Prints have to be seen! By the easiest means possible...
Imagine if a print studio in El Paso sent just five small prints across the border and challenged the print posse in Ciudad Juarez to a reciprocal exhibition. The Mexican artists could generate five prints of their own and show all the prints in their art panaderia. Ten choice prints is a good exhibition, and very manageable.
Then Juarez could send those prints across the border and the El Paso printmakers could exhibit those same ten prints in a pop-up show in their studio one evening. That way the artwork would enjoy double exposure with TWO exhibitions.
Someone could also challenge San Antonio to reciprocal pop-up exhibitions by thinking small -- in 8 x 8 inches (paper size). El Paso could throw the gauntlet by ordering 12 cheap 8 x 8 inch frames from Amazon for the San Antonio printmakers, then send five of their prints in the mail. Again, San Antonio would answer with five of their print masterpieces and put on a pop-up print show(s) of ten great prints.
San Antonio would keep the cheap frames (even reuse them for another show), but mail five of their prints to far west Texas -- for another fine pop-up show of the same ten prints in El Paso.
Likewise El Paso could challenge New Mexico, Los Angeles, Miami, Guadalajara, Oaxaca and even Australia, to reciprocal pop-up exhibitions. Long distance print shows would provoke dialogue by exchanging styles and content -- whereas it would be too expensive to provoke that discussion by sending paintings or sculpture around the planet. If one has something to say, 8 x 8 inches is enough, and prints travel nicely in the regular mail.
The key is not to burden home team. Small prints fit nicely in an envelope and are cheap to send in the mail. Ten prints can be framed easily in a half hour with the "front-loading" frames. The whole framed exhibition fits in a small plastic box, which can be easily carried around and put up spontaneously in small venues.
Small venues are easier to get, so the home team could even have a few pop-up shows. They might taxi the print show on other events, like house concerts. Or they could exhibit the ten prints in a local coffee house. In contrast, it's been a little more difficult exhibiting all 158 prints of the Ambos Lados print exchange (though very rewarding when we do).
NOTE: This is not a print exchange. To participate artists need to just submit ONE 8 x 8 inch print, which can be from other shows or projects.
STEAL THIS IDEA! There is nothing original about this proposal. We encourage any printmakers to challenge any other printmaker communities. Prints need to be seen!!!
After all, the press is just the womb -- as the print only comes to life when exposed to the public.
SALES
The guest prints would not be for sale. However the home team can sell all of their print that they want. They can even augment the pop-up exhibition with other prints, bigger prints, and sell those as well. However (in many cases) they would have to send back the visiting studio's prints, as some of them might be one-of-a-kind.
The visiting studio however could sell directly through Etsy or even Instagram. It's just too hard for the home studio to coordinate sales as well, unless it is of their own prints.
Self-Publish
Also it would be possible to self-publish a catalog (like Ambos Lados) of the collection of pop-up shows, in addition to showing the prints on Instagram and in a blog. This is the 21st Century.
Augmenting
One could also augment the pop-up with spontaneous carving and/or printing workshops:
And prints could be created right away, with a barren, or even on a Tortilla Press (pioneered by Los Tres Gatos of Guadalajara):
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