Two exhibitions open together at PV Arts in downtown Watsonville on May 26 that explore the world of print and image-making.
“Over the Edge: Printmaking Without Limits” showcases experimental print practices that push the medium past its standard boundaries, while “Voice for the Voiceless: The Art of Malaquias Montoya,” presents decades of his printwork.
“Over the Edge” is curated by Jane Gregorius and Katherine Levin-Lau while Montoya’s show is curated by Roberta Valdez.
“This show allowed artists to take printmaking to another level — they could paint on them, make sculptures out of them; they could do anything they wanted,” Levin-Lau said. “But all the works have some printmaking techniques.”
Gregorius added that traditional printmaking works are typically “really small and in a frame. Prints are small because the printmaking plates are small: You’re limited by what the medium will allow you to do. While the gallery has done several print shows, we’ve never done anything like this.”
Artists were encouraged to cut, fold, glue, layer, paint upon, distort, and reconstruct their prints into entirely new forms, Gregorius said. This show includes woodcuts, linocuts, screenprinting, monotypes, monoprints, jellyprints and more.
Levin-Lau has a piece in the show that features paper “leaves” of a tree with prints on them accompanied by books that have been lazer-cut into the shape of flying birds in combination with monotypes and paper maché titled “The Language of Life.”
While 30 artists have teamed up to fill two rooms and a hallway of the historic Porter Building, Montoya’s show features 21 framed prints in a room by itself. His work centers on protest, resistance, unity, “and human strength in the face of injustice,” organizers said. Montoya co-founded Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, where he continues to teach and mentor new generations of artists.
“Ebb Flow Tide Time” is a large construct that fills the corner of one room with lengthy sheets of printed paper dangling from the ceiling that’s a collaboration of 10 artists. Beside it is a work titled “Passenger Pigeon Immigration,” made of several large patches of printed birds on a brick wall by Fanny Retsik and Sandra Starkey Simon.”
INFO BOX
Exhibit Dates: May 26 – July 11
Artist’s Reception: Sat May 30, 1-3pm
Location: Porter Building, 280 Main St., Watsonville
Hours: Tues-Sat, 11am-4pm
For information, visit pvarts.org.
