Los Angeles, CA (August 9, 2017) – In participation with the Getty Foundation’s 2017 Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Mixografia is pleased to present From Mexico City to LA: A Visual History of Graphic Art. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, September 16th, 2017, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm at Mixografia Workshop, 1419 East Adams Boulevard. The exhibition will commence with a conversation by Lynn Boland, who formerly curated Paper in Profile: Mixografia and Taller de Grafica Mexicana and currently director and chief curator at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art. The conversation will begin at 4:00 pm at Mixografia followed by the opening reception.
From Mexico City to LA: A Visual History of Graphic Art traces the history of printmaking in Mexico throughout the twentieth century, and explores the ongoing conversation between Mexican printmaking and contemporary graphic art in Latin America and Southern California. The exhibition guides viewers through a lineage of artworks published by Taller de Gráfica Popular and Taller de Gráfica Mexicana in Mexico City, and Mixografia in Los Angeles, spanning throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
Presented in Mixografia’s gallery space in Downtown Los Angeles, the exhibition will feature early artworks by Jose Guadalupe Posada, and prints from Taller de Gráfica Popular by Leopoldo Méndez and Pablo O’Higgins that express the populist and revolutionary roots of graphic arts in Mexico. The exhibition will present these works in a historical progression, exploring the relationship between Taller de Gráfica Mexicana and Rufino Tamayo, one of Mexico’s preeminent artists, and Tamayo’s role in the early days of the Mixografia technique.
Working with Tamayo to produce prints with relief and surface detail, Mixografia developed a method of producing prints that allowed artists the freedom to use any combination of solid materials in their creations.
Following Mixografia’s move to Los Angeles in the 1980’s, the exhibition traces the legacy of Mexican printmaking in contemporary art through the Workshop’s collaborations with a variety of Latin American artists including Abraham Cruzvillegas, Darío Escobar, Pedro Friedeberg, Kcho, Analia Saban and Fernando de Szyszlo. Finally, the exhibition will examine the dialogue between the traditions of Mexican graphic art and the practices of Los Angeles-based artists, including John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha.
These works will remain on view through October 21st, 2017.
Featured Images:
Top
Leopoldo Mendez, Homenaje a Posada, 1953. Linoleum cut on Arches paper. 19 X 35 inches
Middle
Rufino Tamayo. Sandias, 1980, Mixografía® print on handmade paper. Edition of 100. 30 X 40 inches
Bottom
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Ichárhuta, 2017, Mixografia® print on handmade paper and archival pigment print. Edition of 49. 13.5 x 7 inches