Brownsville-- University of Texas

Selected framed and loose prints from the YayBig Southwest collection will be shown in the art museum at the University of Texas -- Rio Grande Valley, November 3rd - 25th.

Zeke Peña will be giving a workshop affiliated with the exhibition.

The opening reception for the exhibition "YayBig Southwest" opens Tuesday, November 3 at 6 pm at The Gallery at Rusteberg Hall (UTRGV-Brownsville). Please join us. Refreshments will be served

"Printmakers without horses: Southwest artists don't get the attention they deserve. Perhaps that's because it takes five hours to drive from El Paso/ Juarez to either Tucson or Albuquerque, and eight hours to make Austin. Therefore, we started buying local prints, and showing them in pop-up galleries throughout the region. The idea was to annoy and inspire our peers, and push for a stronger creative dialogue in the desert. This collection started as a modest exchange between Tucson and El Paso. While most contemporary artists look toward the east and west, New York and San Francisco, for inspiration and cues, artists here also feel a strong pull south, from the gravity of Mexican art. Therefore, we included some prints from Oaxaca. The viewers can decide for themselves if there is any unity of vision amongst Southwestern artists or if we are being torn apart in three directions.

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Earlier I dropped off 25 framed prints, and some loose ones, 

in Brownsville, Texas

César Martinez's exhibition preceded ours.  I was fortunate enough to attend his opening.  What a hard show to follow!

César Martinez

at his Brownsville opening

Oct 6, 2015

Desert Triangle

YayBig Southwest spun off into a commissioned project -- Desert Triangle Print Carpeta. The object is to show prints!

I commissioned 30 artists in the Southwest, to give me editions of 50 large prints (22 x 30 inches). The artists keep 25 prints, plus earn a fee.

Almost half of the prints, 12, were made in Mexico:

10 prints were made

at Taller 75 Grados in Mexico City

(the first 7 showing)

Francisco Delgado

made his print in Oaxaca

Manuel Guerra

made his print at La Ceiba Grafica

in Coatepec (near Xalapa)

We are showing the first 18 prints in Patzcuaro (until the 18th of October). Then we will be showing the prints in pop-up galleries in Mexico -- Oct 30th, in Mexico City at Taller 75 Grados, and Nov 1st and 2nd, in Oaxaca at Process Ediciones.

More exhibits planned in the future.

Taller 75 Grados

We had some silkscreen prints made at Taller 75 Grados in Mexico City last July (for the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta), and bought some masterpieces by Mexican artists while we were down there:

Ruben Albarran

Rafahu Aguilar

Alex Arizmendi

Burendo

(Oscar Dominguez)

Pedro Coronel

Dr Aldrete

Daniel Gonzalez

Jilipolo

Alejandro Magallanes

Cardo Negrete

Jose Quintero

Rezizte

Rezizte

Roberto Sanchez

Skinpop

Skinpop

Skinpop

Smithe

Elmer Sosa

Raul Urias

Cedric Volon

I saw a bunch of street posters supporting women's causes by Mujeres Grabando Resistencia, and exhibited as Vivas Nos Queremos:

Wall of these posters 

at the Rancho Electronico hackerspace 

n Mexico City

"Matarme te hizo mas hombre?"

I had seen these street posters in Juarez earlier this year

More of these women's causes street posters,

pasted on the wall outside at the prepa 

The street posters seemed to be created in

the Prepa Popular Tacuba-Obrera 

I also bought some relief prints next to Bellas Artes, where Mario Martinez, from Puebla, was selling them on the street:

In Xalapa I saw some prints by Zamer, in a hipster pulqueria (La Otra).  While I did not buy any of those prints (yet), I thought that the pulqueria was the perfect print gallery:

I was in Xalapa after making a lithograph at La Ceiba in nearby Coatepec.  Later Manuel Guerra flew down to La Ceiba to make his lithograph for the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta project.

While in Mexico, I also went down to Oaxaca to see Francisco Delgado make his print for the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta project.