Jurors: Martin Garcia Rivera and Ada Rosa Rivera

Martin is a distinguished artist, printmaker, and professor known for his vast contributions to printmaking. Martín García Rivera is a renowned printmaker and painter from Puerto Rico. He earned a bachelor’s degree in arts from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in 1983 and a master’s degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1988. Since 1993, he has been a professor at UPR, teaching wood printmaking, metal engraving, and drawing. Specializing in xylography (woodcut), García Rivera’s work has been recognized internationally, earning awards in Puerto Rico, Sweden, Russia, and Slovenia. His art often explores the human figure as a metaphor for themes such as racial, political, and religious identity and psychological states. 

Ada Rosa Rivera Negrón is a woman and Puerto Rican artist, born in San Juan. She is Profesor in the Department of Humanistic Studies at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón Campus and at the School of Fine Arts and Design of Puerto Rico in San Juan. Since 2000, she has collaborated with the Education Program of the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico in Santurce and with the Museum of the Americas, giving workshops and lectures to teachers and in activities aimed at the general public. Her graphic work has been exhibited in local and international Galleries and Biennials. She practices the techniques of “NON-TOXIC” printmaking. She completed a Master’s degree in Visual Arts with a specialty in printmaking at the San Carlos Academy, affiliated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has taken courses leading to a Doctorate degree in History at the Center for Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in Old San Juan. She is the owner of the ‘’TALLER DIVINO GRABADO’’, located in Hato Rey, where she creates her works and provides space for young printmakers to print their works. She is currently the president and founder of the independent artists collective called “LAS JORNADAS DEL GRABADO PUERTORRIQUEÑO, Inc.”, a non-profit corporation that has been in operation for 21 years without interruption, whose purpose is to promote, preserve and sell original works in the various traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques.

Migdalia Umpierre 

First Prize: 

Los lados de la moneda
Relief
24″x48″ and a sculptural piece 12″x4″x4″

I use relief printmaking, specifically linocut, and employ editing techniques to create a composition of coins falling from the sky or, as you wish, scattered across a table. The work is complemented by a sculptural piece in which I engrave on metal and present the coin’s imprint in a three-dimensional format.

I am a printmaking artist, and I have dedicated many years to the relief technique. Much of my work emerges from the study of everyday life, where I have transformed domestic scenes into still lifes, and landscapes are created from objects. Within my thematic exploration, the aesthetics of canned, packaged, and processed products have been an integral part of my graphic proposal.

One of the distinctive features of my work is the use of repeated images, patterns, and the editing of prints to create larger and more complex compositions. Although linoleum has been a material I frequently use in my creations, I have also fallen in love with the use of rubber as a printmaking matrix.

In the works I present, I develop two main proposals: Isla Pirata and Transiciones.

• Isla Pirata emerges from a themed call for artists and addresses the duality of our colonial history.
• Transiciones is inspired by the works of Escher, exploring the transformation of images until they become something entirely new.

In these pieces, such as Coquí and Múcaro, I depict endangered animals preserved in commercial packaging, as a reflection on conservation and human intervention in nature.

Transitions: Coquí
Relief
15″x11″

Transitions: Múcaro
Relief
15″x11″

Esther Consuegra

Second Prize:

Overexposed
Screenprint
20″x15″

As an emerging artist, I aim to use printmaking to visually communicate and explore themes of my human experience and grotesque fears. I’ve recently found printmaking to be a visual outlet where I can capture such themes in detail and on a large scale. I wanted to embody how the female experience is intrinsically tied to their bodies within the contemporary world. In wanting to capture that nature, I deeply admire printmaking as a tool to incorporate complex rendering with traditional techniques. My aim within my future body of work is to capture the female experience using the visual language of gore and the grotesque.

Traci Mims

Juror’s Honorable Mention:

Is It Real?
Woodcut
24″x24″

Is It Real? is a piece that explores the complexities of cultural identity and acceptance. As a Black American woman, much of our culture centers around adornment and hair and elements that have only been celebrated within our communities but also heavily scrutinized throughout American history.The question Is it real? invites viewers to reflect on whether they are embracing their true, natural selves and their cultural identity, and to consider the motivations behind that acceptance.

As an artist, my goal is to provoke thought, educate, and inspire change. While I’m often described as a multidisciplinary artist, my roots are in printmaking, which currently consumes the majority of my creative focus. I’m particularly drawn to woodblock printing for its organic surface qualities and the character of the wood itself.

The work I create tells stories about Black identity, how it is expressed, how it is perceived, and how it has been treated both historically and in the present day.

The crown they wore
Woodcut
24″x24″

This piece is inspired by the rich history of the “Tignon”—the decorative head wraps rooted in Afrocentric culture. Originally imposed as a restrictive and demeaning regulation meant to suppress the visibility and beauty of Black women’s hair, the Tignon became a symbol of resilience and empowerment. These women reclaimed what was meant to belittle them, transforming it into a crown. With style and pride, they elevated the head wrap into a bold statement of fashion, identity, and cultural defiance.

Jacoub Reyes

I excavate my individual and ancestral biographies to unearth my cultural heritage. My layered identity invites me to see taxonomy as a system that requires decolonization. My mother is a first-generation Catholic Caribbean; my father is Muslim and a South Asian immigrant. My mom moved us from the industrial inner-city of the North to the expansive suburbia of the South, just as the war on Iraq gave way to a new wave of racism and Islamophobia. Later, I began to name the societal pressures that led to the self-removal of large parts of my racial and ethnic tapestry that reduced my proximity to whiteness. Much of my work synthesizes this research and uses the body metaphorically to symbolize complex internal emotions associated with the colonial and diasporic experience.
My caretaking work in gardens led to research on restoring natural areas through reintroducing and cultivating native plants, animals, and insects. I found myself outside in the Florida sun many days, working with many of the subjects and themes now present in my work. The anthropomorphic figures of the natural world ingrained in my large woodcarvings and installations identify unresolved tension and stress. I am invested in dismantling the boundaries between oral history, academia, personal stories, and ancestral trauma; instead, I see these as essential parts of a complete narrative. I aim to redefine the trauma responses of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn as instruments of colonization. Primarily, my work focuses on re-contextualizing Caribbean art through a diasporic lens.
I challenge the contemporary communication of the mixed-race or multi-cultural experience. Mixed cultural identity is not relegated to a hyphenated background; but rather a sum of all parts that are interdependent and foundational. The faceless figures of invasive and native plants examine the multiplicity of colonization. Displaying native and invasive plants in various tensions and settings upheaves how we see and experience race, class, and ability. My process to create these works involves finding materials, making tools, and printing without a press or traditional technologies. I work within a space deeply grounded in tradition but flourishes only due to innovation and creativity.

Juror’s Honorable Mention:

Deep Cuts
Woodcut on Unbleached Muslin
30″x54″

“Deep Cuts” starkly depicts colonial violence: the burning of a Taíno settlement and the subjugation of native people. The butterfly, a symbol of life, change, and hope, highlights thewound inflicted upon indigenous life. This contrast underscores the inherent brutality and dispossession of colonial enterprise, setting the fragility of life against the destructive forces of expansionism. Representing transformation, resilience, and spiritual transcendence across cultures, including its association with the soul and resurrection in Christian belief, the butterfly offers a complex lens for critical reflection on the lasting impact of this trauma and the potential for renewal. 

Libertad O Muerte
Woodcut and natural pigments on linen
80″x65″

This woodblock print presents a powerful commentary on heritage and cultural identity through the juxtaposition of a guillotine adorned with a star. The star is emblematic of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Pakistan—three cultures that shape my identity. Each of these flags carries the star as a symbol of hope, resistance, and the fight for independence.
The guillotine represents authority and violence, reflecting historical narratives of colonization and oppression. By placing the star on this grim symbol, I aim to highlight the contradictions within these shared histories: the quest for freedom alongside the harsh realities of cultural displacement.
At the center of this piece is the severed head of an iguana, an invasive species that represents broader ecological issues in Puerto Rico and Florida. This imagery speaks to the themes of environmental disruption and the complexities of identity shaped by both native and non-native influences.
The beach setting, particularly with the sun setting in the background, emphasizes loss and transition. The fallen basket intended to catch the iguana’s head represents unfulfilled cultural legacies, linking the privatization of Puerto Rican beaches with the erasure of heritage and community.

Frederic Glon

The Second Skin
Xilography
120 cm x 80 cm

My art finds its core inspiration in human history. Intrigued by the deeds of visionary individuals and confronted by the darkest chapters of our history, the genesis of my artwork emerges from real events. Yet, the wars, dictatorships, politicians, or simple soldiers who populate my imagery are always presented with a fantastical element—a sort of inverted magic realism. This interplay between documented history and imagination has essentially evolved into a conceptual hallmark of my body of work, enabling me to engage with weighty subjects through a layer of apparent lightness.

Far from being the result of spontaneous combustion, my creations are nurtured by ceaseless technical experimentation, allowing me to achieve the desired level of expression. In my artistic journey, I share a kinship with the engravers of the early 19th century, such as Frans MASEREEL and Otto NUCKEL, whose spirit of rebellion is channeled into scathing black and white woodcut novels.

However, my work eludes strict alignment with any particular art movement, as it springs from an unswerving need to articulate my personal vision of the world through a robust imagination. In the words of Masereel, I aspire “to bear witness to my time, to accuse and critique, and to celebrate through my creations the ambiguous grandeur of my era.”

Dennis Ahearn

Choose Happy
Etching
18″x12″

During the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, a profound pause swept across the globe, uniting humanity through shared experiences of helplessness, uncertainty, loss, and grief. As an artist, this pause compelled me to take off on a journey of deep introspection, leading to the creation of a new series of etchings that serve as a reflection of my fears, uncertainties, and anxieties during that tumultuous time.

These prints arise from the depths of my imagination, devoid of any physical source material or external references. They are born from the blank canvas, reflecting the unfiltered flow of thoughts, emotions, and experiences that coursed through me during that extraordinary year.

The words embedded within these artworks draw inspiration from two year-long daily meditation books, serving as a source of guidance and inspiration. These texts weave a surreal narrative, adding a layer of intrigue and mystery to the images.

Through this series of etchings, I invite viewers to join me on a journey of introspection and self-reflection, exploring the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our collective psyche. As we navigate the lingering effects of loneliness and isolation intensified by this global event and modern technologies, these prints serve as a reminder of our shared humanity, resilience, and capacity for transformation through adversity.

Arianna Rosario

entorno [me quedo o me voy¿?]
Relief
24″x18″

Puerto Ricans, much like other colonial subjects around the world, are often faced with a burning question that accompanies us throughout life; should I stay or should I go? For many of us, home is where we long to be while also wondering how much more we can withstand to live in it. Austerity, displacement, poverty, and ethnic cleansing are climactic points of an ongoing process of more than 500 years of colonial rule under the Spanish and American empires. My work reflects upon the previous question, and the well that builds up in my chest whenever I think of having to leave home.
entorno [me quedo o me voy¿?] is born out of a recent trip to Ojai, California to visit family. The title translates to “surroundings [should I stay or should I go¿?]”. As I looked up at the trees in Libbey Park, I basked in the glow of the drops of sunlight that trickled through the seemingly infinite leaves that hid the sky above me. An overwhelming feeling of joy was clouded by a sense of dread as I realized that, at some point, I would have to trade the palm trees I grew up with for oaks to pursue art as a profession. This piece takes the universal experience of looking up through a tree canopy and recontextualizes it through the lens of common inner thoughts that occur to many colonized people (that is, those of us who can leave). Relief printmaking with PVC is combined with à la poupée style inking to add a sense of density and translucency to the canopy.

J. Leigh Garcia

En Monterrey
Woodcut
15″x22″

My grandfather, Narciso “Chicho” García, worked as a tile setter in Monterrey, Mexico and Harlingen, Texas for most of his life. Two generations later, I work as an artist and art professor. I often feel that my life is completely different from my grandfather’s because of our differences in professions, education, socio-economic statuses, languages, religion, and gender. However, I have found a connection with him through making. Everyday, I use a pencil and ruler to draw and measure just as my grandfather did. We have both dedicated our lives to perfecting our techniques and skills, and pride ourselves on a high level of craft and beauty. In this piece, I use the visual language of my profession to celebrate that of my grandfather’s.

Dilara Miller

Whispers Of
Frottage tile rubbing
40″x15″

Dilara’s work critique’s and reflects on the social/cultural effects of being a Turkish-
American Muslim woman in today’s society. Through referencing antiquities and how they are presented today, she identifies patterns of hierarchies that exist in human history through an eco-
feminist lens. Her work reflects on the role of the artist and the historical testimony we leave behind; seeking to record her experiences within our Anthropocene as colored by mythic and
Islamic teachings. Dilara pulls from historical epochs to generate a foundation from which to
examine our contemporary treatment of women as related to our current climate disaster.
Through working within ceramics she emulates Ottoman and Byzantine era artwork through
traditions of materiality and storytelling. Ceramic works outlast empires, it is through this she is
able to make metaphors pertaining to the way we view our past, present, and future. Dilara
centers women’s place within the domain of spirituality, as that experience has been historically
rejected, despite women’s innate connection to life and the natural word. By retelling these
dogmatic stories she invites the viewer to pose philosophical questions regarding the
generational cycles we participate in. Dilara’s work reimagines a world that values our sacred
relationship with the Earth, her ecology, and our place within the universe.

Christeen Francis

Futuro Colectivo
Screenprint
20″x14″

Futuro Colectivo is a two color screenprint integrating a blend of photographic images and hand drawn elements, originally created for the Trazando Las Líneas SGCI portfolio in colaboración with the Center for Embodied Pedagogy (CEPA). Responding to the prompt: how can our prints document the intertwined social and graphic histories of PR, Mexico, the US, and beyond. I wanted to create a print in solidarity with past and present movements for autonomy and self determination by Puerto Ricans, both on and off the island. Linking projects developed by residents in relation to sustainability and economic independence, mutual aid and community, with the work of the Young Lords in NYC, and trying to imagine what a collective future could look like.

Story
Woodcut
10″x8″

Story is part of a series of woodcut portraits called Love Under the Patriarchy Portraits. I collaborate with a friend on “Love Under the Patriarchy” that investigates the possibilities for love under patriarchy through an intersectional feminist lens with a focus on interdependence and building community, and takes the form of podcasts and zines. The portraits grew out of this collab, and are woodcut portraits of myself and close friends who experienced sexual assault. The portraits are a testament to survivors ability to persevere and heal but also reflect the complex fragmentation of self and community that can occur throughout the process.

James Ehlers

  Suffer Thy Terrors
Metal Engraving
10″x8″

My recent work is a reaction to mortality, facing fears, and stress management. These
works are primarily about the experience of attachment to material items or
 contemplations. This is done through interpretation of the traditional vanitas rendering.
Emojis, our modern hieroglyphs, are utilized in some of the work to convey the
temporality of emotion and to reference disconnect of what is directly in front of us.
Honoring presence in the moment, rather than dwelling in past regret, nor anxiety of
future.

Carla Leo

Good Families, Bad Kids
Linocut
31.25”x52” image on 35.25″x56” paper

I recreate my life and the lives of other addicts – to tell stories about addicted life honestly – without sensationalism or sentimentality. I return to places I used in, recreate rooms I lived in, and relive memories from my addicted years. Then, I play pretend. I choreograph and act in scenes – sometimes with friends, sometimes in isolation – and film. Later, in the dark, I sit on the floor of my studio, back to the wall, and project playback. I am audience to my life in memoir. I mine the footage for frames to draw. This time, there is no escape.

Jasmine Dulay

Death, My Beloved
Intaglio
8.5″x6.5″

My work is focused on printmaking techniques including screenprint, woodcut, and intaglio. My work is an extension of my inability to express or understand my own experiences and emotions in words or thought. This hermeneutical injustice is the driving force to further understand my own experience within the figures, composition, and medium in which I work. I rely on instinct and the idea of the collective unconscious. My work uses universal archetypes, symbology, and mythology to appeal to a shared human experience. My goal as an artist is to allow the viewer to see their own self within the composition and find meaning that relates to their own experience.

Kelly Nelson

Walking Away Joshua Tree
Woodcut
64″x48″

My work exists at the intersection of nostalgia, identity, wonder and awe. I wistfully yearn for the happiness of my past to bind to my present and within a blink, my present is my past. Incredible. What of the wondrous future? Confusion. Confusion over death; dying badly, dying too young, or even dying just right, has heightened my relationship with the now through meditative image making. As I draw, cut, ink and press with wood, I reflect on my lived experiences and consider other’s. Wood, a product of land that I transform. A symbol of landscape, transforms me; transforms us. I carve with small tools on a large matrix to gift myself time. I am spending time with loved ones, time with nature, time with invention. I creatively and systematically work, and yet can change directions as if a spore in a wind gust. I have an unending curiosity, and continually search, to flourish and mend with awe.

Stephanie Silva Santana

Mercedes
Woodcut
6″x8″

Linocut printmaking is a way of reinterpreting memory. The images I work on are based on photographs I’ve taken, since I started my artistic journey with photography,  so I can keep my practices connected to see everything from a multifaceted lens. I’m aware of how lines are carved, how light and shadow are explored, and how carving is not random: lines, tools, and ink are chosen carefully to explore contrasting effects.
Last year, I started a series of Boricua hand portraits, where I made linocuts depicting everyday tasks done with hands that also convey Boricua hints of our culture. Currently I’m working on a series of linocuts based on photographs I took of my grandmother, of things written in walls, and over all, things that captured my eye as a photographer. I would love to expand this project and continue to delve more into Boricua artifacts, scenes and overall, give representation to my homeland and my family. With these kinds of projects, I’d like to explore the connection between photography and linocuts, two very reproducible and accessible mediums, and to make Borikén visible through different linocut depictions. I want to keep working on these projects as an homage to my Boricua roots and give others an idea of how much history small things can carry. 
Creating a linocut is a ritual, where I want to honor my Boricua heritage and roots. Everything I work on is inspired by my culture, which motivates me to keep creating so people are aware of its history, the good, the bad, the revolutionary. I’m in awe of fellow Boricua artists who have championed our narratives, and I seek to honor them by creating art that uplifts our culture.

Kyle Chaput

La Frontera Site II
Lithograph
18″ x 15″

Kyle Chaput’s continued research navigates the multifaceted identity of the Rio Grande Valley, a
misrepresented and often alienated international borderland. His work investigates personal and
collective movement through public spaces and how the increase of government presence has impacted the physical and social experience of this unique region. By integrating the visceral imagery of abandoned vessels and reflecting his own battles with Crohn’s Disease, the artist conveys themes of
excommunication and instability, mirroring the isolation of the border community and their internal journey toward understanding place and self.

Margaret Joba-Woodruff

Can I?
Collagraph
64″x36″

Informed by memories from a rural childhood and matrilineal family, my work draws from lived experience and pursues print as a device to consider the failings of narrative and representation. A foundation of my recent practice finds its footing in the term matrix. Sourced from the Latin roots for ‘mother’ or ‘womb’, this linguistic parallel of printmaking to reproduction and the birthing body creates a lens through which my work examines print alongside personal, familial, and historical legacies of language, production, and transference. Through this lens, I use a wide range of print techniques as unique material sites to negotiate both intimate and common themes of identity, family, belonging, the body, and work.

Benjamin Moreau

I Ain’t Got Time To Make No Apology
Etching and aquatint
9.75″ x 13″

This body of work navigates the interplay between the still life genre and the complexities of human experience, drawing upon diverse visual elements to evoke introspection and contemplation. They are an interpretation of vanitas still life images imbued with a dark sense of humor; contemporary memento mori pieces related to everyday life. I am exploring the cyclical nature of life, reflecting upon the contrast of my children’s youthful exuberance and the overwhelming presence of my failures as a husband, a father/provider, an artist, and an educator. A general sense of ennui permeates the work as I struggle to find my place in the world and inject meaning into my life.

The small and intricate scale forces the viewer to approach and inspect the artwork closely, examine the details, and consider the labor involved. I find creating artwork to be contemplative and self-reflexive, and the scale imparts that experience onto the viewer. The mood is bleak, and there is a pessimism that borders on the nihilistic. These still life images also examine the underlying vulnerabilities and uncertainties that define our collective human experience by exploring the limitations of written language (expressed in Latin or nonsense portmanteaus). Juxtaposing the playfulness of childhood toys with the stark reminder of our mortality, I underscore the loss of youthful desires with the impact of unfulfilled expectations.

What began as a self-deprecating look at the awkward, everyday objects that were present in my life became a document tracing pre-pandemic despair, to an isolated anxiety filled pandemic, to a post-pandemic landscape filled with a seemingly endless barrage of existential threats. The divisiveness and binary nature of contemporary American politics has infiltrated my art, along with mid-life crises and post-pandemic anxiety, adding to a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. I am overcome by our current economic system and the depressing reality that I cannot provide a better life for my children than my parents were able to give me.

Mai Tran

There will always be a fence
Woodcut
36″x24″

Originally from Vietnam, Mai Tran is a Minnesota-based printmaker specializing in woodcut printmaking. Through printmaking practices, Mai illustrates the connection between different cultures, mythology, history, as well as human and animal interactions. In her woodcut prints, Mai showcases dream-like landscapes, Vietnamese legends and customs blended with American culture to create unique visual narratives. By combining elements from the two cultures, she builds parallel worlds where all living things can sustain and value each other’s differences — a place without barriers of geography, race, gender, class, or species that allows us to define our own uniqueness and purpose in life. 

Adrian Tio

Mama Aida’s Isla Verde
Woodcut
24″x48″

I have always felt torn between two cultures – the suburban middle-class objectivity of my mainland birth, and the passionate sensitivity of my Latino heritage. Though born in Indiana, I am Boricua. Most of my life has been spent in middle-class America; the suburbs are my barrio, English is my primary language. The visual arts have long been a significant part of Latino culture, providing a visible means of expressing the legacy of our Spanish, Taino and African forebears.

My use of expressive figurative imagery offers an opportunity to look back into family history while looking forward through ongoing studio projects. Recent works on paper have focused on carved relief images integrated with silkscreen symbols. Printmaking, at times including bilingual text, offers a visual format that seeks to communicate to a bilingual audience. My studio efforts has been spent in developing a bi-visual means of communicating to both cultures through my artwork.

Sydney Kay

Jazzee
Screenprint on Glass
9″x9″

“Don’t Touch Me” is an expansion of a previous project called Delicate which was based on combating the dangerous stereotype that Black women are strong and independent.”Don’t Touch Me” pushes this idea further to talk about Black Women’s fight to keep control of their right to consent. The right to say no and how to say to no has always been a struggle for Black Women. Ranging from reframing questions and statements to having to say no multiple times in a polite manner so you don’t come off as too aggressive. This work is a collection of mixed media that people want to touch, but cannot, to show this struggle. By making artwork with different textures of items included, like sandpaper or flocking. The idea is to show the viewer how Black Women are viewed as objects most times, but aren’t. They are just people at the end of the day, just like them.

Marco Hernandez

Mis Dudas y Pesadillas

Lo No Conquistado

My current body of work explores themes associated with contemporary Mexican and Mexican American cultures. I am inspired by my personal experiences growing up as a Mexican immigrant in California and the Midwest. Mexican and Mexican American symbols play a large role in my prints. The symbols span from ancient Mesoamerican imagery to contemporary popular culture objects. Life experiences and a traditional Mexican upbringing have influenced my thoughts and beliefs; and ultimately have been inspirational to the imagery and meaning in my current work.
I immigrated with my family to the United States when I was very young. I was introduced to a new culture, language, and other struggles that would have to be overcome. I felt a loss of my cultural roots as I grew older. These and other experiences influenced my thoughts and beliefs about my unique personal identity. Being born in Mexico and raised in a traditional Mexican family has taught me to be proud and embrace my roots.

The art of printmaking provides me with the flexibility of technique and process necessary for my content development. Experimenting in the studio is as important as historical research in my search for content and ideas. The initial inspiration for my current work comes from several sources, including old black and white photographs depicting Mexican life (1910-1940), personal photographs taken from my trips to Mexico, and contemporary interpretations of Mexican events and traditions. With these in mind, I use printmaking to visually create powerful and interesting compositions with an emphasis on highly delicate printmaking techniques. Inspiration, technique, and the print medium may vary between prints but my curiosity, hard work ethic, and patience always remain constant.

Marcos Medina

Despulpado del café
Xylography and Acrylic on vinyl fabric and PVC
49 1/2″ x 49 1/2″

Art is an exercise of observation, reflection, and analysis that seeks to establish a conversation between the artwork and the viewer. My goal as a fine artist is to convey concepts, even contradictory ones, in order to initiate debates that result in a truth, although this truth may not be absolute as it is subject to interpretation and experiences of each individual. However, I use art as a tool to express my concerns and disagreements, as well as my ideas and possible solutions. 

Social, economic and cultural themes feature prominently in my artworks, in which, through landscapes, I seek to address the most important issues that affect my environment. In order to stand out my Puerto Rican identity, I use symbols such as the plantain, sugar cane, and coffee, exploring their historical context in relation to the present. In addition, I reflect in the effects of industrialization on agriculture and economy, and how this process has affected the culture and identity of my country. 

As a contemporary artist, my work is focused on the fusion of printmaking (xylography) and painting, aiming to create a new visual language, using unconventional materials, supports, and formats,  but maintaining the essence of the Puerto Rican art tradition. 

Ashley Martinez Rivera

The Ponce Massacre II
Etching
24″x18″

Ashley Martínez Rivera is a figurative painter and printmaker living in Boston. Born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico her body of work revolves around political and religious themes like the Puerto Rican pro-independence movement and Christian faith. She holds a BFA in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and is currently Artist in Residence at Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, dedicating her time to exploring new printmaking techniques and processes. This work is a reimagining of the Ponce Massacre of 1937, depicting the victims of police brutality attending a peaceful march in Puerto Rico.

Camila “Kaos” Cruz

Clase y Pico
Screenprint
24″x14″

Jason Scuilla

Proxy War Monument 1
Electrolytic etching
16″x12″

During the Covid 19 Pandemic lockdown, I shifted from my previous artwork to an ongoing series of monoprints, drawings, and electrolytic etchings. These images start with no preliminary plans or sketches, I let my subconscious and daily sensory experiences guide me through the long process of exploration and excavation to reveal the substance of each piece. I call these prints proxy war monuments.

The human psyche is a battleground for modern-day proxy wars. Social and corporate media platforms, religious organizations, world leaders, and political parties fight to influence our beliefs, values, and opinions. This mental warfare has serious implications for our personal and collective well-being.
This body of work reflects the psychological consequences of the global pandemic, civil unrest, and challenging times we are each trying to navigate our way through. Some of these prints are capriccios, or fanciful compositions that show imaginary monuments to, or remnants of, conflict and disorder. Others are self-portraits, or portraits of influential leaders. Several have no clear origin or destination for their inspiration or content. Collectively, they reflect the impact of global turmoil, political instability, social division, and civil unrest on my mental and emotional states. They explore direct and indirect exposure to the current issues shaping our perceptions and attitudes.
My artistic vision is influenced by both American and Italian cultures, which offer rich and diverse sources of symbols and aesthetics. I create prints that challenge the current tendency to adopt extreme and simplistic views on complex issues. My goal is to invite the viewer to use their imagination, appreciate the ambiguity, recognize the nuances, and question the irrational.

Justin Remo

Swallow Your Pride
Woodcut on Okawara paper
35″x21″

I grew up within the suburbs and shorelines of northern New Jersey. Since moving to Maryland in 2019 to pursue art as a career, my relationship to both the people and the landscape of my childhood home has shifted dramatically. This shift has served as the primary source of inspiration for my recent explorations in printmaking.

The Last Times On Dogwater Beach is a chaotic visual odyssey that explores the interpersonal weight of solastalgia, an existential distress caused by negative environmental change. This series of handcrafted large-scale prints aims to convey my own solastalgic experiences and the conflicting complicated emotions I feel towards my decomposing interpersonal friendships, the chaotic degradation of my home, and the frighteningly rapid obliteration of our planet and the animals we share it with.

Each illustrated scene is set within the familiarly fictional coastline of Dogwater Beach, a reality immersed in waste and societal disarray. This apocalyptic landscape explores the deepest fears, insecurities and vices of myself and those around me through exaggerated cartoon caricatures and a graphic style reminiscent of comic books. The environment stretched across each print satirically references the hedonistic and erotic culture endemic to the Jersey Shore, paralleled with a devastating panorama of both natural and artificial ecological destruction.

Hand-carved into plywood, the matrices of these prints become memorial artifacts, satisfying the raw tangible craftsmanship of relief printmaking and physically preserving every doubt and regret engraved into their surface. The intricate contrasts between black and white paired with the colossal scale of these woodcuts swallow viewers into an inescapable black hole of intricate detail; the burning car on the side of the road.

This series stands as a bittersweet memorial to the global and interpersonal ecosystems I have inhabited during my adolescent years, and a farewell to the weight of my personal history as I witness the place from which my life began continue to sink from a distance.

Brian Kreydatus

Self Portrait 55th Birthday
Etching, aquatint, spitbite, drypoint, roulette, burin
24″x18″

I am a printmaker who works in a variety of mediums. I choose each medium carefully, immersing myself in its specific qualities and letting the process become an active, indeed leading, participant in the final image.

My influences range from the great painter/printmakers- Durer, Rembrandt, and Goya to Kathe Kollwitz, Edvard Munch, and the comics I grew up with in the seventies.
My prints deal with the figure and questions regarding the human condition. The human conditions basic tenets- the search for life’s meaning, inevitable loneliness, desire for gratification through food or intimacy, and the omnipresent knowledge of our own mortality are all themes in my work- sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly. These facts of the human experience have caused me to become obsessed with portraying the body’s physicality and vulnerability, which find their visual expression through a direct and purposefully unpolished mark. By recording my own specific experiences, I hope to create works that are true.

Dareliz Alayón

Independientemente
Relief print, image transfer and collagraphy
18″x24″ each

Scroll through the slider below for larger versions of each print in the set.

A common understanding exists in the body of work that reflects mainstream art trends and culture in Puerto Rico. I believe what we see, though culturally relevant, is only a small capture of a larger picture that explores the meaning of being Puerto Rican. In my work, I look to expand on those ideas by reflecting on the places and people I interact with on a daily basis, and push the concept of Puerto Rican identity beyond what the mainstream has come to understand.

In 1955 Rafael Tufiño and Lorenzo Homar published their portfolio “Plenas”, an ode to the popular genre of the time combining the written lyrics with illustrations that captured what life was like at the time. “Independientemente” (2023) is my continuation of that concept using songs by independent, local artists that encapsulate what youth culture is like nowadays. I used relief printing for the base of the images, image transfers to add a section of sheet music of each song and collagraphy to add color.

Nicole Soley

American Teacher
Woodcut
2′ x 4′
2023

Soley utilizes contemporary and traditional printmaking processes to create dynamic, multi-process prints. By creating cut out, printed, paper objects, she synthesizes lived experience and research. Through layering many forms of printmaking and experimenting with paper colors, inks, and three-dimensional formats, viewers interact directly with the artwork, interpreting both personal narrative as well as cultural critiques. Her artwork emboldens the viewer to explore printmaking as a liberating story-telling medium; through the expression of personal narrative in a book arts format, we reach closer toward universal liberation.

Mariceliz Pagán Goméz

Mariceliz Pagán Goméz
Apócrifo
Metal engraving
12″x9″

Rosenda Alvarez Faro

As a printmaker and muralist my work explores the intersection of identity, feminism, and social justice. Through a combination of intricate printmaking techniques and the dynamic medium of wheat pasting, I create works that invite viewers to engage with layered stories and hidden details. My art often focuses on the role of women in society, presenting strong female figures who challenge traditional narratives. Alongside feminist themes, I confront human rights injustices and social-political imbalances, using my practice as a tool for change and reflection.

¡BANG!
Screenprint
20″x15″

La Lupe
Screenprint
18 1/2″x13 3/4”