On Friday, Feb. 12 from 12pm-7pm, Florida Atlantic University galleries hosted their open house and officially reopened their exhibits to the public. The galleries are showcasing two concurrent printmaking exhibitions, “Expanding Printmaking: South Florida Artist Run Presses,” and “Corridos Visuales: Tradition and Innovation in LatinX Printmaking.” 

In order to ensure proper COVID-19 safety measures, each person attending the open house created a reservation prior to their arrival. The gallery is limited to 10 guests at a time.

CORRIDOS VISUALES:Tradition & Innovation in LatinX Printmaking

This exhibit will be available to visit between Feb. 12 – April 10, 2021 at the Schmidt Center Gallery at the Boca Raton Campus. The guest curator is Assistant Professor of Art at FAU, Joseph Velasquez, focused on printmaking.

“Corridos Visuales: Traditions & Innovation in LatinX Printmaking” in the Schmidt Gallery features ten LatinX artist printmakers. According to the galleries’ press release, “works in the exhibition share common passions and expressions made tangible through diverse, innovative use of printmaking processes, wide ranging narrative voices, and bountiful Latin identity expressions.” 

The exhibition presents prints and printmaking works by artists who currently live and work in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas, California, New York and Colorado. The participating artist printmakers include Virginia Diaz Saiki (Peru – Colorado), Martin Garcia-Rivera (Puerto Rico), Leticia Gomez (Texas), and many more.

EXPANDING PRINTMAKING:South Florida Artist-Run Presses

This exhibit will be available until March 6, 2021 at the Ritter Art Gallery, Boca Raton campus. The Guest Curator is Professor of Art at FAU, Carol Prusa, focused on painting. 

This exhibition presents more than 20 artists produced at six different printmaking studios as it celebrates the vibrant range of art being made through artist-run presses. “Expanding Printmaking” will present a spectrum of contemporary prints and artist books. According to galleries’ press release, the art works, “use traditional techniques and processes as well as more contemporary strategies that stretch our ideas about printmaking and artist’s books.”

The artist printmakers presented in “Expanding Printmaking” vary from smaller one person operations like Kim Spivey’s Ground Printmaking which specializes in the use of nontoxic inks and solvents and Tom Virgin’s Extra Virgin Press which is committed to artists books and letterpress that employs historical wood and metal type. 

The exhibitions and open house are free and open to the public. FAU requires that visitors to campus wear face coverings at all times and physical distancing must be observed.

FAU’s University Galleries are open Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. and

Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information you can call 561-297-2661, email [email protected], or visit their website. 

Elizabeth Insuasti is a Contributing Writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, contact her at [email protected]