admission: Free to the public
The Museum is regularly open to the public from:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 9 am – 5 pm
Thursday: 9 am – 9 pm
Sunday: 12 noon – 5 pm
Closed Mondays and most major holidays.
Printmakers:
Tucson cluster:
Pavel Acevedo (Riverside, CA)
Cristina Cardenas
Mark Christian
Michael Contreras
Gonzalo Espinosa
Rudy Flores
Joe Marshall
Lauren Moran
Ruben Urrea Moreno
Martin Quintanilla
Tanya Rich
Rogo
Mykl Well
Albuquerque cluster:
Nani Chacon
Krrrl
Henry Morales
El Paso cluster:
Jesus “Cimi” Alvarado
Chris Bardey (Las Cruces)
Francisco Delgado
Manuel Guerra
Jellyfish Colectivo (Ciudad Juárez)
Los Dos
Raul Monarrez
Victor Muheddine
Tino Ortega
Zeke Peña
Matthew Poe
Tim Razo
Federico Villalba
Yorch (Ciudad Juárez)
Print is not dead!
Text: Karl Whitaker, aka Krrrl the art agitator.
Photo: Federico Villalba
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