Friday, January 27, 2017

Toru Sugita at Taller Grafica Libre of Oaxaca

The printmaking studios are as important as the artists and prints to the Desert Triangle. Taller Grafica Libre -- run by Beatriz Rivas and Adrián Aguirre, in the pueblo of Zaachila, just outside of Oaxaca City -- helped create two etchings for Toru Sugita, the artist-in-residence.



Nidia Rosales Moreno arranges the artist-in-residency program at Taller Grafica Libre, and also runs the Espacio Centro in Oaxaca, where Toru had an exhibition and gave a talk on December 29th, 2016.  Toru and his family stayed at Nidia's house.



Toru working in Taller Grafica Libre


Beatriz Rivas, Adrián Aguirre, and Toru Sugita,
with a fresh print






In July of 2015, Francisco Delgado came to Taller Grafica Libre, to make his relief print for the Desert Triangle.  At that time the studio was located in the city of Oaxaca.



Toru Sugita
standing in front of his exhibition




It was an honor to see Maestro Shinzaburo Takeda at Toru's talk at Espacio Centro.  Maestro Takeda was the printmaking teacher of the current young generation of strong Oaxaca printmakers (including Pavel Acevedo).  There is a Bienal Nacional de Artes Graficas Shinzaburo Takeda named after him.

 Misayo Tsutsui and Fumiyo Yoshikawa (artist and Toru's wife)


Thank you very much Nidia Rosales Moreno for arranging the artist-in-residency for Toru, as well at the exhibition and talk at Espacio Centro in Oaxaca!!!



Toru visited many print galleries in Oaxaca,
such at Gabinete Grafico


We talked Toru into printing in Oaxaca when we met him at the SGCI print conference in Portland, in March/April of 2016.  Krrrl first met Toru at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, back in the 1990s.






Toru is showing the prints he made in Oaxaca:


Toru talks about his Oaxaca prints,
and other print adventures,
at Diablo Valley College in California,
during his 2016 sabbatical,
March 14, 2017


Toru's Oaxaca prints were chosen
 at the Isabelle Percy West Gallery, 
California College of the Arts,
May 18th - June 1st 2017



THE BEST GALLERY IS IN THE STREET



This is so true.  There were many great wheat paste prints in the streets of Oaxaca.






Not to mention the murals in Oaxaca:

Mural outside of Taller Siqueiros


Mural by Dr Lakra


Perhaps even more incredible were the murals in Zaachila, in a pueblo outside of Oaxaca, where Taller Grafica Libre is now located!





We were fortunate that the Leopoldo Mendez print exhibition was showing in the museum of the Templo Santo Domingo in Oaxaca.  Leopoldo Mendez ran the Taller de Grafica Popular, and is the most famous printmaker after the Mexican Revolution.


Leopoldo Mendez,
at the museum of
the Templo Santo Domingo


By Leopoldo Mendez


By Leopoldo Mendez


By Leopoldo Mendez


At the El Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO) there was a fascinating exhibit by the French printmaking publishing house Le Dernier Cri, called El Ultimo Grito.

Prints by the French publishing house Le Dernier Cri,
showing at IAGO in Oaxaca


Nidia took Krrrl to Tlacolula outside of Oaxaca, to see the Tlacolulokos artist collective.  They have painted in the US, and will come to Los Angels in April to paint inside the main library.







Toru and Krrrl also visited Burro Press, run by printmakers Ivan Bautista and Edith Chavez:

Ivan Bautista and Edith Chavez
in their gallery Burro Press
in Oaxaca


Misayo Tsutsui, Venancio Velasco, Emilio Gomez, 
Alberto Cruz, Edith Chavez, Ivan Bautista

in Burro Press

We also visited La Chicharra studio in Oaxaca, run by Alan Altamirano (aka Kabrito).




Alan Altamarino and Ivan Bautista
roll up the prints that Krrrl bought,
to be sent FedEx


Krrrl met Kevin McCloskey at Taller La Chicharra.  The Kutztown printmaking professor brought his students down to work in this studio in Oaxaca.  Kevin McCloskey wrote the Printeresting article about Oaxaca, which Krrrl and Tanya Rich followed on their first visit in 2014, right after the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta was conceived.

Kutztown printmaking professor Kevin McCloskey
and his wife cut a rosca on January 6th
at Taller La Chicarra in Oaxaca,
to share with the students they brought down there





OTHER MEXICAN PRINTMAKERS

Later Krrrl took the long way home, traveling through Mexico to meet other great Mexican printmakers:


Mexico City

At Taller 75 Grados, Maestro Arturo Negrete pulled a large serigraph of artist Jose Quintero's work.

Maestro Arturo Negrete
and artist Jose Quintero


Estudio Zoveck in Mexico City, specializes in waterless lithography:

Sonia Romero and Julio Carrasco,
form the studio Zoveck


Patzcuaro, Michoacan

Printmaker extraordinaire Artemio Rodriguez
in his studio in Patzcuaro



Morelia, Michoacan

in his private printmaking studio




Oaxaca and Mexico have really strong printmakers.  Below, Gabriel Mendoza Gagnier, director of La Mano Magica Gallery in Oaxaca, pulls out a Desert Triangle print from the bin, by Los Dos.



Sad note -- In Oaxaca we learned that artist Michael Roman had died in San Francisco while Toru was creating his print, the day after Christmas.  Michael pilgrimaged to La Mano Magica gallery in Oaxaca almost every year.  He silk screened in the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, where both Toru and Krrrl met him.

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