Saturday, September 5, 2020

Albuquerque Ambos Printmakers Steamrolling out of a Covid Summer

Two Ambos Lados printmakers in Albuquerque -- Mike Kimball and Henry Morales -- tried to steamroll out of the Covid pandemic.


Steamroller printing in Albuquerque, New Mexico
(during the Zozobra broadcast)


The Albuquerque steamroller printing event kicked off the Labor Day weekend, on Friday, September 4, 2020, at the Isleta Amphitheater.  The main attraction was the annual burning of Zozobra in Santa Fe, which was projected on the big screen later that night.  Visitors watched the broadcasted burning while tailgating in the parking lot, still observing social distancing restrictions against Covid 19.  New Mexico Zozobra predated Burning Man by decades!







Henry Morales had previously contributed to the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta; and Mike Kimball is listed on the Placitas Artists, Mesa Artists, and Mission Artists websites, covering three border states.


The Dynamic Steamroller Printer duo
straight outta Ambos Lados --



The steamroller event was directed by
(Lincoln Draper taking photos, left,
is one of the 4 co-owners of Remarque)


Jessica Krichels, one of the 4 co-owners of Remarque Print Workshop,
gives an interview with KOB TV


NOTE:  Jessica Weybright of Ambos Lados is also one of the 4 co-owners of Remarque Print Workshop.  She and Mary Sundstrom (also co-owner)  stayed back at the printmaking studio to hold a virtual printmaking opening on Zoom, going on at the same time.


The true heroes, 
and Anthony Stewart (r) did all the hard work


Kent Swanson
Public Art Coordinator for Bernalillo County
organized the event


Mike Kimball stands in front 
of his steamroller print of a classic car


Mike Kimball stands in front
of his other print of the Rail Runner trains



Henry Morales stands in front of his steamroller print 
of the Sandia Mountains (right)
(the Sandia Mountains approve in the background)


Henry Morales' second print,
of corn stalk










Zooming photo tries to capture the spirit of the event


the view from the printmaking tent



Sunset in Albuquerque
on a successful Steamroller Printing event




MORE  STEAMY PHOTOS!

The first two links show more pictures of the event (including most of the pictures above).






HENRY MORALES
Carving his big Sandia Mountains print

I took pictures of Henry Morales carving out his large steamroller woodcut on September 1, 2020, just days before the big event on September 4th. 





***

P R E V I O U S
 STEAMROLLER PRINTING EVENTS


MIKE KIMBALL

This was not Mike Kimball's first steamroller printing rodeo.  He also made big steamroller prints during the Southwest Print Fiestas down in Silver City, New Mexico --  in both 2017 and 2018. He has also steamroller printed in Oklahoma City.







SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA
Steamroller printing in 2019

If this year's Albuquerque steamroller printing event was not inspired by the 2019 Southwest Print Fiesta in Silver City, the video footage of Sarah Parker's steamroller print below helped guide the event somewhat.





CHALK THE BLOCK 2014
El Paso

Steamroller printing has been on our radar since 2014, when Kim Bishop and Luis Valderas of San Antonio, directed a steamroller printing activity in downtown El Paso during the Chalk the Block festival.  Francisco Delgado of Ambos Lados participated in that event. 



SAN ANTONIO EXHIBITION
of Steamroller Prints in 2015

The steamroller prints made in El Paso in 2014 were exhibited in downtown San Antonio at the Texas A&M University-San Antonio Educational and Cultural Arts Center (ECAC) (formerly the ex-Museo Alameda), along with another set of prints done in San Antonio.  That's high status!




HOUSTON 2015
It Came from the Bayou

Outlaw printmaker Carlos Hernandez and crew have been steamroller printing for years in Houston, during the annual  "It Came from the Bayou" printmaking event at St Arnold Brewery.




Surreal Covid Summer
in Albuquerque

Later on that same night, September 4th, they continued the monthly Albuquerque Artwalk downtown. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham had just lifted some of the Covid restrictions a week before, allowing restaurants to open at 25% capacity. There was a lot of activity around 9 PM downtown, people were probably just dying to get out of the house after months of hard lockdown.



During the September Albuquerque Artwalk, Malcolm King (of Ambos Lados) and company put out their first Zine from the 111 Media Arts Collective (the Infame Zine comes out of Guadalajara,
made by other Ambos printmakers)


Zine #1
by Malcolm King and company




APOLOGY:  Your blogger lives in Albuquerque, and does not always know about the progress of other Ambos Lados printmakers in the rest of the US, Mexico, and overseas.  However, he is sure that the other Ambos Lados printmakers are stirring it up around the world.

Friday, August 7, 2020

Printmaking in a Covid Summer

The whole world has been on lockdown since March or earlier, because of the Covid 19 pandemic, slowing down artists along with everyone else.  However some of our Ambos Lados printmakers are marching on through the summer, surely a lot more than I'm writing about here.


3 GATOS PRESS and
HORNED TOAD PRINTS




Tres Gatos Press in Guadalajara hosted a live printmaking demo with Horned Toad Prints in El Paso on Friday, July 24, 2020.  The action took place in both Guadalajara, Mexico and El Paso, Texas on Instagram.  


Tres Gatos Press above,
and Horned Toad Prints below,
after a silk screening demo on Instagram






The whole demo can be seen in two parts on Tres Gatos Press Instagram account:




Exactly one year prior Manuel Guerra of Horned Toad Prints met Tres Gatos Press in Guadalajara, and a couple of days later they were making prints on the streets of Tlaquepaque with a tortilla press!




Tres Gatos Press has been hosting a lot of other printmakers on live Instagram, such as this demo with the Amazing Hancock Brothers in Austin, Texas on the 4th of July!




INFAME ZINE

Tres Gatos Press also puts out INFAME ZINE from Guadalajara.  Your blogger, Karl Whitaker, is featured in the latest zine, #13.




MARCO SANCHEZ

Marco Sanchez was also making tortilla prints last summer with Tres Gatos Press and Manuel Guerra in Guadalajara.  This summer he had a residency at Zygote Press in Cleveland, Ohio, from July 8th - 22nd, 2020.




J LEIGH GARCIA






PAVEL ACEVEDO

In May 2020, Pavel Acevedo was interviewed by Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles, during the Covid lockdown (also featured was New Mexico's Nani Chacon, of the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta).



ORLANDO ALMANZA

During the Covid lockdown we heard from Orlando Almanza in Havana, Cuba.



SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA
Silver City, New Mexico


The Southwest Print Fiesta is also trying to reach into the printmaker future, and had contacted us.  Due to Covid, there will be no physical event like in the past, however they are hosting a print exchange (details coming August 11th), and Karen Hymer put out a call-to-printmakers, women of color, for an affiliated exhibition -- Facing Forward (September 6, submission deadline).



The Southwest Print Fiesta is also changing organizers -- to Jamie Karolich and Kyle Durrie of Power Light and Press.  Below is the first paragraph of an email I received:

Hello Print Fiesta family!

We wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves as the new organizers of the Southwest Print Fiesta. We - Jamie Karolich and Kyle Durrie - are both printmakers and coworkers at Power and Light Press, a letterpress print shop based in Silver City, NM. While we have helped with aspects of the Print Fiesta over the past 4 years, the festival was founded and organized by the Mimbres Region Arts Council and we owe a debt of gratitude to them for getting this wonderful event off the ground. We are honored to take the event over and, even in these uncertain times we are looking forward to coming back together with you all in the future to celebrate the thing that we all share in common - a love of print!




HORNED TOAD II
PRINT EXCHANGE

Currently a previous print exchange -- the Horned Toad II Print Exchange -- is hanging in the New Mexico Cancer Center, as part of a greater exhibition, June 2 -- August 19, 2020.




We did not have an opening because of the pandemic.  A closing reception was planned on August 2nd, but that was cancelled also due to Covid 19 concerns.

Invitation for the closing reception
which did not happen


Back of the invitation for the closing reception
which did not happen


 Originally the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta was suppose to hang for this exhibition, however as the prints were in El Paso, pandemic uncertainties prevented us from transporting that collection, and thus the Horned Toad II Print Exchange was shown in its place.  Considering that the Horned Toad II prints had not yet been exhibited in Albuquerque, it all worked out for the best.



REMARQUE PRINT WORKSHOP

Jessica Weybright is one of the 4 owners of Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque.  They have an international exhibition up right now called -- Punching Marshmallows -- which includes Karen Hymer. The title reflects our current frustrations in the current pandemic, getting nowhere no matter how hard we punch. I know that I feel a little numb.


in the "Punching Marshmallows" exhibition
at Remarque Print Workshop


TORU SUGITA
14th Annual California Centered: Printmaking Exhibition

Toru Sugita has contributed to this year's 14th Annual California Centered: Printmaking Exhibition, which one can view in a virtual gallery online.  Last year his print was one of the 'best-in-show" prints.




UPDATES BELOW (September 5, 2020):

MARCUS ROBIASON

Marcus Robiason has gone into a manic printmaking phase down in Tucson, Arizona.



TALLER GRAFICA LIBRE
Of Oaxaca

Taller Grafica Libre of Zaachila, Oaxaca co-organized Ambos Lados, and put out a call-to-printmakers in Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico.  Taller Grafica Libre consists of Beatriz Rivas and Adrian Aguirre.  This is for the -- 1 Era Edicion MiniPrint exhibition.

Beatriz writes:
...estamos organizando en colaboración de Taller La Rueda coordinado por Karina Suntaxi de Ecuador, El taller Serie 5 De Colombia, el taller El Ajolote de la CDMX coordinado por Noé Vázquez y nosotros .
Note that Noe Vazquez also participated in Ambos Lados.


The jurors for the MiniPrint International show


SUMMER OF COVID
in ALBUQUERQUE

Your blogger lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and mostly hears about local printmaking activity in the Southwest, so obviously and unfortunately, he has neglected other Ambos Lados printmakers because he hasn't heard from them.




Perhaps this picture I took of graffiti in Juarez more than ten years ago, sums it all up:



Call to Printmakers

Convocatoria en Español tinyurl.com/amboslados tinyurl.com/ambosladoscall AMBOS LADOS  INTERNATIONAL PRINT EXCHANGE ** CALL T...