The Contemporary Print 2023

The Art Galleries in collaboration with Print Austin is pleased to bring The Contemporary Print 2023 to Gallery 2000 on ACC Highland Campus. The scope of this exhibition aims to highlight traditional printmaking techniques and innovative approaches in contemporary printmaking.

The Contemporary Print is a survey of traditional printmaking techniques and innovative approaches in contemporary printmaking. Our juror this year is Rashaun Rucker. Artwork shown by Maria Frati

ABOUT OUR JUROR: Rashaun Rucker (b. 1978, Winston-Salem, NC) is a product of North Carolina Central University and Marygrove College. He makes photographs, prints and drawings and has won more than 40 national and state awards for his work. In 2008 Rucker became the first African American to be named Michigan Press Photographer of the Year. He also won a national Emmy Award in 2008 for documentary photography on the pit bull culture in Detroit. Rucker was a Maynard Fellow at Harvard in 2009 and a Hearst visiting professional in the journalism department at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2013. In 2014 Rucker was awarded an artist residency at the Red Bull House of Art. In 2016 Rucker was honored as a Modern Man by Black Enterprise magazine. In 2017 Rucker created the original artwork for the critically acclaimed Detroit Free Press documentary 12 and Clairmount. His work was recently featured in HBO’s celebrated series Random Acts of Flyness and Native Son. In 2019 Rucker was awarded the Red Bull Arts Detroit micro grant and was named a Kresge Arts Fellow for his drawing practice. In 2020 Rucker was named A Sustainable Arts Foundation Awardee. Rucker was a 2021 resident at the International Studios and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, New York and is currently a Mellon Resident at the University of Michigan Institute of Humanities. Rucker’s diverse work is represented in numerous public and private collections.

SELECTED ARTISTS

Alexandra Zuckerman
Andi Newberry
Angela PIlgrim
Anita Giraldo
Ashley Cecil
Beth Dorsey
Carlos Barberena
Celeste De Luna
Cullen Houser
D. A. Diaz
Delia Touché & Melih Meric
Doug Bosley
Dustin Brinkman
Egor Shokoladov
Emily Gui
Eric Wilson
Erin Wohletz
Greg Bahr
Heather Rachelle Parrish
Jackie Rushing
Jacob Gutierrez
Jesus De La Rosa
Jimmy Dean Horn Jr
Juan Correa
Julie Cowan
Kenna Boles Prior
Kristin Sarette
Linda Behar
Mable Ni
Margaret Craig
Maria Frati
Marika Arellano Christofides
Michael Weigman
Michelle Martin
Mike Pennekamp
Nicci Arnold
Paloma Núñez-Regueiro
Patrick Barber
Peter Nickel
Princess Rashid
Reinaldo Gil Zambrano
Sarah Sipling
Shanna Strauss
Stephanie Alaniz
Stephanie Weiner
Summer Zah
Taller Sanaaᴙ (Jessica Sabogal & Shanna Strauss)
Tatiana Potts
Teresa Castaneda
Terry Schupbach-Gordon
Tyler Thenikl

The Art Galleries (TAG) at Austin Community College is an academic gallery program located on ACC Highland Campus. TAG is dedicated to the belief that community engagement with the visual arts produces important dialogues, creates new ideas, and gives voice to diverse viewpoints. The Art Galleries comprises three art spaces: Gallery 2000, Gallery 4000, and TAG Art Lab. In each of these areas, we feature works by emerging and established Central Texas artists and ACC faculty, student, and alumni artists. Through our exhibitions and regular programming, we provide educational experiences that cultivate cultural awareness, critical thinking, and artistic expression as a service to ACC and our local community.

More information is available to at e-mail us at theartgalleries@austincc.edu.

PrintAustin

ACC Gallery

PrintEXPO + Steamroller Event www.printexpo.org/ PrintEXPO.org|

PrintAustin hosts their annual PrintEXPO, a print fair featuring over 60 artists and galleries. Purchase original prints from regional and non-regional talent, see live demonstrations, and experience steamroller printing. The Steamroller event is organized in partnership with Texas A&M University-Kingsville Department of Art, Communications, and Theatre. This is a free, family-friendly event. Print demonstrations happen during the day.

We are also open on Sunday from 12 pm-5 pm, but Steamroller is only open on Saturday

2023 Vendors
714 creative, LLC
Amber Kaiser
Annalise Gratovich
Anthony Tafolla
Beast Syndicate
Benjamin Munoz
Benjamin Sorrell
Bottimindtricks
Camilo Navarrete Moya
cannonball press
Carlos Barberena / Bandolero Press
Carson Werner
Celeste @ Metztli Press
Chloe Alexander
Corasonora
Dan Grissom
Daryl Howard Art
Dinah Coakley, Nicole Geary
Dylan Goldbgerer/ Dog Gone Studios
Egor Shokoladov
Flatbed Press
Full Court Press
Glassell Printmaking Studio
Guerra Girl
Inky Lips Press
Iron Frog Press
Jamaal Barber
James Huizar
Jenn Sneary
Jesus De la Rosa
Johanna Mueller Prints
JuanJalaPeña
Jun Lee - JUN LEE PRINTS
Karen Pittman, Vivid Laboratories
kelly moran
Kenna Boles Prior
La Onda Gráfica: Rebo y Kill Joy
Lars Roeder
Liv Monique Johnson
Margaret Craig
Matthew Magruder
Mehdi Darvishi Studio
Mike Pennekamp / Metaluna Press
Mike Pollock
Moonhowler Press
Omar Gonzalez
Outlaw Printmakers
Pavel Acevedo
Pepe Coronado
Printmaking Association of North Texas Students (PANTS)
Puro 956 Prints
Purveyors of Reproductive Knowledge
RavenPress
Recspec Gallery
Ryan O'Malley and Cassie White
Sandra C. Fernandez
Sarah Pickett
Scout Ryman
Steven Muñoz - Midway Bee Press
TAMUK
Tess Doyle
The 50/50 Company
The University of Texas at Austin, Printmaking
Turku Printmakers Association
Two Gun Studio
Vox Populi Print Collective
Wally Workman Gallery
Wood Style Jutsu

Vendor List

“Printed Pueblos & Personas De Pura Cultura” is a group art exhibit featuring the work of seven Rio Grande Valley natives: Cecilia Sierra, Clarissa Martinez, Corinne Whittemore, Jessie Burciaga, Jesus De La Rosa, Michael Flanagan and Michel Flores Tavizon. The exhibit is on display from April 11th to May 25th, 2022 at the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library. The library, through its Cultural Arts Division, hosts a variety of free exhibits and programs throughout the year that showcase local artists which you are always welcome to view.

“Printed Pueblos & Personas De Pura Cultura” is an in-person exhibit with a reception taking place on Wednesday, April 20th starting at 6 p.m. at the Sekula Memorial Library located at 1906 S. Closner Boulevard across from the historic Echo Hotel.

The art reception will include the presence of participating artists, who will speak about their artwork, experience, and inspirations. Featured will be diverse interpretations of printed art, and what it means to each of the artists and their culture. This exhibit serves as an archive of modern print art that sprung from timeless memories, beliefs and catalytic senses of identity and belonging to the Latinx culture.

This art exhibit is a free event brought to you by the City of Edinburg’s Library & Cultural Arts Department. Exhibits are self-guided during regular library hours. For the safety of everyone, masks are highly encouraged. For more information please call (956) 383 – 6246 or visit us at edinburgarts.com

Printed Pueblos

The Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show attracts works by contemporary artists across the country and is judged by a guest juror of national stature. Resulting Purchase Awards have built an impressive Permanent Collection at Del Mar College.

My drawing "Nueces Bay" has been selected to the 56th Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show to be held at the Joseph A. Cain Memorial Art Gallery, at Del Mar College. Exhibition dates are February 18th through May 6th.

Juror Sharon Kopriva selected works for this exhibition from over 380 submitted pieces of art. All of the work was of a high quality and the competition was vigorous.

ABOUT THE JUROR
Sharon Kopriva, a Texas native, currently works in Houston, Texas and Hope, Idaho. She earned her MFA in painting from the University of Houston in 1981. Since her inauguration with the Fresh Paint exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 1985, Kopriva has exhibited nationally and internationally including at The Menil Collection, Houston; The Ogden Museum, New Orleans; and The National Museum of Peru in Lima. For more than thirty years, Sharon has combined two-and three-dimensional media often with fusions of papier-mâché and found objects. Her career has taken her through investigations of pre-Colombian cultures in Peru, examinations of her Catholic faith, and inspirations from the spiritual forests of the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

The opening night reception is tentatively scheduled for February 18, 2022, 6-8pm CST.

Del Mar College, Receiving
Department of Art
3001 Ayers St.
Corpus Christi, TX 78404

The Printmaker's Ball & Print Expo is where you can purchase original prints directly from the artists, observe live demonstrations, and experience the large-scale limning of steamroller printing (accomplished in cahoots with Texas A&M Kingsville's Department of Art) – and all the action unfolds at the expansive Blue Genie Art Bazaar.

Expo: Feb. 12-13; Sat., noon-6pm; Sun., 10am-2pm
Blue Genie Art Bazaar, 6100 Airport

www.printexpo.org/showroom

www.printexpo.org/

TEJANOS: Rooted Here, is an exhibition featuring the artwork of an array of artists rooted in Texas. We hope you can join us for the opening reception on February 4th (5:30-7:30) in the Upper Gallery in the Haggerty Art Village at the University of Dallas.

A Peculiar Proximity to Spiritual Mysteries
August 29 - December 6, 2020
Opening Reception: August 29, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Zuckerman Museum of Art
1000 Chastain Road
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Peculiar Proximity to Spiritual Mysteries showcases various key contemporary works from the permanent collection of the Zuckerman Museum of Art. Curated by artist Pablo Helguera and Ginger Wolfe-Suarez, this experimental exhibition draws on many rare works of art as well as some that have never been exhibited. The exhibition features alternative methods of display, supplementary learning experiences, and sound recordings. Preparation for this exhibition included research and curatorial assistance by Michelle Lopez, registrar/collections manager as well as collective dialogue and collaboration with the ZMA staff.

The curators initially researched artists of diverse cultural backgrounds in the permanent collection of the ZMA and then chose artists to highlight. The highlighted artists employ a range of techniques to explore issues of identity, race, and cultural origin. They often reference geography, translocation, cultural traditions, translation, political history, and collective memory. Language and storytelling are also common threads woven throughout the exhibition.Issues explored by these artists regarding race, place, and migration continue to be pressing for museums and institutions around the world.

Artists include Tia Blassingame, Mildred Beltre, Canute Caliste, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Frederick Schiller Cozzens, Jesus De La Rosa, Ruthann Godollei, Sheila Goloborotko, Rogelio Gutierrez, Antonio Jacobsen, Eddy A. López, Athos Menaboni, Ayanah Moor, Michelle Murillo, Grace Rosario Perkins, Robert Sherer, Bernice Sims, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Keith Smith, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.

Image: Mildred Beltre, Sanford, FL 2/26/12; Dearborn Heights, MI 12/2/13, 2014, From the portfolio, On Message, Ink on paper, woodcut and silkscreen. Gift of the artist. Courtesy the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art.

Unseen Prints from the Mexic-Arte Museum Collection will be on view from December 13, 2019 – March 1, 2020. This exhibition will feature various forms of printmaking from serigraphs to lithography. The Museum will highlight the work of various tallers, groups, and print fairs.

The Museum wishes to thank the individuals and groups who have supported the Museum through the donation of prints and collections. The exhibit will include print portfolios like Tejanos: The Border Crossed Us, the Consejo Grafico Nacional’s portfolio Creando Fuerza: Cambio y Permanencia; also on display will be prints from various groups such as the Mexico City based workshop Taller 75 Grados, prints from the Mercadorama collective, works from Associacion de Grabadores among others; and, works collected at various fairs including Bin Fest by Print Austin, Flatstock from SXSW, and more.

PrintEXPO is PrintAustin’s annual print fair, featuring 64 booths of artists, galleries, editioning shops, and universities. All weekend, purchase original artwork from regional and national talent, and flip through our bins of prints to add new work to your art collection.

The fair kicks off on January 31 during The Printmaker's Ball, our preview night and masquerade! Experience live steamroller printing on Saturday, Feb 1, sponsored by Clay Imports and organized in partnership with Texas A&M University-Kingsville Dept. of Art, Communications and Theatre. Live printmaking demonstrations and activities will take place all weekend!

Dates: Saturday, February 1, 11am-5pm & Sunday, February 2, 11am-3pm

Cost: This event is free and family-friendly.

Venue: Blue Genie Big Top, 6100 Airport Blvd, Austin, TX 78752.

Food/Drinks: Treat yourself to a much-needed caffeinated beverage from Clay Import's new coffee trailer, Clay Café, or fill up on a delicious meal by Arepa Dealers and The Hot Dog King who will be on-site selling their creations.

2020 PrintEXPO Artists

Carlos Hernandez
North Texas Printmakers Guild
Inky Lips Press
Hokum Press
Jesus De La Rosa
OG Prints
Holy Press
Katy Seals
Martin Mazorra/Cannonball Press
Wally Workman Gallery
Sybil Press
Erin Miller
Selene Bataille
Beast Syndicate
Aaron deGruyter
Liv Monique Johnson
Tess Doyle
Jean Behnke/Tideland Press
Carlos Pozo Art
Mountain Bird Studios
Ben Muñoz
Big Patch
Red Trillium Press
Dinah Coakley
Nicole Geary
Temple of Print
La Peña Gallery
Jennifer Anderson
Guerra Girl
Moonhowler Press
Juan Jalapeña
Tom Hück's evil Prints
Dennis McNett / Wolfbat Studios
Sav Print Studio
Amber Kaiser
Scotty Roller Art
Dylan Goldberger
Lucinda Cobley
Cathie Kayser
Reboprints
Ryan O'Malley
Cassie Normandy
Qiaoyi Shi
Lucky Risograph
Michael Menchaca
Feral Editions
Alán Serna
Madison Cowles
Matthew Magruder
Spudnik Press
Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking
Mike Pennekamp/Metaluna Press
Eric A. Johnson
Big Oak Press
Daryl Howard
Dan Grissom
Iron Frog Press
Recspec Gallery
James Huizar
Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Booths sponsored by Speedball:
JBarberStudio
Reinaldo Gil Zambrano (RGZprints)
Annalise Natasha Gratovich
Full Court Press
PROOF
Printmaking Association of North Texas Students

We'd like to thank our sponsors Speedball, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and Clay Imports for their support and help in making this year's PrintEXPO possible!

Castilian Roses in December
Valley Morning Start by Alana Hernandez
December 9, 2019

SAN BENITO — Known as an icon by many, a local museum will soon be filled with artwork depicting La Virgen de Guadalupe’s legacy.

The City of San Benito Cultural Arts Department is gearing up to present its first Castilian Roses in December exhibit.

An opening reception will be held Thursday, Dec. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. and the last day of the exhibit is scheduled for Jan. 24.

The exhibit was community curated and features a variety of La Virgen de Guadalupe inspired artwork, including paintings, illustrations, sculptures and poetry.

Featured pieces came from Portland, Oregon, and artists throughout the Valley, Kingsville and San Antonio.

Cultural Arts Director Luis Contreras described the Castilian Roses in December exhibit as being different from prior exhibits the museum has displayed.

For this exhibit, the department invited the public to submit their own artwork that displayed a historical or creative representation of La Virgen de Guadalupe.

“It’s always really important to give the community a sense of ownership and we always like to celebrate the talent they bring,” he said. “And so, Castilian Roses in December both celebrates a cultural aspect of La Virgen de Guadalupe, but also provides an opportunity for interpretation by some of these local artists.”

The community-curated exhibit was established to commemorate the tales of La Virgen de Guadalupe.

According to the legend, on Dec. 9, 1531, a lady appeared to Juan Diego, a member of the Chichimec people, at a place where they worshiped an Aztec mother goddess. The lady told Juan to go to his bishop and request that a church be built. In response to Juan’s question, the bishop demanded a sign. Three days later, the lady appeared again, instructing Juan to offer the bishop a bouquet of Castilian roses that were blooming from the barren hilltop in December. Juan wrapped the roses in his apron and upon opening the tilma for the bishop, the roses dropped to the ground. Subsequently, an image of La Virgen de Guadalupe appeared on Juan’s apron.

Cultural Arts Department representatives said the story is centuries old, but they believe the La Virgen de Guadalupe’s endless promise of peace, love and compassion continues to inspire.

“This is the first time San Benito has ever created this exhibit and we’ve had a really good response from artists,” Contreras said. “We’re looking to hopefully make it an annual exhibit because we already have artists asking to display their artwork next year.”

FEATURED ARTISTS AND CONTRIBUTING INSTITUTIONS

• Gaby Rico
• Stephen Hawk
• Jesus De La Rosa
• Luis David Contreras
• Brian Wedgworth
• Aleida Wedgworth
• Cande Aguilar
• Celina Robledo
• Andy A. Villarreal
• Carlos Gomez
• David Lopez
• Corinne Whittemore
• Anastasia Tselikovskaya
• Nydia Canas
• Jennifer Rodriguez
• Leila Hernandez
• Hazel A. Hensley
• Veronica Jaeger
• Brownsville Historical Association

IF YOU GO
WHAT — Castilian Roses in December exhibition
WHERE — San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum, 250 East Heywood Street
OPENING RECEPTION — Thursday, Dec. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.
EXHIBIT ENDS — Jan. 24
GALLERY HOURS — Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information, contact the Visitor Information Center at (956) 281-0810.

Surface Treatment: Gallery depicts dynamic of the land and the community at the border
The Monitor, Nancy Moyer - October 28, 2019

While Jesus De La Rosa’s “Borderígena” refers to the content of his art, his silkscreen print, “Valluco” tells us what this exhibition is about: the cycle of leaving and returning.

The exhibition shows a few new prints along with works that were exhibited elsewhere in the Valley, but previously have not been available in McAllen.

“These are works I did a while back and want to showcase them again,” explained De La Rosa. “I’ve tied everything together to show their progression and how they evolved.”

The art works are in transit across the borderland as are the border’s people. Now on display at the Downstairs Gallery at the South Texas College Library, “Borderígena” consists of large mixed media works, small acrylic paintings, and prints.

De La Rosa, associate professor of art at Texas A& M University – Kingsville, perceives the borderland as a rich and fascinating place even though he grew up thinking that the Rio Grande Valley was demonized.

“They told me there’s violence out there,” exclaimed De La Rosa, “and for me there was some of that, but there was also the opposite”.

“Valluko” (Rio Grande Valley) is from a portfolio called “Healers, Saints, and the Demonized” and features a God-like figure directing us to a border map showing the RGV. It is an introduction to the visual travelogue that is De La Rosa’s borderland world. As one enters the Valley through this print, there are the iconic palm trees with the Topo Chico logo floating in a corner (For several decades, purchases of Topo Chico mineral water from Monterrey were limited to the Mexico border region; now international, it greets him on this side and represents coming home). The small group of prints features social commentaries.

A regular traveler throughout South Texas and Tamaulipas, De La Rosa’s works convey a sense of the ongoing movement and feeling of the area; the Rio Grande is an inspirational focal point. Although he works with flat images in his prints, the large mixed media abstractions consist of layers of paint, vellum, and pieces of torn prints, suggesting the debris of an archaeological dig. His physical materials synthesize with obscured knowledge partially hidden above and below the landscape.

About his abstract direction, De La Rosa posited, “I think everything is abstract. There’s just the spectrum of where you want to be.”

His expressions break from the expected landscape representation just short of leaving altogether. Perceptions of the border landscape become odes to its character as in “Talley: Countdown to Stardust” where the land-sky division could be seen as abstract, or not. Farming and violence, art, the movement of people, and maybe the weather, are noted.

“Shared Space” presents a recurring theme. His use of crowded in-congruent images within the work become different lives tightly existing within spatial boundaries. He considers different art media to be different languages of art, and here they symbolize the variety along the border. Shapes become meaningful words. The rosette pattern of the jaguar, a boundary crosser, becomes a visual word for people in transit.

The small acrylic paintings are travel memories and impressions. Depicting the ever-changing landscape as it exists empirically and mentally, De La Rosa compresses its changes into single visual moments.

This exhibit serves as a rich selection from the artist’s work, and if you missed seeing his shows in Harlingen and Brownsville, this is an excellent chance to catch up.

Nancy Moyer, Professor Emerita of Art, UTRGV, is an art critic for The Monitor. She may be reached at nmoyer@rgv.rr.com

South Texas College’s Library Art Gallery proudly presents Borderígena, an exhibit with layered mixed-media paintings by Jesus De La Rosa.

De La Rosa was raised in the Rio Grande Valley and Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. He spent his early life traveling across the U.S/Mexico border as a result of his parents working in Mexico and living in Texas. His borderland experience plays a pivotal role in his art practice. De La Rosa earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and a Master of Fine Arts from The Ohio State University at Columbus, where he was awarded a Graduate Enrichment Fellowship. As an Associate Professor of Art at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, De La Rosa teaches introductory and advanced courses in printmaking and graphic design.

Borderígena will be located on the first floor of the Pecan Library Art Gallery, inside Building F.

Also running concurrently is Our Lady of Guadalupe Community Exhibit. The group exhibit will feature many artwork depictions inspired by La Virgen de Guadalupe. The purpose of this exhibition is to allow the community to share their artistic vision of La Virgen de Guadalupe as a cultural icon for her birthday on December 12.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Community Exhibit will be located on the 2nd floor of the Pecan Library Art Gallery.

Both exhibits open Oct. 17 and run through December 12, 2019.

On Oct. 17, 2019 there will be an opening art talk by Jesus de la Rosa from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Following the artist talk, a second lecture “Christian Art Through the Ages” will be presented by Patricia Ballinger from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Both lectures will be held in the Pecan Library Rainbow Room. Later in the evening, a reception for both exhibitions will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery. The exhibits are located at 3201 W. Pecan Blvd. in McAllen. Admission is free and open to the public.

Oct 17th - STC Pecan Campus Library Rainbow Room & Art Gallery

1:00 Art Talk- Jesus De La Rosa, Professor of Art at Texas A&M Kingsville

2:30 Art Talk – “Christian Art Through the Ages” Patricia Ballinger, Professor of Art at South Texas College

5:00 – 7:00 – Reception Borderígena & Our Lady of Guadalupe

The South Texas College Library Art Gallery Program organizes exhibitions and educational programs to engage student understanding of art and its role in culture, support academic curriculum, and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars, and original works of art.

MEMBERS ONLY is a juried art exhibition of new works of art by current members of K Space Contemporary. The Coastal Bend is loaded with amazing artistic talent! This exhibition is an excellent representation of current contemporary art from Corpus Christi and the surrounding area. Curated by K Space Contemporary’s Exhibition Committee – a team of local professional artists and college art professors. Awards will be presented at 7 pm during the opening reception. The exhibition continues through May 31, 2019.


Members Only – Exhibiting Artists:

1. Tony Armadillo, “Sirena del Mar”
2. David Armbruster, “Golden Fleece”
3. Jennifer Arnold, “Fringe Sweater”
4. Jennifer Arnold, “Blue Jeans”
5. Meg Aubrey, “Livingroom # 6”
6. Mark Aubrey, “Security”
7. Loring Baker, “Our Thought are Shapes, and in this Moment Exist Millions, (Again)”
8. Loring Baker, “Holy Fuck”
9. Silas Breaux “Construct # 2”
10. Silas Breaux, “Excavation # 46”
11. Amy Burkart, Ramirez, “Freshly Faked”
12. Robert Bustamante, “Spiritual Icon Cross”
13. Rosemary Cantu, “La Frida”
14. Michael Casarez, “Killing Moon”
15. Jalyn Casarez, “Ultra Violet”
16. Jalyn Casarez, “Handspun Color Study”
17. Eric Cuevas, “Dress Rehearsal”
18. Kerstin Dale, “Alsek Lake # 5, Alaska”
19. Jesus De la Rosa, “#17”
20. Jesus De la Rosa, “#03”
21. Karen Dellinger, “There is Always Light After the Storm”
22. Paul Dodson, “ARD NYC 2015”
23. Crystal Farris, “Untitled”
24. Phyllis Finley, “Shell I”
25. Amorette V. Garza, “Tchotchke (baby, mama)”
26. Jenifer Hartsfield, “Unfolding”
27. David Hill, “To-Go Box”
28. Lynda Jones, “Bam/Pow”
29. Lynda Jones, “Planet”
30. Kylie Justus, “Anticipation”
31. Dennis Kemmerer, Untitled Carrier
32. Dennis Kemmerer, Untitled Carrier
33. JinSun Kim, “Internal II”
34. Tony Magar, “Raven King”
35. Joe Peña, “Late Night Visitor”
36. Joe Peña, “11:00 pm, South Texas Stand”
37. Angela Resendez, “Altered Reality”
38. Barbra Riley, “Camo”
39. Lars Roeder, “Adrift: Getting Carried Away”
40. Kelly Schaub, "I" of the Beholder
41. Kelly Schaub, “Stand/Walk”
42. Kevin Schuster, “Water Garden 009”
43. Kevin Schuster, “Water Garden 014”
44. Becky Smith, “War Doesn't Discriminate”
45. Sarah L. Spaulding, “Whatever”
46. Jamie Speck, “Tea Bag”
47. Sean Thorton “When Bears Riot”
48. Carlos Villarreal, “Black Male, White Honda”
49. Carlos Villarreal, “The Devine”
50. Cheryl Votzmeyer, “Dream Away”
51. Diane Wiener, “Red Red Sunrise”
52. Diane Wiener, “Presence”
53. Don Wiener, “Gypsy Jazz”
54. Carolyn T. Young, “Le Demi Toilette”
55. Carolyn T. Young, “Inferno”
56. Mayra Zamora, “Viva La Vida”

TexChange SGCI 2019
On View: Texas Christian University
2805 S University Dr, Fort Worth, TX 76129. N Moudy Building, Project Space

Organizers: J. Leigh Garcia, Adjunct Professor, Pensacola State College
Wendi Valladares, Artist

Traveling to the following venues:

• Ben Bailey Gallery, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, TX
• Cedar Valley College, Lancaster, TX
• Southern Graphics Council, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
• Catapult Press, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO
• Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX


The complex history between Texans and Mexicans has resulted in a melding of these two cultures or what is known today as Tejanos. While many Mexican-Americans identify as Chicano/Chicana/Chicanx, Tejano/Tejana/Tejanx is a term specifically for Mexican-Americans who call Texas their home. For many Tejanos, their familial lineage in present-day Texas dates back to before the Texas Revolution, hence the famous line, “we never crossed the border, the border crossed us.”

Contributing Artists:
Francisco Alvarado, MFA candidate, Texas Christian University
Ruben Castillo, Lecturer & Shop Technician, Kansas City Art Institute
Jesus De La Rosa, Associate Professor of Art, Texas A&M University–Kingsville
Celeste De Luna, Lecturer, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Francisco Delgado, Assistant Printmaker, Horned Toad Prints
J. Leigh Garcia, Adjunct Professor, Pensacola State College
Brandy Gonzalez, Art Teacher, Cade MS and Adjunct Professor, Lassen College
Clarissa Gonzalez, MFA candidate, Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Manuel Guerra, Lecturer, University of Texas at El Paso
Michael Menchaca, working artist / public artist
Ashley Mireles, Co-Director of La Printeria, Education Coordinator at Artpace San Antonio, and co-founding member of the Creative Women’s Alliance
Raul Monarrez, Advance Visual Arts / AP Teacher, Del Valle High School, YISD, Horned Toad Press
Ben Munoz, Independent artist with Gallery affiliations at the Art Center of Corpus Christi
New Mexico–Hecho a ManoBen Munoz
Omar González, MFA candidate, University of Texas at San Antonio
Ricardo Ruiz,
Marco Sánchez, MFA candidate, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Alan Serna, Co-Founder / Master Printer, Feral Editions
Wendi Valladares, Art & Design Adjunct, Cedar Valley College

A new look. A new gallery. The same commitment to emerging artists. Join us at our new location in Franklinton to celebrate all things ROY.

We’re kicking off our next chapter with The ROY Family Reunion Exhibition, featuring an array of work from artists who have exhibited with us in the last 30 years. It’s a celebration of past ROY artists, from 1989 until now, that showcases the diverse talent that makes ROY the home for thoughtful, innovative art that it is today.

The ROY Family Reunion Exhibition will be on display May 3-June 10 at 435 W Rich St, Columbus, OH 43215.

January 2nd - PrintAustin hosts their annual PrintEXPO and print sale. The EXPO features 30+ artists, live demonstrations + bin work. Purchase original prints from regional talent, see live demonstrations and experience steamroller printing.

The Steamroller Event is organized by PrintAustin in partnership with Texas A&M University-Kingsville Department of Art, Communications and Theatre.

This is a family-friendly event. Sneak peek available the night before at our launch party–The Printmaker’s Ball from 7-10pm. Our 2019 EXPO will be centrally located at the Blue Genie Big Top, 6100 Airport Blvd, Austin, TX 78752.

Selections from the TAMUK Steamroller Prints
curated by Luis Contreras
Open House for The San Benito
Cultural Heritage Museum, San Benito, TX

Jesus De La Rosa spent his early life traveling across the U.S.-Mexico border. His parents worked in Mexico, but lived in Texas, and that experience plays a pivotal role in his art.

The Associate Art Professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. His new exhibit, “One More Time with Feeling” at Beyond Arts Gallery in Harlingen combines De La Rosa’s practice of subjective abstraction with landscape and features some of the artist’s larger previous works along with a series of recent small acrylics.

While the previous works are much more complex, the smaller works are succinct compressions of the artist’s reactions to the land of South Texas.

“I love painting in the subconscious, that’s my favorite part,” De La Rosa said. “I feel there’s a different higher spiritual connection there and I’m always thinking about landscape; I’m always thinking about land and how we divide it.”

Growing up on the border gave De La Rosa plenty of time to observe the varied landscape, and allowed it to stamp both grand and intimate impressions onto his psyche. His paintings reflect the things he has seen and felt while reacting to the land.

More recently, he has collected colorful observations while driving the Valley-to-Kingsville roads. The large paintings often include geometric pale blue shapes/sections where the sky interacts with the land to form a vista. The complex painting, “El Trangulito,” speaks of the divisions. De La Rosa recalls how the land was divided when his father farmed it.

“We had this piece of land that they called the triangle,” he explained. “Every time during the harvest, the combines would stop because it was so thick; it was magical. There were no roads to it — you just knew how to get there.”

The blue sky-shape cuts through this landscape, dividing tangled layers of shapes and textures, and touching other flights of spatial division. A color chart fastened to the top of the painting adds the ultimate division and transcends the painting itself.

“This Side of the Fence” looks at the border wall.

“A lot of my work is based on people moving, but instead of painting people, I do it without the figures,” he said.

In these paintings, circular shapes represent people and exquisitely reflect the artist’s intense process. Multiple layering of paints and various materials constantly interact. Collaging vellum helps the artist minimize the information of previous layers while torn pieces of appropriated material are forced to adapt to his message.

The small paintings extend across the length of the large gallery’s south wall. De La Rosa said for this exhibit he put more consideration into cross sections and reactions with these works, allowing them to become multi-layered memories that overlap and fuse on his painted panels. With “05,” thoughts are intersected and sometimes altered by those subsequent.

“I always put the wall in a copper color,” he explained. “It always interrupts that composition or becomes part of the composition.”

Below the copper shape, there is order; above it, disorder. These process-intensive small works utilize 30 to 40 layers of tones, colors, and images to achieve their visual richness.

By depicting the ever-changing landscape as it exists empirically and mentally, De La Rosa creates time-lapsed perceptions, memories and impressions, and compresses them into a single visual moment.

Nancy Moyer, Professor Emerita of Art at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is an art critic for The Monitor. She may be reached at nmoyer@rgv.rr.com.


"One More Time with Feeling"
Where: Beyond Arts Gallery, 114 North A Street, Harlingen
When: Through Mar 3
Hours: 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday
Contact: (956) 230-2859

Nubia Reyna September 11, 2017

Miguel Angel Sandoval, a teacher at Gladys Porter Early College High School in Brownsville, observes one of De La Rosa’s pieces, “Rio Bravo,” last Tuesday in the Art Gallery at Rusteberg Hall. The art piece was created in 2005 with acrylic and lithograph on wood. Ana Cahuiche/The Rider Photos

More than 60 people attended the opening reception for the first exhibit of the semester, “Borderígena: Many Times Over,” last Tuesday in the Art Gallery at Rusteberg Hall on the Brownsville campus.

The exhibit features the work of Jesus De la Rosa, an associate art professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. The title of the show is inspired by the book, “The New World Border,” by Guillermo Gomez (City Light Books, 1996). In the book, Gomez defines Borderígena “as a citizen of the great border region of the Americas.”

“Sometimes, a river or mountain range will determine the boundary between peoples,” De la Rosa said in his artist statement. “Every so often, this borderline is only the ink of a line drawn by a man. My early life was devoted to daily traveling across the U.S.-Mexico border, ensuing from my parents working in Mexico and living in Texas.”

The exhibition consists of nine colorful two-dimensional works that derive from his insight of the Texas-Mexico landscape, where cultures, languages and identities constantly conflict and bind, according to De la Rosa.

“Both sides of the border depend on each other for economic stimulation,” he said. “Americans cross into Mexico for medical care at an affordable price, while Mexican nationals purchase items not found in Mexico from U.S. shopping centers.”

His work was selected to be part of the 12th annual Young Latino Artist Exhibition at the Mexic-Arte museum and Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin and part of the exhibition “Idols and Impossible Structures” at the International Print Center New York, according to De la Rosa’s website.

Gallery Coordinator Alejandro Macias said he tries to have a broad spectrum of artists.

“I really try to show artists that are practicing artists, contemporary artists that are successful at what they do,” Macias said. “I think his work is really good and I hope students get a little taste of what he does and maybe they can get something out of it.” Macias said De la Rosa was a student at legacy institution UT-Brownsville back in the late 1990s but then transferred to Kingsville.

“It is great to have him back,” he said. “This is really refreshing to see, like, two-dimensional work that is painting and drawing and carving. It seems like it’s a really hands-on type of work and it’s extremely colorful. The palette is amazing.”

UTRGV Art Lecturer Patrick Fatica said the exhibition is excellent and liked the fact that the artist has a history in the Valley and at the university as a student.

“He is talking about his own near-death experience and how they’re kinda making me really think about what is important in life,” Fatica said.

The exhibition continues through Sept. 29. Admission is free. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and noon to 4 p.m. Friday.

For more information about future exhibitions or special accommodations, contact alejandro.macias@utrgv.edu.

Homeward Printmaking Exhibition shown in BUMF Gallery

BA (Hons) Fine Art Staff Course news / Artist / Collaborations – Published 12th Sep 17

We all come from somewhere else. Whether first or tenth generation of exiles or wonderers, a home and identity left behind. Arriving to a new place, a new life and identity is created. Homeward: an exhibition of printmaking curated by Preeti Stood.

The transition from one’s heritage has a direct influence on how we live and experience our world. Sometimes this departure is traumatic and directly impactful. For some, the journey became lost and is barely influential. Sometimes we know our familial homeland by hearsay or fantasy. By moving, a part of who we are is lost but another part is gained by who we become.

Artist/Printmakers submitted their work and after being shortlisted for the call, the project for each artist was to make an edition of 21 prints in a printmaking media of their choice. The image could be any orientation, following a prescriptive sizing and paper choice and then subsequently shipped to Atlanta. Each artist participating receives a complete set of prints, creating an exchange portfolio.

Three prints out of the edition become part of the archive SGCI and Zukerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University.

Exhibiting artists included Preeti Stood, AUB Printmaking Technician. Speaking about the exhibition she explained:

“This exhibition of print was curated at the Arts University Bournemouth to share and celebrate the richness and power of Printmaking both with our students and staff. This themed portfolio was the part of the Southern Graphic International Printmaking Conference, Atlanta (2017: Terminus: Arrivals & Departures | Atlanta, GA). It is interesting to see how the reproducible nature of Print can bring innumerable advantages.

All the artist/printmakers shortlisted for the portfolio received 18 prints from 18 different places/countries in the world which means the portfolio can be exhibited in alternative 18 places simultaneously. As it was a portfolio exchange I have received 17 prints of participating artist/printmakers that will be added to our growing Print Archive that will be used for teaching various processes and inspire students.”

Arts University Bournemouth Wallisdown, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5HH
hello@aub.ac.uk +44 1202 533 011

We all come from somewhere else. Whether first or the tenth generation of exiles or wonderers, a home and identity was left behind. Arriving to a new place, a new life and identity is created. The transition from one’s heritage has a direct influence on how we live and experience our world. Sometimes this departure is traumatic and directly impactful. For some, the journey became lost and is barely influential. Sometimes we know our familial homeland by hearsay or fantasy. By moving, a part of who we are is lost but another part is gained by who we become. This portfolio includes artists whose imagery is inspired by their heritage, who let their distance inform the work, as a space for questioning, for departures and returns.

Artists
Sophie Knee, Sang-Mi Yoo, Irena Keckes, Michael Litzau, Serena Perrone, Xenia Fedorchenko, Elizabeth Klimek, Jose Rodriguez, Jesus De La Rosa, Mumu Wang, Marzi Rahmani, Lila Shull, Jade Hoyer, Jason Scuilla, Gloria Shows, Mariana Smith, Preeti Sood, Ani Volkan

This session will call on the experiences of artists “slinging ink in the South.” Throughout most of its history, the South has cultivated artists who rely on their resourcefulness, determination, and community to survive. This reliance has informed a new generation of artists who are adept practitioners in a rapidly changing landscape of print. Each panelist will discuss his/her experiences with pulling prints in the South and how they feel the legacy of southern printers and printmakers have informed their work and community. The panel will then open for a question and answer period, in order to further confront the historical complexity of what it means to sling ink in the South.

Thursday: 1:30 - 3 pm, Kennesaw State University
Carmichael Student Center
395 Cobb Avenue
Student Leadership Room

Panelists

Nicholas Silberg (panel chairperson)
Chair of Fine Arts, Humanities, & Wellness and Associate Professor of Art
Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia
Margot Ecke, Graphic Designer, Professional Printer
Smokey Road Press, Athens, Georgia
Jesus De La Rosa, Associate Professor of Art
Texas A&M University, Kingsville, Texas
Scott Smith, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator
Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, Alabama

Inexplorado is an exercise in traversing what has not yet been considered. Please examine how you interpret uncharted territory, the unexplained, or unexplored. Describe a situation, experience, or activity as you travel to the new or unfamiliar; a mystery, riddle, or situation of uncertainty reveals it self, perhaps... This portfolio exchange is about shifting an emphasis from typical individual style which you have established within your work to some idea, concept, or process which has yet to be explored.

The theme for this year's print exchange is Inexplorado. The prompt asks and challenges each participant to genuinely move out side the comfort zone of their typical stylistic work. This project aims to offer a sustained platform for initiating dialogues, developing a network among artist professionals, and furthering collaboration.

Paper Size: 15 inches x 11 inches (15 x 11”)

Edition Size: 30
This includes a set for archives, one exhibition set, and a set for special collections, TBD.

Austin American Stateman
LIFE By Luke Quinton -Thursday, January 12, 2017

Printmakers make art for the masses — at least that’s how it seems. The medium looks more approachable than the dark arts of oil paints and conceptual art, although, it, too, can take eons of study to master.
Austin is increasingly becoming known as a respected nexus for printmaking, and the month-long Print Austin features the full range, from highly conceptual fine art prints that make leaps into sculpture, to gnarly, eye-popping gig posters for Red River clubs.

The events for Print Austin are sprinkled throughout the city at galleries, museums and oddball spots, from parties with live printing at Leona Gallery to full-fledged exhibits at Carver and Cepeda library branches and even one show at a doctor’s office. This is Print Austin’s fourth year.

“We started with 20 events and now it’s grown to 40 throughout Austin,” says Elvia Perrin, one of the organizers, as well as a noted printer. The event draws print makers, vendors and art school departments from all over the country.

This being art made in Texas, there are a few oddball events. The one sure to raise eyebrows among these is undoubtedly prints made with a steamroller. Perrin seemed relieved to not be in charge of this event, in which Jesus De La Rosa, associate professor of art at Texas A&M in Kingsville, will be running over pre-carved woodblocks, yes, with a steamroller (there are 25 spots for artists with $35 registration each; sign up at the Print Austin website).

Here are some highlights from Print Austin 2017, which runs Jan. 15-Feb. 15 and includes a variety of affordable classes:

Miscellanea
Interdisciplinary artist Paloma Mayorga has curated a show from contemporary print artists of color, to show at a doctor’s office. Dr. Robert E. Cantu has a little space outside of his office, Perrin says, where the prints will be displayed. He catered last year, she says. “It felt a little like a fun house,” including a band crammed in the corner. (Opening reception, hosted by Dr. Cantu, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Jan. 21. Exhibit open during office hours through Feb. 18. 2911 Medical Arts Street, Bldg. 13).

Print Expo / Bin Fest / Steamroller Printing
The sprawling rabbit warren of complexes makes a stop here a no-brainer. A show by Kevin McNamee-Tweed is next door at the Museum of Human Achievement, while you can also peruse prints for sale by 30 artists, check out the Art Science gallery, Modern Rocks, artist studios and offerings from printing presses from across the country (Noon to 5 p.m. Feb. 11, RSVP through the event website for location.)

Orna Feinstein
This art shimmers and buzzes. “It makes you rethink print,” says Perrin. Orna Feinstein prints on plexiglass, and turns print into sculpture.
(Reception 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Jan. 13 at Camiba Art Gallery, 2832 E Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. #111. Exhibit continues through Feb. 11.)

The Contemporary Print
Susan Tallman juried the print competition, which narrowed down 900 entries to 34. “She’s pretty big in our world. She’s the chief editor for ‘Art and Print’ magazine, a well-read art historian, and she juried the show,” Perrin says. “So she chose from artists who hang from all over the country.” (Reception 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Jan. 20 at O2 Space at Flatbed Press Headquarters, 2832 East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Exhibit through Feb. 18.)

Art Werger: Tidal Shift
Dreamy, photorealistic prints of both the mundane and the mundane with a hint of mystery, in stunning detail. (Reception 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Jan. 20 at Slugfest Workshop and Gallery. Runs through Feb. 18.)

The Art of the Print
Tucked away in a project room, for one night only, prints pulled from the Blanton Museum of Art’s extensive holdings will be on display for the public. “They actually opened up their private collection,” says Perrin. “You can get close with the magnifying glass — there’s a crazy amount of monitors who are watching you, but it’s pretty great. … You can go up to a (Francisco) Goya, and just see what an actual piece of paper, inked, looks like, instead of just a slide. So it’s a pretty rare opportunity to do that.” (5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Jan. 19, Julia Matthews Wilkinson Center for Prints and Drawings in the Blanton Museum of Art, 200 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.)

Print Austin The celebration of works on paper includes dozens of artists and venues and runs Jan. 15-Feb. 15. See the full list of participating artists, venues and events at printaustin.org.

We invite you to our PrintExpo, featuring 30+ artists, live demonstrations + Steamroller printing which will be fun for the entire family.
* us February 11 from 12-5pm @ Museum of Human Achievement, near Canopy, home of Big Medium (916 Springdale, ATX)*

Please join us for PrintAustin’s first Steamroller Print Event on Saturday, February 11, 2017 in the parking lot of Canopy (916 Springdale Road). Nearby will be our PrintExpo and Bin Fest at the Museum of Human Achievement. The steamroller print event is organized by PrintAustin in partnership with Texas A&M University-Kingsville Department of Art, Communications and Theatre, and is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, and the Still Water Foundation.

The steamroller print event generates an environment of community engagement, teamwork and education. Please keep your blocks family-friendly.

PrintAustin
916 Springdale Rd, Bldg. 1, Unit 218
Austin, TX 78702

Poster Design - Carlos Hernandez

International Print Center New York presents Idols and Impossible Structures: New Prints 2017/Winter, on view from January 19 to April 1, 2017 in its gallery at 508 West 26th Street, 5th floor. The 55th presentation of IPCNY’s New Prints Program, this group exhibition features several innovative methods by artists testing the limits of the medium, including the use of UV-reactive ink, glass powder as pigment, and three-dimensional printed objects, as well as traditional techniques like lithography, etchings, and linoleum cut. With work from a diverse cohort of 39 artists, the show also distinguishes itself through recurring themes of history, nation, and violence, expressed through portrayals of individuals, as well as depictions of impossible structures and precarious consumer products. Both varied and topical, the exhibitions reflects print’s immediacy and its continued capacity to channel popular conversation.

ON VIEW JANUARY 19 - APRIL 01, 2017

International Print Center New York presents Idols and Impossible Structures: New Prints 2017/Winter, on view from January 19 to April 2, 2017 in its gallery at 508 West 26th Street, 5th floor. The 55th presentation of IPCNY’s New Prints Program, this group exhibition features several innovative methods by artists testing the limits of the medium, including the use of UV-reactive ink, glass powder as pigment, and three-dimensional printed objects, as well as traditional techniques like lithography, etchings, and linoleum cut. With work from a diverse cohort of 39 artists, the show also distinguishes itself through recurring themes of history, nation, and violence, expressed through portrayals of individuals, as well as depictions of impossible structures and precarious consumer products. Both varied and topical, the exhibitions reflects print’s immediacy and its continued capacity to channel popular conversation.

Opens on January 19: artist talks with Yoonmi Nam, Gary Michaels, and Anne-Marie Lavigne from 5-6pm, reception from 6-8pm.

The exhibition was juried by Noel W. Anderson, Assistant Professor of Printmaking at NYU/Steinhardt, Anne Coffin, Founding Director and Trustee of IPCNY, Caitlin Condell, Assistant Curator, Drawings, Prints, & Graphic Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum NY, Lucia Hierro, artist, Martin Nash, collector and IPCNY Trustee, and Françoise de Saint Phalle Associate at Dominique Levy Gallery, who together pored over more than 2,000 submissions from around the world.

Artists are: Kathy Aoki, Miguel A. Aragón, Mildred Beltre, Lauren Cardenas, Maria Providencia Casanovas, Akanksha Vikash Chhajer, Lindsey Clark-Ryan, Steven Daiber, Ryan Davis, Jesus De La Rosa, Donna Diamond, Nicole Eisenman, Kirsten Flaherty, Nabil Gonzalez, Valerie Hammond, Marco Hernandez, Anna Hoberman, Elisapee Ishulutaq, Anne-Marie Lavigne, Liza Lou, Jennifer Manzella, Donald Martin, Michelle Martin, Frederick Mershimer, Gary Michaels, Michelle Murillo, Yoonmi Nam, Joe Nanashe, Tatiana Potts, Benjamin Rinehart, Jenny Robinson, David Sandlin, Yesuk Seo, Mizin Shin, Susannah Stark, Philip Van Keuren, April Vollmer, Brandon Williams, and Imin Yeh.

Presses and Publishers: 10 Grand Press & FIAR (NY), LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies (NY), Manneken Press (IL), Red Trillium Press (MA), Royal College of Art (UK), Purgatory Pie Press (NY), Saturday Press (NV), Studio PM (Canada), and World House Editions (CT).

PrintAustin's 4th annual juried national exhibition “ The Contemporary Print” to be held at O2 Gallery at Flatbed Press Headquarters during PrintAustin 2017.

The Contemporary Print exhibition is a survey of the traditions and the innovations of contemporary printmaking happening today. While non-traditional or digital output is accepted as a print element, submissions must utilize traditional print media as their primary technique including: Lithography, Relief, Intaglio, Silkscreen, and Monotype.

*The Contemporary Print held at O2 Space @ Flatbed Press Headquarters
Austin, Texas*

January 10–February 18, 2017
Opening Reception: January 20, 6-8pm
Closing + Awards Ceremony: February 9, 6-8pm

JUROR: Susan Tallman.

The Contemporary Print 2017 Selected Artists:

Miguel Aragon
David Avery
Selene Bataille
Helene Bautista
Win Bruhl
Dawnielle Castledine
Harry Clewans
Brian Cohen
Jesus De La Rosa
Jeffrey Dell
Babara Duval
Mike Elko
Kate Fleming
Barbara Foster
Ken Frink
Brandy Gonzalez
Adriane Herman
Robert Howsare
Jayne Reid Jackson
Javier Jimenez
Alexia Kraus
Jim Lee
Juliet Mattila
Matthew McLaughlin
Larinda Meade
Hannah Neal
Lynn Peterfreund
Zackery Petot
Sheila Pitt
Milo Reid
Kelsey Stephenson
Allison Valdivia
Summer Ventis
Chris Warot
Art Werger
Jack Wood

Beyond Arts gallery proudly presents “Wild Horse Desert Print Fair & Exhibition” curated by Jesus De La Rosa of Kingsville, TX with Guest of Honor B. A. G. Board Member, Nancy Russell of Harlingen, Texas. Catering by Frank Macias of Franke Flav’s, Harlingen.

The area between the Nueces and Rio Grande was known as the Wild Horse Desert, a place where boundless numbers of magnificent wild horses roamed the countryside. In its second edition the Wild Horse Desert Print Fair and Exhibition revises the version of this scenario. Instead of the wild mustangs the print fair displays hand-pulled prints metaphorically galloping across South Texas. Regional Artists will display fine art etchings, lithographs, silkscreens and hand-carved relief woodblocks that were printed under the drum of a 2-ton steamroller.

The opening is scheduled for Saturday July 9th from 6:30 pm
to 9:30 pm and is free and open to the public.
The exhibition will be on view until September 2, 2016

The public will have the opportunity to sign up for a relief printmaking workshop scheduled from 1:00-4:00pm Saturday July 9th. Register by visiting, www.ogprints.com/workshop.

For more information please contact Beyond Arts Gallery.
114 N. A. Street Harlingen, Texas 78550, (956)230-2859
Jessica Salazar McBride
Beyond Arts Gallery Director
144 North A. Street
Harlingen, TX 78550
(956) 230.2859
www.beyondartsgallery.com

ARTWORKS BY:
UTRGV- Brownsville Campus: Student Artists
under the direction of Noe Palmenez:
Gabby Guajardo
Miriam Hernandez
Sam Melchor
Gabby Guajardo
Sinthia Martinez
Josh Berry
Alex Garcia
Sinthia Martinez
Clarissa Martinez
Jesus Trevino
Eliana Araujo
Jaime Alamilla
Blanca Soberanes
Jesse Barciaga
Annette Sosa
Saul Arellano

STEAMROLLER PRINT ARTISTS:
Sold steamroller prints benefit the
Texas A&M University- Kingsville Art program.

Jimmy Snowden
Celeste De Luna
Omar Gonzalez, OG Prints
Rigoberto A. Gonzalez
Todd Lucas
Charles Wissinger
Fulden Wissinger
Julian Rodriguez
Alisa Bautista
Dwayne Kraatz,
Carlos G. Gomez
Stephanie Ortiz
Juan Salinas
Lorenzo Garcia
Angela Pineda
Ronda D’Lorm
Samantha Diaz
Gonzalo Alvarez
Audra LaCour

PRINTFAIR ARTISTS:
Andrea De Angel
Lisette Chavez - Holy Press
Celeste De Luna
Lenard Brown - Print Haus
Juan Salinas - Dark INK Prints
Omar Gonzalez - OG Prints
Jesus De La Rosa - Maverick Press

Printmaking is in all kinds of things,” Sophie Knee tells me, gesturing to the advertisements posted across the walls of the café we’re sitting in. She’s an artist herself, and spent her undergrad years in the printmaking labs at Ohio State.
But printmaking is often overlooked, even within art communities, and between the less than promising job market and the title of “starving artist” looming overhead, it’s hard to stick with a career in the fine arts. So when the influence of one professor can keep so many of his former students in the craft, it’s something worth celebrating.

That’s exactly what happened with Professor Emeritus Charles Massey. A printmaking teacher, Professor Massey’s dedication to inspiring and creating meaningful relationships with his students has paid off, as they have recently honored him with a printmaking exhibition entitled “Secrets.”

“It’s a tribute to how many people have worked with him and are still active in printmaking,” said Sophie, the curator of the exhibition. She, along with two of Massey’s former students, felt motivated to honor their professor when they met up by chance at an art conference and realized they had all been taught printmaking by Massey.

“Charles brought people together,” Knee said, and everything she told me about her experience with him exemplified that point. As one of the artists putting out calls for prints to honor Massey’s retirement, she was shocked with the number of printmakers who had been touched by Charles Massey.

As an undergraduate at Ohio State, she was one of those students. “The printmaking lab became a place I could belong and wanted to belong,” said Knee.

Belonging, in this case, involved getting along with her professor, even as she struggled through learning the basics of a new art medium. “If you’re going to be happy in the printmaking lab, you have to learn to be a good citizen,” she said, recounting her early experiences in Massey’s classes.

In the end, the effort paid off. Massey’s teaching guided Knee to the printmaking she does today, and inspired the exhibition’s other contributors to pursue their own goals.

The exhibition Knee has curated brings together the work of students Massey has taught throughout his career. It brings together artists across generations, across cultures, across all kinds of possible identity lines, and although each artist worked around the same theme of “Secrets,” the prints are as unique to one another as their artists.

“Charles encouraged people to go out and make what they’re most interested in making,” said Knee. “He was careful not to turn out students who were clones of himself.”

“Most of the artists made prints they wanted to make anyway,” she said, citing Hilary Hilario’s work in “Secrets.” Hilario is known for creating prints of the people she meets on travels, her contribution to the exhibition following that trend.
The influence Massey had on these artists is still visible in many of the pieces. One print by Ann Heineman includes a portrait of the man himself surrounded by printmaking tools, while another by Keith Garubba incorporates quotes from Massey into its framework.

This collection of work has been shown several times in the past few years, originally under the name “Spheres of Influence.” This month’s exhibition will also include works by Charles Massey for the first time.

“Secrets,” which is both the title and theme of the exhibition, is inspired by Professor Massey’s focus on bringing out the “secrets” in things—whether through optical illusions in his own work or by influencing his students to create art that is truly a reflection of themselves.

“Secrets” will open July 5th and run through September 2nd at The Ohio State University Faculty Club.

By LINDA LEWIS | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
Jun 27, 2016 (1) 6.27 SURFACE TREATMEANT

The title of this exhibition, Un/Provincial is predicated upon the notion that the media casts a shadow of provincialism over South Texas artists, who defiantly claim their right to localism and assert that their work stands up to standards established by the metropolitan center.

I believe they have proven their point.

The spacious lobby of the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art features a large abstract painting by Candé Aguilar. Gathering inspiration from the local landscape, he recreates surfaces that suggest a process of decay, transformation and renewal. His compositions are energized by the interplay of vibrant color, texture and image. His thoughtful use of different media reinforces a sense of history and memory.

Nancy Moyer’s photographic prints are lovely chiaroscuro abstracts with soft cloud-like shapes. Surprisingly, the “clouds” are roughly textured washcloths. The prints range from soft muted tones to bright hues. Smaller images are encased inresin and juxtaposed against precious metals and stones in necklaces and brooches.

In her artist’s statement, Moyer refers to excess waste in the textile industry. “Since washcloths are used to cleanse the body, I drew a connection to a

15th century painting by Robert Campin titled the ‘Mérode Altarpiece,” Moyer wrote.

In it, a basin and washcloth symbolically illustrate the cleansing of the sins of the world. Moyer’s celestial clouds may be a reminder to us to make sacrifices to create a better world.

Mark Clark skewers what he considers to be downright foolish and ruinous behavior on the part of individuals and corporations in his pseudo-primitive style paintings. Instead of being isolated incidents, the dramas are played out in very close proximity to each other, evoking a sense of magnitude. No one and nothing is exempt from his satirical critique whether they be local or national.

In his 3:10 minute video “Casa Iceberg,” Mauricio Saénz conveys a sense of psychological disturbance. In a nightmarish mindscape, the artist wanders through a decaying abandoned residence in an apparent state of dissociation. These are symptoms of a mind that has been negatively affected by the many obstacles facing immigrants, such as exclusion, isolation and displacement.

A clear message of instability stands out in Veronica Jaeger’s assemblages. Geometric shapes reminiscent of architectural elements float independently, in a column, on the wall. The parts hover in a seeming state of suspended animation, creating a feeling of tension. The disembodied head of a woman floats on its side. This is a small version of a woman’s portrait with an expression of worry, sadness and resignation that is Jaeger’s signature style.

Patterns of violence are expressed in Jesus de la Rosa’s designs. Hand grenades are transformed into floral designs, and bullets become repeat patterns found in household goods. The designs suggest that the ubiquitous presence of violence invades our homes. In his Borderland Child with Gun Halo, de la Rosa expresses his deep concern for his own children.

David Freeman utilizes carpets as a backdrop for his abstract expressionistic figurative paintings in the manner of deKooning. Scenes of violence in the Middle East, fracking, and American meddling in foreign affairs take place within the borders of the carpet. The carpets are a reminder of the intimacy of violence.

The graphic icon is becoming prevalent as a means of communication in our digital world. Jorge Puron renders his own icons in the style of hard-edge paintings, but he incorporates figurative imagery, perspective and depth. In La Vista de Calle Juárez St. a stylized apple, orange and knife rest on a table in front of a window.

It is a nostalgic depiction of the view from his bedroom in his childhood home in Piedras Negras, Mexico.

The goal of these eight artists in expressing their own humanity is to find a shared or common humanity. This impetus is not simply a local phenomenon, but takes place throughout the world.

Secrets A group exhibition of prints by Professor Emeritus
Charles W. Massey, Jr. and his former students

The Ohio State University Faculty Club
On View: July 5, 2016 - September 2, 2016
Reception: Friday, July 8, 2016, 6-8pm

Artists
Dennis Applebee (Macon, Georgia)
Kristen Applebe (Macon, Georgia)
Marty Azevedo( Mobile, Alabama)
Christopher Daniggelis (Kansas City, Missouri)
Benjy Davies (Gallipolis, Ohio)
Jesus De La Rosa (Kingsville, Texas)
Keith Garubba (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)
Elizabeth Gerdeman (Leipzig, Gremany)
Rachel Heberling ( Cincinnati, Ohio)
Ann Heineman (Columbus, Ohio)
Hilary Hilario (Columbus, Ohio)
Sophie Knee (Columbus, Ohio)
Michael Litzau (Edmond, Oklahoma)
Michelle Martin ( Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Peter Massing (Huntington, West Virginia)
Blake McAdow (Columbus, Ohio)
Kathy McGhee (Columbus, Ohio)
Saegan Moran ( Athens, Georgia)
Gina Reynoso (Atlanta, Georgia)
Ian Ruffino (Columbus, Ohio)
Jennifer Slezak (Columbus, Ohio)
Jeremy Stone
Sang-Mi Yoo ( Lubbock, Texas)

The Ohio State University Faculty Club will present a collection of prints in a group exhibition including the works of Professor Emeritus Charles W. Massey, Jr. and his former students. The exhibition, titled "Secrets," will be on display from July 5, 2016 through September 2, 2016. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 8, 2016 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at The Ohio State University Faculty Club. Please call 614-292-2262 or email the club at facultyclubosu@yahoo.com for more information or to RSVP.

Charles W. Massey, Jr. was professor of printmaking at The Ohio State University from 1974 to 2013. In those thirty-nine years, he had a profound influence on generations of students, many of whom are still printmakers today. This collection of prints was created by former students of Professor Massey as a tribute to this great teacher and printmaker and to commemorate his many years of tireless dedication to his students. The theme of the portfolio, "Secrets," is inspired by Professor Massey's own body of work in printmaking. He always emphasized that each of his students must explore their own vision, make their own work, and find their own voice. For this reason, each artist interpreted the theme in their own way, with free choice of printmaking media, to create work characteristic of their own individual style.

In a previous solo exhibition of his work at the Faculty Club, Professor Massey made this statement about his creative process: "When I was a child, I liked it that Superman could discover secrets with his x-ray vision. Since then, I have wished for the power of x-ray vision so that I could see beyond the obvious and know more about what is in front of me. I attempt, through my prints and drawings, to make visible the "secrets" I sense in the things I see. I am always looking for something of substance, of consequence."

"Secrets" represents the work of over twenty former students and includes the four main types of printmaking: relief, intaglio, lithography and silk screen. The exhibition has been curated by artist and printmaker Sophie Knee, whose inspiration it was to honor Professor Massey with a portfolio exchange of prints from his former students. Knee states, "A portfolio exchange continues a long-standing tradition in the printmaking art form of collecting and disseminating a body of work. In this case, I sent out a call for participation to a number of former students as a way of honoring Charles at the time of his retirement. The gathered prints were then bound into book form as a gift to Charles before we presented it at the Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI) conference."

These prints (excluding those of Professor Massey) were exhibited at the SGCI's conference at The University of Tennessee (Knoxville) in 2015 under the name "Spheres of Influence." Additionally, they have been exhibited at Texas A & M University's Ben Bailey Art Galleries (Kingsville Campus) and at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.

Established in 1923, The Ohio State University Faculty Club is located at 181 South Oval Drive on the Columbus campus of the university. The art exhibition program features the work of selected Ohio State University faculty, staff, students and alumni. Exhibitions are held throughout the year. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For more information, please call the Faculty Club at 614-292-2262. For images of the artwork featured in the current exhibit, please contact lisa@ohio-statefacultyclub.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa Craig Morton
Home Office: 614-294-2849
Lisa@ohio-statefacultyclub.com

Un/Provincial, refers to the ever present contrast between the simplified view of south Texas promoted by the media and the reality of local artists creating a 21st-century aesthetic on an international level. These south Texas artists, working in a highly informed and sophisticated way, refuse to be isolated by geography or stereotypes. Their work is serious, even when presented with humor; serious, sophisticated, deeply thoughtful and highly professional. By refusing to ignore the provincial and local, the artists find rich source material in the surrounding landscape, languages, and blending, clashing cultures. Viewers are drawn in by the intricacy, absurdity and mystery of the art only to find upon closer inspection layers of meaning that push the audience to reflect on the complex, tumultuous, constantly changing world of south Texas.

Un/Provincial is curated by Jennifer Cahn, Ph.D., Head Curator, International Museum of Art & Science, McAllen, Texas.

Exhibit Openning: Saturday June 11, 2016, 6PM

Brownsville Museum of Fine Art
660 Ringgold St., Brownsville, TX

Lawrence Journal World
Artists utilize steamroller in large-scale printmaking
By Joanna Hlavacek, Saturday, May 31, at noon

Artists gathered at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St., to watch a 8,500-pound roller pass over blocks of wood the artists carved to create prints Friday. Artists gathered at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St., to watch a 8,500-pound roller pass over blocks of wood the artists carved to create prints Friday. Richard Gwin/Journal World Photo.From left, Dana Rudolph, St. Joe Mo. helps Sally Piller, remove her print as artist's gathered at the Lawrence Arts Center at 940 New Hampshire to watch a city 8,500 lb. roller driven by Andy Breedlove of the Public Works Department pass over blocks of wood artists carved various ides into, creating block prints on Friday May 30, 2014. John McCaughey carefully rests the 3-by-4-foot plank of wood on the asphalt, covering it with two layers of muslin and a sheet of thermoplastic polycarbonate. A one-inch foam board provides the final layer before an 8,500-pound steamroller, driven by Andy Breedlove of the Lawrence Public Works department, slowly inches across the mound. A few moments later, McCaughey and an assistant triumphantly lift up the finished product— a previously spotless piece of white fabric, now adorned with a design in striking black ink. The crowd of about 50 people erupts in cheers, congratulating the artists on a job well done. The Lawrence Arts Center hosted the printmaking project Friday night outside its location at 940 New Hampshire St. as part of the kickoff festivities for Saturday’s Art Tougeau parade. John McCaughey, an artist-in-residence at the center, along with visiting artist Jesus De La Rosa of Texas A&M University-Kingsville, led a group of about 20 artists from across Kansas in the endeavor. Using a steamroller to create large-scale prints has become something of a trend in the art world. Similar events are sprouting up “all over the country,” McCaughey explained. “You spend 40 to 80 hours carving these blocks, and have a steamroller come in,” he said. “It’s really fun to watch.” Several of the participating artists at Friday’s production were students in McCaughey’s printmaking class at the arts center. Dana Rudolph, a graduate student at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, took the class as part of her independent study program. The St. Joseph, Mo., native helped McCaughey set up the prints along New Hampshire Street on Friday evening. Her own design featured a children’s wading pool with a large “chopped-up snake” hovering above it, forsythia blooms crawling up the sides of the fabric. Much of Rudolph’s work emphasizes the darkness of childhood memories, she said. The inspiration for Friday’s print came from an encounter she had with a snake when she was little. Initially, the steamroller proved challenging, Rudolph said. On her first try, the print was “a little under-inked,” she said. The second one, however, “came out great.” Rudolph said she’ll take the print back to her professors for critique. The other artists might take them back home, or perhaps try their hand at selling the work. “Some people have even been inquiring, ‘Are you selling?’” McCaughey said. “So, we’re going to through artists individually. Hopefully they’ll do well.”

The Lawrence Arts Center will for the first time host a steamroller printmaking event. Organized by John McCaughey, Printmaker-in-Residence at the LAC, and Visiting Artist Jesus De La Rosa.

Saturday, May 30, 2015, 3PM - 7PM
Lawrence Arts Center
940 New Hampshire St.
Lawrence, Kansas 66044

Twenty-Five artists from all over the state will participate by printing large woodblocks they carved. This event is in conjunction with the Art Tougeau block party and will be fun for the whole family.

Their will be live music and alcohol for sale (Free State and Boulevard). So come watch the steamroller doing what it does best... making big prints!

Participating Artists:
Jesus De La Rosa (Texas A&M University - Kingsville)
Sally Piller (Lawrence Artist)
Barr Jasonn (Lawrence Artist)
Alicia Kelly (Lawrence Artist)
Katie McMahon (Lawrence Artist)
Grace Peterson (Lawrence Artist)
Nola Cat (Lawrence Artist)
Rose Kopf (Lawrence Artist)
Dana Rudolph (Lawrence Artist)
Paulette Manville (Lawrence Artist)
Rebecca Riden (Lawrence Artist)
Chris Garcia (Wichita State)
Sydney Fish (Wichita State)
Joe Moss (Wichita State)
Phillip Nellis (Wichita State)
Carlos Paolomino and Issac Choe (Wichita State)
Wendi Valladeres (Wichita State)
Landon Schmidt (Wichita State)
Darren Jones (Wichita State)
Meredith Moore (Wonder Fair)
Jolynn Reiguluth Collaboration (K-State)
Kathleen Murray Collaboration (K-State)
Washburn Rural High Students

Tokens for Today
The Monitor
Nancy Moyer | Posted: Monday, May 5, 2014 9:22 am

An enjoyable and relevant exhibition is now being shown at the McAllen Public Library. Token Gesture Portfolio is a series of stunning black and white relief prints bringing together the wit and imagination of several professional printmakers. Stefanie Dykes of Saltgrass Printmakers, an organization based in Salt Lake City, organized the project. Originally exhibited at IMPACT8 in Dundee, Scotland, it is displayed in the Lobby Gallery. Historically, tokens are cultural objects that reflect a history of colonialism, exploitation, and modern consumerism. The token was a pledge redeemable for goods and services, such as wooden nickels — coin-like objects used instead of currency during hard times. Specific trade tokens were often designed and given to placate employees, persuade voting populace, or entice customers to purchase merchandise. Some of you might remember discount bus tokens.The artists participating in this portfolio project were asked to design a token based on a contemporary issue (financial, environmental, social, political, etc.). And this portfolio is the result. Presented as a 24-inch or 18-inch print, these robust designs address issues ranging from the very personal to the universal. While tokens of the past usually offered a direct empirical usage, most of these tokens have a psychological bite built into them and eschew practicality. Some of them speak of disillusionment, such as the “Obama=Zero Cents” token by Brian Taylor. The token states that it is “false change, redeemable for any loss of hope.” Humor, or possibly a warning, is contained in “Redeem Token for a Chance to Open a Big Can of Worms” by Adam Larsen. Cynicism is easy to find. “Empty Words” by Travis Janssen speaks of the insincerity often found in company or organizational appreciation plaques and gestures. “Facts,” by Lewis J. Crawford, suggests presenting this token to your local TV news agency for one story based on factual information. Nick Mendoza suddenly turns a scary corner. His token, “Good for One Border Crossing,” leaves us with an uneasy feeling in these days of Border violence; isn’t the bearer going to come back? The wit and imagination go on. The technique used in making these prints may be interesting to some of you. Moving beyond the early 20th century aesthetic of the skill-based art product, this print exhibit endorses the idea/concept as the paramount aspect of an artwork. The design for each print was fed into a computer using CNC (computer numerical control) and a relief plate was laser cut in a fraction of the time it would have taken the printmaker to cut it manually. But with a nod to the traditional block-print craft, the plates were hand-inked and printed. On loan from Jesus De La Rosa, assistant professor of art at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Token Gesture Portfolio is sponsored by the International Museum of Art and Science and will be up for another month. In addition to being a fun art experience, this exhibit offers some serious insights into our contemporary life.

Nancy Moyer, Professor Emerita of Art from UTPA, is an art critic for The Monitor. She may be reached at nmoyer@rgv.rr.com
SURFACE TREATMENT
What: Token Gesture Portfolio
Where: Lobby Gallery, McAllen Public Library, Nolana at 23rd Street
When: Until June 9, 2014, Library hours

Viewing and Pick-Up : Thursday, March 19, B Session
12:00pm-1:30pm KCC 200DE
Organized by Sophie Knee, Email: sknee@ccad.edu

This portfolio brings together the former students of Charles Massey, Jr., who has taught printmaking at The Ohio State University since 1974. In those 39 years, he has had a profound influence on generations of students, many of whom are still printmakers today. The portfolio is intended to commemorate his many years of tireless dedication to his students. The theme of the portfolio, “Secrets”, is inspired by Charles's own body of work in printmaking. One of Charles's many strengths as a teacher is that he always emphasized that each student must explore their own vision, make their own work, and find their own voice. Please interpret the theme to create a print characteristic of your own personal style.

Paper Size: 11 x 14 inches
Edition Size: 30
Technique: any print media

PARTICIPANTS:
Dennis Applebee (Macon, Georgia)
Kristen Applebe (Macon, Georgia)
Marty Azevedo( Mobile, Alabama)
Christopher Daniggelis (Kansas City, Missouri)
Benjy Davies (Gallipolis, Ohio)
Jesus De La Rosa (Kingsville, Texas)
Keith Garubba (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)
Elizabeth Gerdeman (Leipzig, Gremany)
Rachel Heberling ( Cincinnati, Ohio)
Ann Heineman (Columbus, Ohio)
Hilary Hilario (Columbus, Ohio)
Sophie Knee (Columbus, Ohio)
Michael Litzau (Edmond, Oklahoma)
Michelle Martin ( Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Peter Massing (Huntington, West Virginia)
Blake McAdow (Columbus, Ohio)
Kathy McGhee (Columbus, Ohio)
Saegan Moran ( Athens, Georgia)
Gina Reynoso (Atlanta, Georgia)
Ian Ruffino (Columbus, Ohio)
Jennifer Slezak (Columbus, Ohio)
Jeremy Stone
Sang-Mi Yoo ( Lubbock, Texas)

HOUSTON PRESS
Contemporary Works Take Over the Museum of Printing History*
By Meredith Deliso Thu., Jun. 27 2013

By name alone, the Museum of Printing History may seem like the last place you'd find contemporary work in the print field. But among the permanent displays that chronicle the history of printing can be found impressive works that experiment with the form and subject matter. So it is with the "PRINTTX," the first juried exhibition of contemporary Texas artists as part of PRINTHOUSTON 2013, a summer-long event celebrating both traditional and contemporary printmaking in the state. Peter S. Briggs, the Helen DeVitt Jones Curator of Art at the Museum of Texas Tech University, has pulled together 23 works of varying sizes and materials by 20 artists for the show. Some of the more engaging pieces aren't what you'd think of when you consider prints. Ann Johnson's Sky's Nest is a sphere of intaglio and found objects suspended from the ceiling by a string. Inside this enclosed nest is, curiously, a faint, ghost-like image of a girl printed on feathers -- it's obvious but unexpected at the same time. Orna Feinstein's The Fan is less mysterious. This sculptural wall piece consists of a blue and black monoprint on a plexi and metal part. The circular spots of color repeat the fan's shape over and over in circles themselves, making it all about whirring motion of this geometric form. Among the more typical prints, Evan Leigh Rottet's photographic lithograph Trash? is a beautifully saturated piece that depicts a pile of garbage in great sepia tones, implying that these discarded items may still have value. Trash? indeed. Other prints have grander, more political implications. Jesus De La Rosa's lithograph Party is Over is a bright pink piñata with bullets for ears and a look of what seems to be concern in its piñata eye. The small bold print definitely catches your attention, but then keeps you as it makes a commentary on the "hidden nature of the US/Mexican war on illegal drugs," says the artist. There are plenty of these subtle details, including the button and shirt tag of Joëlle Verstraeten's cool blue monoprints, in a show that offers plenty to admire.

"PRINTTX" at the Museum of Printing History, 1324 W. Clay Street, runs now through September 14. For more information, call 713-522-4652 or visit www.printingmuseum.org.

Slice Exhibition Opening Reception
Saturday, May 21 6:00p to 8:00p
Cohn Drennan Contemporary, Dallas, TX

Slice is an exhibition curated by artist Cande Aguilar exploring the similarity of line, color, texture and surface of four Texas artists – Michael Blair, Jesus De La Rosa, Jorge Puron and Cande. Cande began searching for and reaching out to artists with comparable sensibilities in an effort to share ideas, concepts, techniques, and possibly even develop a forum or peer group to identify with.

SLICE: review Lanny Quarles
June 2011

The first exhibition I saw at Cohn Drennan Contemporary was of Cande Aguilar's, and at the time I remember having thoughts about subtle mixtures, loose combinations, and unlikely bed fellows like Winnie the Pooh and Matisse all smoothed into a canny sauce. So when I heard Cande was curating a show, I was interested to see what he was cooking up. The show is slice (May 21 - July 2, 2011), and features Michael Blair (Denton), Jesus De La Rosa (Kingsville), Jorge Puron (EaglePass) and Cande (Brownsville). There is something intriguing about the idea of revisiting abstract expressionism as if it were a sort of mad old imprisoned being whom one might discover accidentally while mining for chickens, or something, ala Monty Python, to find it still ravingon in wild solipsist vortexes of private visual syntax some how befuddled by the advent of pop, and / or, anything less than the existentialist sisyphean melodrama. That Or something might be inevidence here. If we look at the title piece of the show, Cande Aguilar’s self-titled slice, we can see what is in effect a truly contemporary hybridization of styles which could be called pop expressionism, or abstract pop, or graffito salsa for that matter. The image itself could be a back alley tag figured as a banana split whose smell is a rainbow, and whosecherry-on-top might be Count Dracula in his muscle red armor. This piece signals a fun, happy, associative theme which connects andunites the show. On the other hand, though, Michael Blair’s pieces, like Untitled 3-1, and 2-3 while ostensibly more visually sombre seem to perform almost a bass-line in the show’s over all referential fuzz-box, bringing in things like Duchamp’s Chocolate grinder, Sir Arthur Evans’ Minoan "Horns of Consecration," Mid-Century Modernism,and perhaps a minor key note for the collective styles of these artists, Albert Oehlen. There seems to be, at least in Blair, some definite arcing to the Neue Wilde movement in Germany. In Jesus De La Rosa’s work Utopia Almost, I found a deep homage to process but a process whose result somehow arcs between director Byron Haskin’s 1964 Robinson Crusoe on Mars and Max Ernst’s epic frottages like The Eye of Silence. All of the works seem chatty in various ways. Jorge Puron’s Sexiest Elevator evokes memory and subtly approaches an abstract landscape through an urban lens which evokes a wryly reflexive subject matter. Are we looking at a painting of a little store front in some anonymous south Texas neighborhood? Is the elevator that penetrates the roof and continues up into the huge unlikely billboard a top its roof somehow akin to the artist’s aspirations? It is an odd, dark question, and it seems to be put to you by a swatch of cloth cut from a hammock. Sexiest Elevator, for me, had a second title, namely black humorsiesta. These were, more or less, the kinds of thoughts I had as I looked at the show. When I asked Michael Blair what he thought, he seemed to feel that there was still a lot of baggage to this kind of painting. I thought to myself, I like an artist who's wary of what he is doing, but for some reason, I wasn't very wary. I immediately embraced the show, and it felt like something closer to Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker jamming, than to clearly defined art-historical categories. I could see sci-fi, and neo-geo, and graffiti, and pop, and just really a sort of free-for all orchestration of materiality that ended up looking like an avatar of the title, namely slice. As if a wide swath of recent art historical styles and precedents, or some of them anyway, and discourses, had been thrown together willy-nilly in a big torta sandwich made like a pie, and then cut in different places to reveal the gooey weird contents. For me, the show ended up being more about savor and sapidity, or sabor, than dry category. And since they say that Painting will never die, then I suppose what the old Ab-ExPop-wild monster in the cave was cooking up was edible zombies, Frankenstein confections that wink and snicker and just start talking to you like an old friend...

-Lanny Quarles

Arte de la Frontera
One View: April 28 - September 4, 2011
Artist Reception April 28 7-9pm

International Museum of Art and Science
1900 West Nolana Ave.
McAllen TX 78504

artists: From top left, clockwise:
Benjamin Varela, Mirla Martinez, Veronica Jaeger, Mark Clark, Cande Aguilar, Paul Valadez (TX★09 Biennial Artist), Nancy Moyer, Linda Lewis, Donna Sweigart, George Lorio, Karen Sanders, Tom Matthews (TX★07/09 Biennial Artist, "Arte de la Frontera" Co-Curator, and Assistant Chair of Visual Arts & Music, STC), Joseph Bravo ("Arte de la Frontera" Co-Curator and IMAS Executive Director), Jesus de la Rosa, Rosendo Sandoval, Thomas Murray, M.C. Farris, Steven Ortiz, Jessica Monroe and Fulden S. Wissinger. Missing: David Freeman, Scott Nicol and Richard Smith. — with Benjamin P Varela, Mirla González Enríquez, Jessica Monroe Martinez, Mark Clark, Cande Aguilar, Paul Valadez, Nancy Moyer, MC Farris, MC Farris, Thomas Murray, Rosendo Sandoval, Tom Matthews, Jesus De La Rosa and Joseph Bravo.

(MIMB II) Monumental Ideas In Miniature Books II Traveling Juried Exhibition

The selection of artist books titled “Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books – MIMB II”, presented by Myers School of Art of The University of Akron, Ohio, and curated by professor Hui-Chu Ying, is the result of the collaboration of a large cast of international visual artists. Through these small objects, they show us their aesthetic concerns, articulated by their particular way of perceiving the world. On one side, this collection of small objects allows us an approach to experiences developed by the art of the twentieth century. Then, we must consider that the current idea of the book as Art becomes a reality with Mallarmée, Apollinaire, and Duchamp,among other artists. On the other side, this exhibition aims to present the aesthetic formulations of this new millennium."

- Juan Carlos Ramos Guadix
Professor, Fine Arts School at the University of Granada, Spain

International Venues:

• Sala Políglota. Proyecto’ace, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• University of Granada, Spain
• National Taiwan University of Arts
• Escuela de Arte de Oviedo, Spain
• Yonsei University, Korea, Byungkeum
• Thompson Rivers University
• Kamloops Art Gallery, Canada
• Taller Arteria Grafica, Madrid, Spain
• Chhaap Foundation for Printmaking Trust

National Venues:

• University of Akron
• Ball State University
• University of Texas at Arlington
• Birmingham-Southern College
• Texas Tech University
• Houghton College, NY
• Kent State University
• University of Colorado, Boulder
• Youngstown State University
• Cleveland Institute of Art
• University of Texas, Austin
• University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• University Iowa
• Texas Lutheran University
• Texas A&M University-Kingsville
• University of Texas, Brownsville
• University of Delaware
• Belmont University
• Amherst College
• The University of Mount Union
• Old Dominion University
• Hiram College
• Ohio Northern University
• Monticello-Union .
• University of South Carolina Beaufort

Jesus De La Rosa • Works on Paper
David Freeman • Paintings
Scott Nicol • Sculpture

Opening Reception
Friday, 02 April, 6:00 p.m.
On View: April 2 - May 2, 2010

GALERIA 409
409 E 13th St.
Brownsville, TX 78520
Phone:956-455-3599
Email:Galeria409@yahoo.com

Galleria 409 hosts trio of artists
The Brownsville Herald
By TRAVIS WHITEHEAD
April 11, 2010 10:34 PM

The twisted branches are held up by ropes, one end crowned by a mass of beeswax that wings out like a kite. This piece is part of an exhibit by Scott Nicol called, "Transpiration," made of three different sets of branches with areas covered by beeswax on display at Galeria 409 until April 23. The other two exhibits include paintings and graphite works by Jesus De La Rosa and artwork by David Freeman.
Many of Freeman’s paintings depict brightly-colored bubbles with concentric circles of different colors inside. Other paintings show a scattering of colorful dots and smears. "Actually, those have a lot to do with the idea of process," said Freeman, who teaches at South Texas College. "Life is a process and I’m just kind of reflecting, mirroring the whole idea of life as a process, and you can see through layers, the stacking of information. It’s a little bit of design by accident." A ladder made of bamboo by Freeman stretches across a wall covered by his paintings; Freeman has attached ghastly thorns to the rungs. The ladder, he says, is symbolic of the challenges faced by people coming to the United States. The pieces titled "Transpiration" are about exploring the life of the wood, says Nicol, who teaches art at South Texas College. "Generally when we look at trees they seem very static," he said. "You know that they are alive on some level but the growth, the movement is so slow that you’re not very conscious of it. And so I was trying to really capture the sense of movement within that in a sense of growth and exaggerate it a little bit by selecting certain pieces, making them more animate in terms of more animal like, more like they’re swimming or moving through space in a way that we associate with life." The one on the bottom floor is made of three long tendrils of mesquite, while the beeswax covers a frame of mulberry. Mark Clark, owner of Galeria 409, said the hooks on the ends look like weapons, or fish hooks used by Indians of what is now the Northwestern United States.
The whole structure, he said, is a little menacing."They have some psychological overtones, like wings of bats," he said. This piece turned out differently than he had planned. "I got that piece and I thought it was going to be a big vertical standing kind of tripod thing, and then as I kind of worked with it I realized that that wasn’t the way it needed to be," Nicol said. Upstairs, visitors will find two more of Nicol’s works, plus charcoal creations by Jesus De La Rosa. "He takes a graphite soaked rag and throws it on the paper and there’s almost instantaneous shades of light and dark stretching across the canvas," said Clark with admiration. "They are almost organic. You can make out faces and animal forms, internal organs. Some look like they have been X-rayed." De La Rosa, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, said he made the charcoal drawings as a way of making fast quick drawings that would also have very complex visual qualities. "It’s supposed to overwhelm the viewer," he said. "And the idea is that you have all these drawings that are made by the same process and each one is unique. And when you see them as a group that uniqueness ties them all together and at the same time it’s what’s making them all ordinary. So I’m relating it back to people."

UTOPIA is a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Jesus De La Rosa that explore place through imagined landscapes. The idea of migration through landscape is represented through the black rosette designs, which travel, hide, rest, and are sometimes totally absent throughout the paintings. Jesus’ work demonstrates a personal and unique relationship between abstraction and landscape, culminating through luminous surfaces of acrylic paint and a wide variety of media. He layers and carves back into these rich crusts, revealing a personal history that records the individual journey and repose of the works themselves.

OPENING May 1st during
McAllen Artwalk, 6-10PM
On View through May 22, 2009

ManicHaus, Modern Art Space
1301-B North Main St.
McAllen, TX 78501
956.618.5770 office
956.207.0940 cell
Gallery Hours:Tues-Fri: 1-6PM
Sat: By Appointment/Special Events

Six Shooter
Six Artists From South Texas
Invitational Group Exhibition
Feb 16 - Mar 20, 2009
Artist Reception: Thursday, Feb 19th, 5-7pm
Gaddis Geeslin Gallery
Sam Houston State University
1028 21st Street
Huntsville, TX 77341-2089
936.294.1315

The Good, The Bad & The Altered
Invitational Group Exhibition
Jan 17 - Feb 28, 2009
Opening: Saturday, Jan 17, 5-7pm
K Space Contemporary
415 D Starr St., Corpus Christi, TX, 78403
email: info@kspacecontemporary.org
361.887.6834

Singularity
Group Exhibition
Dec 5-19, 2008
Reception: Friday, Dec 5th, 6-10 pm
Manichaus
1301-B North Main Street
McAllen, Texas 78501
956.207.0940

Self- Portrait: Inner Voices
Rusteberg Gallery
October 21 - November 15, 2008
Invitational Group Exhibition, Curated by Carlos G. Gomez
Opening reception: October 21, 2008, 6:30- 8:30 pm
UTB/TSC • 80 Fort Brown • Brownsville, TX • 78520
(956) 882-7097 • gallery@utb.edu

The Art Gallery in the Rusteberg Building is proud to present “Self-Portrait: Inner Voices” A collection of art produced by several artists that include: Sam Coronado, Carlos G. Gómez, Toni Hudson, Sandesh Kadur, Bret Lefler, Chris Leonard, Jack Lewis, Daniel López, Cesar Martínez, Noel Palmenez, Jesús de la Rosa, Nancy Sclight, Richard Smith, and Paúl Valdez. Their work consists of mixed media, printmaking, painting, and ceramic sculpture.

Curator's Statement:

An inner voice is an exhibition beyond the making of art and instead becomes a window or portal into the vision or projection by which the artist chooses to convey their truth. In this case, it is a mere self-portrait that echoes who and what they are at that given moment in their life.

- Carlos G. Gomez

Del Otro Lado
Curated by Angel Quesada
October 1-October 24, 2008
Reception: October 1st, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
JPMorgan Chase Heritage Hall
712 Main St. Houston, TX 77002

artshound
Art League Houston, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, is pleased to announce the opening of Celebrating Diversity Through Art: Del Otro Lado (From The Other Side), which takes place at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase Building in Downtown Houston, and runs from October 1 – October 24, 2008, as a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Curated by Angel Quesada and featuring the work of:

Anna Pilhoefer (El Paso)
Lucilla Flores (Austin)
Jesus De La Rosa (McAllen)
Joe Peña (Corpus Christi)
Joe Romero (Lubbock)
Fernando Lafuente (Austin)

Del Otro Lado is the first in a series of four visual art exhibitions that focus on cultural heritage month celebrations. Celebrating Diversity Through Art is a unique collaboration between JPMorgan Chase and Art League Houston, which highlights emerging artists representative of diverse communities.Curator Angel Quesada is an Austin-based artist who was raised along the Texas Borderlands/Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, a place rich in history and folklore. He grew up in a number of border towns, including Larado, Eagle Pass, and Del Rio. Both his parents still live and work along the border for the United States government. He attended the Massachusetts College of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he studied painting, printmaking, and interrelated media.

Quesada has had exhibitions at venues that include Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Galeria Vito Alesio Centro Corporal in Saltillo, Mexico, and the Casa De Sousa in Los Angeles. He has curated shows at Texas A & M University in Corpus Christi, and the Mexican American Cultural Center, Mexci-Arte Museum, and the International Center in Austin. His most recent curated exhibition was Enmascarados: an homage to Lucha Libra for Pump Projects Art Complex in Austin, Texas.

About Art League Houston
Art League Houston is one of Houston's longest operating non-profit visual arts organizations and was the first alternative art space in Texas. Founded in 1948 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1953, Art League Houston (ALH) was created to promote the public appreciation of and interest in the visual arts. During the past 60 years, ALH has provided over 760 exhibitions to the Houston community, showcased the work of nearly 22,200 artists, and instructed over 35,000 students through the Art League School and Outreach Program.

Art League Houston
1953 Montrose Blvd
Houston, Texas 77006
(713) 523 - 9530
alh@artleaguehouston.org

Red Hot Red Dot
Women & Their Work
September 18, 2008
Opening: September 18, 6-9pm
1710 Lavaca St.
Austin, Texas
(512) 477-1064

It's Not Easy
July 24 - August 29, 2008
Opening: Thursday July 24, 7-10pm

Exit Art
475 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
(212) 966-7745 ext. 15

It’s Not Easy is an exhibition inspired by the recent tidal wave of efforts to go “green”. Curated entirely through email submissions, this exhibition will contain image and text responses to the question: What does ‘green’ mean to you? The over 200 international works exhibited in It’s Not Easy were chosen from almost 700 submissions.

E-mail submissions will be printed on 8 ½” x 11” recycled paper and exhibited in Exit Underground. Upon the closing of the exhibition, all printed entries will be kept in Exit Art’s permanent archive where they may be exhibited again at any later date.

Lauren Rosati
Assistant Curator

Piece by Piece
KSpace Contemporary
May 16 - July 6, 2008
Opening: Friday May 16, 6-8pm
Corpus Christi, Texas
info@kspacecontemporary.org
(361) 887-6834

“Embracing Chaos” The 12th Annual Young Latino Artists (YLA) Exhibition
May 22-June 20, 2008
Opening Reception May 22nd 5pm-7pm
Weil Gallery,Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Corpus Christi, Texas The Department of Art and University Galleries presents Y.L.A. #12 (Young Latino Artists): Embracing Chaos, on display through Friday, June 20, in the Weil Gallery, Center for the Arts. The exhibit includes photography, paintings, drawings and sculpture created by six young artists from across Texas. The exhibition is free
and open to the public. For more information, call 361.825.2386.

5x7: Art Splurge and Exhibition
Arthouse Jones Contemporary Center
Invitational Group Exhibition (Traveling to Inman Gallery in Houston)
May 18 - June 1, 2008

Texas National 2008
April 5 - May 18
The Art Center @ The Old Opera House.
This annual juried competition and exhibition annually attracts entrants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It provides emerging artists an opportunity to have work juried by internationally acclaimed artists and presents new and innovative art to regional audiences.
Stephen F. Austin State University Box 13001, SFA Nacogdoches, Texas 75962-3001 (936) 468-4804

Systematic Drawings
April 17 - May 9, 2008
Reception: Thursday April 17th • 6-8pm
Mid-Valley Campus, McAllen, Texas
March 11 - April 11, 2008
Reception: Tuesday March 11th • 6-8pm
Pecan Campus, McAllen, Texas
South Texas College Library Art Gallery
libraryart@southtexascollege.edu
(956) 872-3488

“Embracing Chaos” The 12th Annual Young Latino Artists (YLA) Exhibition
September 14, 2007-February 23, 2008
Mexic-Arte Museum 419 Congress Ave.
Mexican American Cultural Center Gallery (M.A.C.C.) 600 River St., Austin, Texas

Mexic-Arte Museum presents the 12th Annual Young Latino Artists Exhibition at the Mexican American Cultural Center (M.A.C.C.). This year’s YLA #12 titled “Embracing Chaos” will open at the inauguration of the new Mexican American Cultural Center Gallery on Saturday September 15th and will be on view through February 23, 2008. YLA #12 is curated by Angel Quesada, an Austin-based artist who will present art work from six young artists. The artists in the show demonstrate a desire to continue producing art which is restless, dynamic, and relevant to the theme of the show.

Mexic-Arte Museum is dedicated to developing awareness of young Latino art and sharing its importance to our community. “The theme “Embracing Chaos” shows the behavior of chaotic systems which appear to be at random because of an exponential growth of errors in the initial conditions of the work. This early period in an artist’s career is often unrefined but not untrained, unversed but not unskilled. It is during this period where you will find young artists “Embracing Chaos” and searching for their personal style. The artists in the show will demonstrate their style related to the theme of the exhibition.”

“This exhibition attempts to reveal the ember of creativity, “Quesada said. “In my aesthetic for “Embracing Chaos” there exists an invisible line linking the act of making art with the viewer.”

Young Latino Artists whose works can be seen at the Mexican American
Cultural Center :

Gerald Lopez - Corpus Christi, TX
Jesus de la Rosa - McAllen, TX
Chuy Benitez - Houston, TX
Anna Pilhoefer - El Paso, TX
Enrique Martinez - San Antonio, TX
Lucilla Flores - Austin , TX

Curator's Note by Angel Quesada

In curating this exhibit I wanted to select artists whose aesthetic fit seamlessly into my evolving idea of chaos. I also wanted to present a pluralistic view of what it means to be a Young Latino Artist in these times. In fact, the theme evolved parallel to the process; it was the method that determined the outcome. Instead of prescribed or highly ordered system to select art, and therefore a theme, I employed a different style of arriving at the concept.Chaos informed my curatorial method, and as such informed the content of this exhibit. I once asked a Physics Engineer what he predicted as the future trend of art making? His answer was simple: "it is without a doubt going to embrace chaos." This year's exhibit called "Embracing Chaos" is about accidents and denials. I went looking for accidents, following my wants and searching for these "appropriate accidents". The only challenge was to deem which accidents were appropriate for the exhibition. Often we associate accidents as adverse, or as a disaster here to mess up some nice plans. I wished to find artists in which I could identify with something inside myself. I realized that this would mean I would have to connect with artists who are traveling in similar ways exposed to a certain quality of chaos.The content of the show features artists engaged in rule-breaking and defying the established canons of both Latino art and community. In this regard, the show is also about denial. It is a denial of the status quo and validation based on stereotypes. The artwork is set firmly in denial, never needing to play the Latino card to exert accreditation or substance. It is a denial of culture, conformity and inherits the anxiety of individualism. In this sentiment, I present a show that is at once full of conviction but is also a series of perfect accidents. A vehicle of disorder pays no mind to intelligence, strength, integrity, or good intentions

CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES
Exhibit at K Space inspires dialogue
Manner in which art is displayed is
part of art itself
May 22, 2008
By Elizabeth Reese PhD

If art exhibitions can be considered visual dialogues, then a terrific conversation is happening downtown at K Space Contemporary." Piece by Piece: Drawings by Jesus de la Rosa and Paintings by Paul Valadez" presents the work of two artists who use images to discuss personal experiences with gratification, time, identity, history and culture. Moreover, the clever presentation calls viewers not only to engage with the exchange on the walls, but also to explore the connective conversations within. Each artist plasters at least one large wall, almost floor to ceiling, side by side, piece by piece, with his works of art. The effect is stunning. Covering the gallery walls on the left are Valadez's text-based, sign-like paintings, while de la Rosa's enigmatic, mysterious drawings cover the right side. This method of presentation is considered a form of installation art where the manner in which the work is displayed is part of the work of art itself. The context in which art is experienced always affects the viewer's interpretation of the work. In "Piece by Piece," viewers can enjoy investigating the whole exhibition, one grouping of art at a time, and each work of art on its own. Delicate and demanding, de la Rosa's abstract drawings reveal a story beating the demands of the daily grind. With a work schedule that prohibits long artwork sessions, de la Rosa began to use the method seen here to create aesthetically intricate works.Though the drawings appear to be labor-intensive, de la Rosa said his process "is more accidental than automatic in nature. It also borrows heavily from print-making and the monoprint process specifically. Each piece is created in the span of one second by swatting a powdered charcoal brushed piece of canvas on the support." De la Rosa's drawings read like frames from a celestial song or dramatic ballet. Separately, the works of art suggest a mystifying, other-worldly presence. Powerful and subtle, Valadez's works use paint in layers and drips as well as words in Spanish and English to document his experiences with the comingling of cultures in America."The ideas of using classic Americana imagery with Spanish-language text reveal a deeper idea of the blend of cultures in the U.S. today," he said. These "old signage" works offer insight into Valadez's childhood in a bi-cultural (Mexican-American and Anglo) home in central California. The artist said his works also offer "social commentary on topical issues, current policies and garnished with a dash of satirical pun at life in the 21st century." To create these cropped and curious paintings, Valadez uses acrylic paint sometimes on papier mâché, recycled tin, wood, canvas and found materials. Indeed, examining the surface of the signs to examine the materials is part of the banter. Is that sawdust? Or hay? What makes it look so old and rusty? Both artists teach in McAllen at the University of Texas-Pan American.

IF YOU GO
What: “Piece by Piece: Drawings by Jesus de la Rosa and Paintings by Paul Valadez”
When: Through July 6;
Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesdays through Saturdays
Where: K Space Contemporary 415 D. Starr St.
Cost: Free Information: 361-887-6834 or www.kspacecontemporary.org
Elizabeth B. Reese, PhD, is an art and museum consultant and former visiting professor and director of university galleries at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Contact her at elizreese@gmail.com

THE MONITOR
Dark Marks
March 28, 2008, Festiva, pg 27F
by Nancy Moyer PhD

One-hundred and twenty new charcoal drawings by Jesus de la Rosa literally cover the walls of the STC Library Art Gallery downstairs. His new exhibit Systematic Drawings, presents a new drawing technique that De La Rosa feels is right for our time.

The drawings are untitled abstract images. Even so, each drawing seems to suggest a biological structure. There is a temptation to imagine x-rays of unknown creatures being seen through a special device. Or, sometimes, deep-sea creatures that have become transparent from lack of sunlight are captured on the paper surface.

“This collection was in spired as a reaction to our culture’s existent hunger for complex aesthetics and instant gratification,” said De La Rosa. “My goal was to find a method to make a unique drawing that was aesthetically intricate and seemed to be created by long, laborious and tedious hours, but took a fraction of the time to generate and that also defied a factory made appearance.”

Quite a daunting goal, but De La Rosa masterfully combined the processes of monoprinting and action painting. He dry brushes a piece of canvas with powdered charcoal, and then swats the paper surface with it. Each drawing in the exhibit was created this way. Although each drawing is unique, they all carry specific characteristics from the others due to the “system.” As a result, there is a strong visual unity from drawing to drawing. De La Rosa’s swat system produces incredibly beautiful images that belie the speed of their execution. Comprised of complex shapes and sophisticated tonal graduations, the images include integrated passages of great complexity. The drawings appear to be much more than the simple “swats” that he describes.

“When I try to organize the canvas a certain way, it never works,” explained De La Rosa. “The result actually depends on the speed and the amount of charcoal. And that’s what produced the image. And, of course, the placement. If the image is swatted twice or three times, I find that when it’s just once or twice it works really well. If I go beyond that, I cross that point where it’s not good anymore.”

Many of the drawings display a record of the loose strands of canvas as they collided with the surface of the paper. Several images also demonstrate an extended soft edge that moves out from the primary image. This could be described as a halo effect that occurred as the charcoal exploded across the paper from the impact of the canvas swat.”De La Rosa’s process represents an impacting signage that is very dynamic and active and relies a lot on happenstance and chance,” said David Freeman, STC’s Library Art Gallery Curator and Programs Coordinator. “The artist’s touch comes more from the process of the created and found mark-making than the traditional act of drawing one usually finds on a gallery wall. It Synthesizes, in a tomfoolery kind of way, the differences between traditional and progressive conceptual performance drawing.”

De La Rosa’s drawings are amazing because such a successful illusion of detail has occurred with his systematic process. There appears to have been labored traditional drawing taking place. But it was a swat – an abstract record of a violent physical action. Nor does De La Rosa go back and rework the image with erasures and dark accents. The images represent the pure record of his process: a process that is at once delicate and violent, much like our own existence.

Nancy Moyer, PhD, in an art reviewer for the monitor. She is an independent artist living in McAllen and may be reached at nmoyer@rgv.rr.com

THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE
'YLA 12: Embracing Chaos'
Mexican American Cultural Center, through Feb. 23
NOVEMBER 9, 2007: ARTS
BY SALVADOR CASTILLO

The new gallery at the Mexican American Cultural Center is very spacious with an open floor plan. The airy space offers plenty of room to roam but also leaves clear views into the other exhibit. Resisting the coherent proclamation from Carlos Rivera Pineda in "Hacia la Vida," his retrospective of portraits, you can find some engaging work by youngsters loitering around. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that my artwork was included in the previous "Young Latino Artists" exhibition.)

The works of Jesus de la Rosa, with lots of red areas on his large paintings, do the most to attract you as you enter the gallery. They are at once delicate and violent. They appear to be prints, but the impressions suggest a rag covered in charcoal was swatted onto the surface. Wisps of dust spew from the body of the mark as the creases of the fabric settle into place. After a number of visits, the pronounced red paintings reveal more personalities. Building up and damaging the painting's face make it about surface play. But that play plots a topographic map, buttressed by the titles.

Enrique Martinez creates expansive, scrolling landscapes. They evoke graffiti murals and Mad magazine illustrations as the objects, characters, and details wave back and forth. These flowing compositions come out to seduce you, pull you back into their space, and then spit you out. Thomas Hart Benton's murals are called to mind, but in book format; they tap into Mesoamerican codices. Even in the differently formatted video-game drawings, the viewer is invited then repulsed.

In Anna Pilhoefer's matronly work, you find references to sewing and storybook characters. The encaustic pieces use cute animal characters like those of Little Golden Books. Maybe they're telling a sweet story, but the surface and drawn sutures suggest something more. Shadow boxes, saints, physical surgery, and domestic mandalas make the other work more complex. Their format feels a little bit like a retread of ideas, though.

I opened up to de la Rosa the more I visited, but those same subsequent visits dissipated interest in Chuy Benitez's panoramic photographs. The individual portraits were fish-bowled diptychs of figure and environment being distorted, illustrating front and back views. Both strategies investigate some form of Mexican identity. Faced with a whole wall of similar photographs, a question arises: What are the special effects supporting or highlighting in each of these different characters?

Terms like "outsider art" and "untrained artist" can be used to promote and condemn. But I don't want to confuse anybody. Gerald Lopez uses shallow, vertical compositions, and his oil-pastel figures have a cartoon rendering. The works look like hand-painted shop signs. The prints are more successful and reveal an interest in color, but there is no doubt that all of these works participate awkwardly in the show.

Hidden in a blind spot as you enter are Lucilla Flores' etchings made with slightly different colored inks. The marks look like scratches but are actually different equestrian studies. Skeletal, muscular, and planar examinations create all-over compositions. Thoughts of Kicking Bear's Battle of Little Big Horn and Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical studies safeguard these prints.

While some of the work in "YLA 12: Embracing Chaos" is enjoyable, the show as a whole isn't impressive. The installation stutters and sputters along. I'm sure Benitez enjoys owning the middle wall, but how does segregating Flores alone by the elevator complement the work? The alternating vertical and horizontal layout also feels arbitrary. Is that where we're embracing the chaos? The works themselves feel orderly. Curator Angel Quesada was charged with presenting these artists but seems to show little concern for their art by cramming into the space as much of it as possible. I've said it before: Curators are like editors, and sometimes they need to omit pieces and trust in the power of the artist's work.

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Tradition rubs elbows with today's vibe in the two inaugural
exhibits at the new Mexican American Cultural Center.
First exhibitions at the Mexican American Cultural Center
Two exhibits show past and present of Latino arts.
By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Thursday, October 04, 2007

On one side of the new 5,000-square-foot second-floor gallery is "Hacia La Vida (Toward Life)," a retrospective exhibit featuring portraits by artist and arts administrator Carlos Rivera Pineda. Occupying the other is "Embracing Chaos: The 12th Annual Young Latino Artists Exhibition," featuring the work of a half dozen emerging Latino artists from across Texas.

"Hacia La Vida" is honorific and personal. "Embracing Chaos" is experimental and frisky. And together, they suggest much about the trajectory of Latino art over the past several decades.

The longtime administrator of the city's Dougherty Arts Center, Pineda was among those Latino arts professionals who years ago championed the idea of a city center specifically devoted to Latino culture. (The opening of the $16 million MACC in September culminated an effort that lasted about 30 years.) And as an arts educator, Pineda created the city's "Totally Cool, Totally Art" program that employs artists to teach schoolchildren. "A true artist is not an elevated, outside member of the community," Pineda proclaims in his artist statement that hangs on the gleaming white wall of the bright, sun-flooded MACC gallery. "A true artist functions as part of the community."

Pineda put that philosophy to action personally by painting vivid portraits. Musicians Ruben Ramos and Roy Montelongo, artist and activist Marsha Gomez and members of Pineda's family are among those he has lovingly rendered as a token of his appreciation and respect for their lives.

The six artists in "Embracing Chaos" clearly have different motivations behind their art. Adapting to the frenzy of our cyber-fast world, understanding the flurry of images that comes our way, negotiating the line between pop culture and high culture — these are the concerns of Chuy Benitez, Lucilla Flores, Gerald Lopez, Enrique Martinez, Anna Pilhoefer and Jesus de la Rosa.

In fact "Embracing Chaos" seems to celebrate an aesthetic of messiness. De la Rosa creates frenzied abstract paintings made three-dimensional with obsessively layered paint that the artist has shaped, scraped away, built up or even bored holes into with a power drill. Pilhoefer riffs on traditional women's handicrafts, mixing embroidered images straight from craft store patterns with splashes of spray paint. And in complex textured prints, Flores layers cartoonish, storybook-like images of horses with rough, linear scribbles. A pop culture cave painting? Perhaps.

As with the other young artists in "Embracing Chaos," Flores wrestles with the world using very different strategies than artists who came before her.

jvanryzin@statesman.com