The word ‘Chicano(a)’ was first used as a derogatory term used towards lower income Mexicans living in the United States. Though originally used as a classist and racist slur, by the 1940’s, Chicano was being reclaimed as a term of pride by Mexican Americans who have a non-Anglo self-image. The title of this exhibit, Borderline: Chicano Voices Speak, was intentionally chosen to engage those very discussions – racism, division, identity and cultural pride.

Borderline: Chicano Voices Speak will feature the voices of Mexican, Mexican-American, and Latino(a) artists whose work also expresses the immigrant experience. The word “borderline” also relates to multiple aspects of this exhibit – a physical division of countries, a social separation of cultural groups, and a psychic division of identities producing the ‘othering’ of people.

This exhibit will feature Juan Fuentes, Carlos Barberena, Celeste de Luna, J. Leigh Garcia, Frank Estrada, Diego Marical Rios, Eugene Rodriguez, Fernando Marti, and Raoul Deal.
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Hours: Tuesday-Friday 9am-5pm; Saturday 10am-5 pm
Admission: $5 for adults, $3 for students, Free for TVAA members

This centennial exhibition celebrates the legacy of Carlos Cortéz Koyokuikatl (1923-2005), one of Chicago’s most important social justice artists working in the 20th century. Often a poet, often a printmaker, but always an activist, Cortéz’s life’s work uplifted the working class, marginalized communities, and social struggles by depicting scenes of labor disputes, protests, and ignored historical events and individuals.  
Carlos Cortéz, an artist, poet, labor journalist, citizen activist, conscientious objector and Elder in his community, would have been 100-years-old in August 2023. He continues to hold an exceptionally dear place in the hearts of many artists and organizers, and in the history of the National Museum of Mexican Art. Cortéz used his printing press, Gato Negro, as a means to communicate messages of justice, activism, and solidarity, while his poetry repeatedly aimed to raise awareness, provoke thought, and inspire action regarding issues of inequality and oppression.

The National Museum of Mexican Art is honored to be the steward of the Carlos Cortéz Archives.
Curated by Cesáreo Moreno

Participating Artists
Jesús Acuña, Saúl Aguirre, Atlan Arceo-Witzl, Rene H. Arceo, Carlos Barberena, Arturo Barrera, Margaret T. Burroughs (1915-2010), Carlos Cortéz (1923-2005), Nicolás De Jesús, Héctor Duarte, Mark Ernst, Eric J. García, Eric Gasca, José Luis Gutiérrez, Salvador Jiménez -Flores, Sam Kirk, Edgar López, Faheem Majeed, Cynthia Marris, Nicole Marroquin, Alfredo Martínez Galván, Oscar Moya, Mark Nelson, Antonio Pazarán, Zeke Peña, John Pitman Weber, Eufemio Pulido, Elvia Rodríguez, Favianna Rodríguez, Anna Marie Sánchez Varela, Janet Schill, CHema Skandal!, Diana Solís, Maria Cristina Tavera, Benjamín P. Varela, Salvador Vega, Roman Villarreal, Mirtez Zwierzynski
Photographers
José “Fugi” Almanza, Sandra Cisneros, Alex “Sunheart” Galindo, J. Gómez, Allan Lee Koss, Mimi Rivera, Jeffry D. Scott, Gordon Wagner.

La Biennale internationale d’estampe contemporaine de Trois-Rivières (BIECTR) tient à féliciter tous les récipiendaires des prix décernés aux artistes pour la qualité de leurs œuvres et leur démarche lors de la cérémonie d’ouverture de sa 13e édition le 17 juin 2023.
Les récipiendaires :

• Grand prix de la 13e BIECTR : Cassandre Boucher – Canada (Québec)
• 2e prix de la 13e BIECTR : Carlos Barberena – Nicaragua / États-Unis
• Prix Télé-Québec : Hélène Latulippe – Canada (Québec)
• Prix Loto-Québec artiste émergent du Québec : Cathy Bélanger – Canada (Québec)
• Prix UQTR artiste de la relève du Québec : Michelle LaSalle – Canada (Québec)
• Prix Invitation Presse Papier : Ariane Fruit – France

Mentions honorables :

• Olesya Dzhurayeva – Ukraine
• Cynthia Back – Portugal
• Carmen Isasi – Espagne

Source : BIECTR

Barberena Statement
"I create to counteract great silences, demystifying “foreign” experience, bridging the distances and bringing awareness to the ways our lives are intimately connected through the lens of justice. Closest to me are ways migrants’ humanity—our memories, attachments, relationships and traumas— is swept aside leaving visible only our work value. In these prints, I honor the farmworkers, most undocumented, whom the US population & Federal government labeled “Essential” in the context of COVID, a so-called honor for their centrality to the food system, while doing little to alleviate their lack of basic rights and vulnerability to exploitation and imminent deportation".

In these times of unprecedented information consumption, it’s easy to lose sight of our humanity.

Too often, critical discourse in our communities about how we treat each other gets swept up in whatever “hot button” topic is overwhelming our daily lives. We then lose the ability to see, think and listen clearly. It’s as if all the “informational noise” in the world takes away our ability to empathize with one another.

Art, in all its forms, can offer mental and emotional space so people can digest and think about what the artist is working to relate — perhaps simply because of the physical presence of the artwork in a space.  A person who has chosen to engage with an exhibition has the opportunity to contemplate beyond what we all get to see on our myriad screens.

The “Mark of Empowerment”exhibition has been presented as part of the 2022 Mid America Print Council Biennial Conference “Power of Print” hosted in mid-October by the Kent State University School of Art in partnership with the University of Akron, Cleveland Institute of Art, Zygote Press and The Morgan Conservatory.

Curated by Roberto Torres Mata, this exhibition “reflects on how printmaking takes action to speak out with activism. The work challenges racism, sexism, environmental injustice, social inequalities, infringement upon civil rights, and colonialism.”
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The strength of the exhibition is in the beauty and skill of the artwork, along with the subjects of the artists. The Emily Davis Gallery at the University of Akron is full of expressive, colorful, deeply important and thoughtful works that can quite simply take your breath away as you walk through the galleries.

“Burnt Water, A Prophetic History of California” by Los Angeles-based artist Israel Campos is certainly one of the standout works in the exhibit.

Presented like a Mayan codex, the work is full of brightly colored illustrations that also pay homage to the Maya in the illustrative style of the artist and in how the work folds out like an accordion.

While it’s not necessarily easy to understand all that is being told in the piece, the fact that we are looking at a detailed work made to look like a Mayan codex is an active commentary in itself, because very little of the Mayan language survived as the Spanish burned the majority of their writing. 
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In “Burnt Water,” Campos utilizes earth tone colors in the background of all the images, contrasting with bright colors for most of the subjects depicted in the overall story to help make the imagery stand out.
The artist's style helps to pull your eye through the length of the piece and keeps you engaged and wanting to look at it more.

“Survivance Series 11 and 12” are two haunting works by artist Monty Little. Little is Diné (Navajo) and from Tuba City, Arizona. He is also a former U.S. Marine.

In these prints, a central image has been obscured by overlaid images of water and black crosses or plus signs that are repeated throughout both works. There are cultural references here, as the cross pattern is a traditional Navajo pattern and water plays a significant role in Navajo culture.
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Little’s work relates what feels like deeply personal experiences. The obstructed view of each subject gives a sense of a cloudy history or even an erased history. It’s as if the artist is trying to help us see but can’t bring things into complete focus because it is no longer possible.

A series of four dynamic chine-collé etchings by Dakota Mace titled “The Way Things Are” helps bring voice to the artist's subject. Each etching features the same image of an elderly person sitting in front of a wall with text written on it. The work on the far left is as detailed as a photograph. As you move from left to right, each portrait becomes less detailed though the writing remains legible. 
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These works are offset by a wall that is painted orange. This may seem like a trivial addition, however, it helps pull your attention to the work and around the part of the gallery the work is exhibited in.

Some of the most powerful pieces in this exhibit are a series of prints on handmade bags by artist Carlos Barberena. 

“No Human is Illegal,” features an image of a migrant worker carrying potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket. The image has a patterned background and is surrounded in a rococo-style frame with the title of the work written on a scroll going across the bottom. The entire composition is on what looks like a shopping bag.

This is a fairly obvious commentary about capitalism, wealth and the ways in which we maintain our economy, and our politics. An illustrated image like this challenges our notion of who these workers are and helps humanize the subject. 

​“Mark of Empowerment” does more than give visitors a “moment” to ponder reality through what might be an unfamiliar lens. It also gives a voice to people who are too often drowned out through our more conventional means of obtaining information.
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The importance of visual arts' ability to communicate and as at the curator states “challenge the status quo, preventing inequities in systems and rejecting establishments,” in exhibitions like this one cannot be overstated.

Exhibit: Mark of Empowerment
Where: Emily Davis Gallery, University of Akron
When: Through Dec. 20
Hours: Monday–Friday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
More information: 330-972-6030 or uakron.edu/art/galleries

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 5:00PM - ​
BRADBURY ART MUSEUM, ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY, JONESBORO, AR
​Open to Public: FEBRUARY 17 - MARCH 30, 2022

Founded in 1996 by Evan Lindquist, the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition has received great acclaim as it has grown to be one of the country’s foremost annual competitions for prints.

The Delta National Small Prints Exhibition was created with students in mind. It is meant to be a resource for printmaking students and instructors to view and assess contemporary standards of printmaking as they develop over time. This creates an environment for learning opportunities and creative thinking, promoting new ideas which stretch the limits of the medium. In addition, it is an outreach program which serves as a resource for the region, bringing attention to printmaking as a medium but also sharing the variety of stories told by each individual piece.

There are few restrictions to the eligibility of this renowned print competition. Photographs are allowed in addition to prints as a means of giving the image priority over the technique. Unusual approaches are encouraged - unique impressions and digital imagery that are historically excluded from print exhibitions. This allows and encourages artists to push the limits of printmaking and creatively express themselves in new and revolutionary ways.

The range of images shown in DNSPE represents the spectrum of contemporary printmaking. Many artists work with traditional materials that require meticulous precision such as wood and metal engravings. On the opposite side of the print spectrum, the digital and technological influence of photographic processes and digitized images presents itself more each year.

Each year, a juror reviews all submissions and selects which ones will be exhibited. The juror for DNSPE 2022 will be Miranda Metcalf, the founder and host of Hello, Print Friend – a contemporary printmaking podcast. With an archive of over 100 episodes with artists and print advocates from over 20 countries on 6 continents, Hello, Print Friend is the most extensive archive of interviews from the print world on the internet. Miranda planted the seeds for her love of printmaking with five years as director of Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Washington, before moving to Sydney, Australia, and working with Cicada Press.

All jurors seem to agree on one fact, that the selection process is very difficult. Looking at hundreds of prints and narrowing the selection down to 55-60 in a few days is no subtle undertaking. Jurors continuously comment on the wide variety of techniques and imagery from both emerging and established artists who create an overview of what is happening technically and conceptually across the nation.

The original concept of DNSPE was developed around a dream to make Jonesboro, Arkansas an epicenter for art and culture. This has proven true in the growth of our significant collection of contemporary prints from around the world. As part of the exhibition, BAM strives to give back to the artists who contribute to this exemplary exhibition by purchasing a large portion of the show to add to their permanent collection, but it would not be possible without the support of the amazing group of community members who provide purchase prizes and exhibition support each year.
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Viewing hours are Tue-Sat 12PM-5PM. For more information about Bradbury Art Museum or to learn how you can support future exhibitions, please call (870) 972-3687.