Arts
Let’s Talk Art: Women in Printmaking A cultural conversation about our border Story and Photos by Bria Manning One day, I was an ordinary International Studies student with a regular copy editing job and the next day I find myself assigned to cover something completely outside of my area of expertise—the B.A.T. State III exhibition at the Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. On Sept. 9, our university’s art museum From left to right: “Untitled (Drug Lord and Patron),” 2010; “Untitled (of Nation opened its doors to the and Fútbol),” 2011; “Untitled (Drug Lord and Patron),” 2010; “Untitled (of Nation and Fútbol),” 2011; Carolyn Castaño. public and revealed the art of Women in Conversation with El Nopal Press to the public. Co-curators Anita Bunn and Francesco X. Siqueiros had collaborated to bring together a collection of lithographs, prints, photographs, paintings and more from 37 women artists that breath life into the cultural conversation over the California-Mexico border. The political activism of the artists are represented through the printmaking of Siqueiros’ El Nopal Press and brings to light the Latin American struggles, experiences and cultures brewing here on the Southern Californian border. Let me preface my experience with a disclaimer: I don’t know shit about art. But Their voices of political having a geographic concentration in Latin activism shone through America and the Caribbean, I felt that widening my horizons a bit and delving into the realm of to the surfaces of Latin American art might be beneficial to my printmaking to make studies, work and overall perception of art. This is how I found myself at the exhibition on an a democraticallyearly Friday afternoon for a press preview. I arrived a few minutes early and was greeted empowered statement.
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