La Mano Press
An artist-run printmaking collective reopens in downtown L.A.
Author of this post: Katherine Feo | About Blog Authors
An exhibition of work by Artemio Rodríguez. Featuring prints, illustrated books, skateboard decks, short animated films
Last Friday, I attended the grand re-opening of La Mano Press, an artist-run printmaking collective in the arts district of downtown Los Angeles. The night featured the travelling print exhibition, ‘Graphic Reality: Mexican Printmaking Today,’ curated by La Mano frontman Artemio Rodriguez, as well as a selection of prints, illustrations, skateboard decks and short films by Rodriguez himself collected under the name ‘Print Bites.’ Best of all was the unveiling of the customized 1968 Impala dubbed ‘Muerto Rider,’ emblazoned with black and white woodcut-style graphics and the bearing the rallying cry ‘We are the defenders of the Cheeseburger’ along the side door.
Muerto Rider Translation: Dead Rider. A customized 1968 Impala
‘Graphic Reality’ debuted at the International Print Center New York’s (IPCNY) gallery space in Chelsea last November. Rodriguez claims that the criteria for artist participation were both medium-all of the artists are primarily printmakers, not conceptual artists dabbling in the method-and age. Bringing together a relatively young group of artists (born between 1962 and 1981) gives the collected work a fresh, unified generational context, while also setting into relief the anachronism of young artists deliberately choosing to produce work in such highly traditional methods. For example, LA native Rogelio Gutierrez, the youngest exhibitor, creates litho portraits with stone instead of metal whenever possible. Jiving with the intentions of a studio dedicated to spreading awareness of traditional printmaking, the exhibition focused on themes of continuity and historical awareness through method, despite the highly varied personal inquiries of each piece of work.
The overall quality of the show was commanding-maybe it was the collected energy of so many young artists hanging out at home base, or the essentially cool combination of a customized lowrider and boxed wine, but almost every print in the space was visually arresting last Friday night. My personal favourites included: Painter Demian Flores’ wall of fluid screenprints depicting subtle, grotesque hybrid figures drawn from images of Americana baseball players and Mexican stereotypes; Marcelo Balzaretti’s hypnotic stop action video of a photogravure sheep exposing varying degrees of its delicately dry pointed intestinal tract; Jose Hugo Sanchez’ raw, humanistic litho sketches layered atop re-used parchment from a Nahuatl-to-Spanish lesson book, complete with indigenous pictographs and translations; Veronica Gomez’ expressive, abstract, and beautifully charged chemical etching, ‘El viento o la cruz,’ (The wind or the cross).
Love Life. Day of the Dead Image by Artemio Rodríguez
Displayed on the other side of the studio, Rodriguez’ own work displayed the idiom of Mexican woodcuts in the tradition of revolutionary image maker Jose Guadalupe Posado, along with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) imagery to make pointed, and often humorous statements about contemporary American society, both on the border and beyond. In an interview with the IPCNY, Rodriguez warns against the very common assumption that art from the third world must be necessarily political-as if art about love, work, boredom and irony don’t exist outside America. In this exhibition, Rodriguez covers all his bases, from a woodcut of Uncle Sam being eaten by reptilian versions of the seven deadly sins, to a deck from his Puro Gallo skateboard line illustrated with a vision of the Virgin Guadalupe issuing the midnight commandment, ‘Go Skate’ to a young believer. Outside this exhibition, his work covers the usable surfaces of everyday objects such as surfboards, decks, apparel, cars, books, and, of course, limited edition prints.
American Dream. A collection of the prints, book illustrations and drawings of acclaimed Mexican printmaker Artemio Rodríguez.
In addition to hosting printmaking workshops, La Mano has also released several publications, including a collection of work by Rodriguez, American Dream, a compilation of new Dia de los Muertos imagery, Puro Muerto, and a monograph on the legendary Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada. Go for a workshop, read their books, or just check them out here at: http://www.lamanopress.com/aboutus.htm
Exhibition runs to July 14.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.