On display through April 6, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts presents “La Ceiba Gráfica,” an exhibition of prints from the Veracruz, Mexico workshop dedicated to transforming the local community through instruction in how to “make art.” The workshop’s logo derives from the cottonwood tree grown in Southern Mexico’s rainforests and references the ancient Mayan Tree of Life.
This tree symbolizes numerous life-giving opportunities the La Ceiba collective offers its surrounding communities regardless of their economic circumstances. By teaching the traditional art of printmaking using inexpensive, local materials, the workshop inspires artists at all levels to work creatively. The collective’s impressive finished work presents an opportunity to collect the exceptional international prints featured in the WPCA exhibition.
La Ceiba’s three founders, renowned printmakers Per Anderson, Martín Vinaver and Rafael Ruiz, display their own accomplished work. Ruiz’s Linea Verde, four photogravures of a street scene, displays an urban atmosphere through distinctly different color sequences that capture evocative light.
Anderson depicts an iguana resting in a tropical forest in his detailed artist’s proof En cada piedra hay una posibilidad. Vinaver, using a Japanese printmaking process called moku hanga, combines calligraphic form and written text in an image titled La Última Legislacíon.
Other spectacular prints, some in an interesting array of colors, grace the South Gallery. In the WPCA foyer, 10 UW-Milwaukee students display artwork from a 2011 visit to the Mexican workshop organized by the university’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. The WPCA exhibition coincides with the Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI) Conference this March, and La Ceiba Gráphica’s founders will deliver the Keynote Address.
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Walker’s Point celebrates La Cieba Gráfica and their transformative mission at the SGCI Print Crawl Reception on Friday, March 22 from 5-8 p.m., and at a gallery talk featuring a moku hanga demonstration on Saturday, March 23 from 1-2:30 p.m.
Art Happenings
“Midwest Scenes”
Landmarks Gallery
231 N. 76th St.
Popular in the galleries of Door County, Polly Joubert paints scenes inspired by the farms and rural settings of Wisconsin, stylizing the buildings, fields, animals and people into scenes suggesting an America of long ago, March 1-30.
“Daniel Fleming: The Sacred Wilderness”
Blustein Brondino Fine Art
The Marshall Building
207 E. Buffalo St., 2nd Floor
Abstract artist Daniel Fleming presents expressionist paintings displaying spontaneous brushwork that evokes primordial and spiritual sensibilities at a reception featuring a live performance on Friday, March 1. at 6 p.m.
