Ambos Lados International Print Exchange: Ambos Lados Talk in Taos

Manuel Guerra warming up onstage
for the Ambos Lados talk and slideshow

This was the talk that Manuel Guerra and Karl Whitaker gave for the Ambos Lados International Print Exchange exhibition in Taos, on Saturday, January 18, 2020, in the auditorium of the Taos Association for the Arts, from 3 - 4 PM. The talk was entitled "Prints Travel Easily and Start Dialog (Our Experience in Mexico)."

This talk followed the auditorium talk by David Farmer "Printing the Future: Graphic Arts in Oaxaca."

The images and context of the talk can be seen in the five web pages below:

MAIN INDEX

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

The Ambos Lados International Print Exchange consists of 158 prints, roughly divided in half between Mexico and the United States, with 6 prints from other countries (2 from Australia, 2 from Cuba, one from Canada and one from Ireland). "Ambos Lados" means "Both Sides," referring to both sides of the border.

It was an open call with an open theme, no submissions were turned away. The artists created editions of 12 prints, in 8 x 8 inch format, and received 10 prints back, by different participating artists.

Part 1

The Organizers
Horned Toad Prints
Taller Grafica Libre
Taller Sin Miedo
Previous Print Exchanges
First Print Exchanges Combine
First Trip to Oaxaca

Part 2

Desert Triangle Print Carpeta
The Second Horned Toad Print Exchange
Mexican Print Shows
It Begins!

Part 3

Exhibitions
Dallas Exhibition
Santa Fe
Southwest Print Fiesta 2019
Mexican Adventure
Guadalajara

Part 4

Uruapan, Michoacan
Mexico City
Puebla

Part 5

Oaxaca
Presentation at the IAGO
The Other Exhibition
The Streets of Oaxaca
More Photos
En Fin

Prints Travel Easily

Prints travel easily. We can now send a box of prints in the mail to have an exhibition in the next city, or with FedEx and DHL, to have an exhibition anywhere else on the globe. We can even drive framed prints to exhibitions across the Southwest. We cannot afford to do this with sculpture, or even paintings. Therefore prints are best suited to have exhibitions in far away places, and to perpetuate artistic dialog around the world. The Ambos Lados International Print Exchange, and our previous print projects, has attempted to do exactly this, most specifically in Mexico, with the fabulous talent in that country. And El Paso is the ideal place to travel prints, as that city is located right on the Mexican border, across from Ciudad Juarez.

Zip file of photos

Exe file of slide show (Windows)

AFTER THE TALK

We visited the frescoes in the old Taos County Courthouse. Emil Bisttram had studied fresco painting with the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and took that knowledge back to the Taos artists to paint a series of frescoes in the 1930s. Thus the Mexico/Taos connection goes way further back than Ambos Lados.