Conference Pop-Up Exhibitions
Pop-Up Exhibitions are works by and/or curated by SGCI Members, and are based on the conference’s theme and/or location. Please note that these exhibitions should be up for the entire conference.
The exhibition proposer or exhibitors will be responsible for bringing the artwork to be exhibited to the conference, and installing (volunteers likely, but not guaranteed, available) and deinstalling the exhibition. Available space will vary with each conference, so flexibility within each proposal is encouraged. See Pop-Up Exhibition descriptions below.
The Wind At Dawn / El Viento Al Amanecer
Organizers: Thea Reid and Wilhelmina Peace
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto, Río Piedras (UPRRP), Humanities Building, Oller Gallery, 9-4:30, M-F
Participating Artists: Carissa Heinrichs, Anthony Huang, Mark Johnsen, Rebekah Lazaridis, Heather Leier, Laura Naioti, Thea Reid, Wilhelmina Peace, Sarah Sanford
Disenchantment is a modern crisis. From the dawn of the industrial age to the present day, amidst a 24-hour feed of relentless carnage, dangerous political deception, global pandemics, climate catastrophe and dizzying technological progress, humanity has attempted to adapt through increasing feelings of alienation, dehumanization and desensitization. Disillusionment with the current state of the world and with life, in general, has led many people to feel disconnected from each other and from the natural world. Paradoxically, as this sense of disenchantment grows, so does the irrevocable urge to cultivate a sense of re-enchantment. Re-enchantment seeks to rekindle a sense of awe and curiosity about the aliveness that permeates existence. To re-enchant the world is to contemplate the subtle beauty and mystery of life and to honor a lineage of reverence for the natural world and our intrinsic connection to it. This exhibition is an invitation to explore the myriad ways in which individuals and communities are striving to re-engage with the world. It is a call to celebrate the sacred in the mundane, the overlooked and the forgotten. Re-enchantment is an intimate yet profound act of resistance.
Memorias Elásticas
Organizers: Eddy López & Patricia Villalobos Echeverría
Curator: Anna Astor
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: El cuadrado gris
Participating Artists: Miguel Aragón, The City University of New York College of Staten Island, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Kalamazoo College, Fifty-Fifty Collaborative, Washington University, Eddy Lopez, Kasey Ramirez, Nichole Maury, Frostic School of Art, Western Michigan University, Humberto Saenz, University of Texas at San Antonio, Patricia Villalobos Echeverría, Frostic School of Art, Western Michigan University
Printmedia is well positioned to speak about the imprints and tracings of history, a dialogue that distends into dissemination and layering that evinces the complex relationship we all have to memory and place. It serves as a germane language to speak of a malleable state and to the suspended nature of our contemporary condition, due to political instability, ecological disasters, massive migration and economic distress.
This exhibition will focus on projects and works that engage the tracings of history through memory, trauma, and transformation. The works will deal with territory, displacement, migration, or the social space by artists whose modes of engagement use participatory art, socially engaged artworks, installation based projects or dialogic projects that in some way transform these experiences. The artworks engage the powerful tracings and “imprints” of memory and in this way reveal what might live in our imaginaries.
Una buena impresión
Organizer: Dareliz Alayon
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Modulo der Mejoramiento Comunitario
Participating Artists:
Una buena impresión is a play on words. In Spanish it can mean one good print or a good first impression. This pop-up exhibition based on this pun that would allow participants to make a good first impression and make themselves known by creating a monoprint in the medium or mix of mediums of their choice.
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Print Pública
Organizers: Jade Hoyer & Angela Sprunger
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto, Río Piedras (UPRRP), Art Building, Gallery C, 9-4:30pm M-F
Participating Artists: TBA
An exhibition of posters, Print Pública serves as a contemporary homage to Puerto Rico’s history of artist workshops that mobilized to address social, political, and health issues. Participating artists for Print Pública will produce a poster based on a partner organization’s need for public-issue messaging. This engagement is in the spirit of the workshop of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (El Taller de Gráfica del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 1957–1985), an organization whose efforts engaged artists to produce silkscreen posters that supported the region’s public health needs, and also contributed to Puerto Rico’s rich contemporary print tradition. Prints in Print Pública reflect artists’ interpretive response to their organization partner’s needs. Selected artists will pursue partnership with an organization in their home location, and create an edition of posters with their partner organization for the organization to use as it serves their purposes. These posters will be displayed as a display portfolio at Puertograbando.
Printed With A Steam Roller
Organizer: Claudia Wilburn
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: TBA
Participating Artists: Nancy Ariza, Irena Keckes, Ana Gaby Perez, Tatiana Potts, Sam Roper, Marco Sanchez, Jordan Schwab & Patrick Bulas, Olivia Smith, Claudia Wilburn
As an organization of printmakers, many of us have either organized or participated in a steamroller printing event. More often than not, there is an exhibition tied to the event, but then, these large-scale relief prints (likely on muslin) don’t often see the light of day outside of our personal studios.
Prayer Flags for Puerto Rico
Organizer: Beauvais Lyons
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Escuela de Artes Plásticas, TBA
Prayer Flags for Puerto Rico was a collaborative project involving over 150 artists in the creation of hand-printed prayer flags for the 2020 SGC International Printmaking Conference: Puertográfico. The project was conceived as a response to the Hurricane Maria in 2017. As part of the original proposal, a complete set of the flags was to be exhibited in the garden patio of the Escuela de Artes Plasticas during the conference. While the exhibition and conference was not able to take place due to COVID 19, all artists participating in the project received a selection of the flags and sets of the flags were gifted to eight community organizations in Puerto Rico including the Hispanic Federation in San Juan; P.E.C.E.S., Inc. in Punta Santiago; Proyecto Matria in Caguas; and Taller Salud in Loiza. Each of these organizations used their set of flags in different ways, from decorating community spaces to giving them to start-up women-owned businesses.
Impresiones Dinámicas / Dynamic Impressions
Participating Artists/Organizers: Luanda Lozano + Moses Ros
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Escuela de Artes Plásticas, Theory Classroom Hallway
This exhibition features three-dimensional prints by artist printmakers Luanda Lozano and Moses Ros. The exhibition will showcase a diverse array of prints, with each piece presented either mounted on walls, displayed on pedestals, or suspended from the ceiling. The collection spans a range of styles and techniques, including abstraction and figuration, etching and screen printing. Visitors can expect to experience an intriguing array of works that transition from flat planes to multi-dimensional forms, encompassing both cut-out and sculptural elements.
The “Old” New Normal/ La “vieja” nueva normalidad
Artist/Organizer: Carlos Llobet Montealegre
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: TBA
The “New Normal” project is inspired by the expression coined during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the 2012-2018 recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic, referring to the new social realities arising from economic crises, environmental problems, and pandemics. The proposal seeks to represent the working class, the segment most affected by these recent social measures.
Through large woodcuts, the aim is to emulate urban traffic, showing common characters that reside in the collective unconscious. The “Urban Compositions” refer both to the diversity of people who transit through metropolitan areas, and to the harmony and composition of the figures in the installation, highlighting rhythm and repetition.
Each figure carries an object, such as a plastic bag, briefcase, or bundle, symbolizing the burden we all carry, especially the weight of supporting a family, debts, or vices. These objects are colored to contrast with the figures and are created with stencils and spray paint, linking them to urban art, omnipresent in the capital.
The artistic references for this project include Sila Chanto, a Costa Rican printmaker whose use of printmaking in installation was crucial to the project approach; Belkis Ramírez, a Dominican artist, from whom the use of printing and matrix was adapted; and Kathe Kollwitz, fundamental for her technical mastery and the way she humanizes trauma victims.
Paper Boats Flotilla, 2020-2025
Organizer: Mary Sherwood Brock
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Hilton Caribe: San Cristobal Foyer, during conference hours
Participating Artists:
PAPER BOAT PORTFOLIO:
Florence Alfano McEwin, Mary Sherwood Brock, Lise Drost, Aunna Escobedo, Beth Fein, April Flanders, Sherry Jankiewicz, Gesine Janzen, Irena Keckes, Catherine Kernan, Carolyn Liesy, Hilary Lorenz, Martyna Matusiak, Kerry McAleer-Keeler, Stephanie Mercado, Mono Grafico Colectivo, Bill Pangburn, Jennifer Anderson Printz, Mumu Wang and Cathy Weiss.
PAPER BOAT FLOTILLA 2020-2024:
Christina Altfield, Judith Amdur, Renee Amitai, Curtis Bartone, Marie-Ange Brasssard, Alessia Bortoli, Andra Broekelschen, Yamilys Brito*, Janette Brossard*, Megan Broughton, Eduardo Roca Salazar “Choco”*, Cathy Crawford, Susan Denniston, Tallmadge Doyle, Julie Evanoff, Roberta Feoli de Lucia, Anyelmaidelin Calzadilla Fernandez*, Daniel Flores, Karen Fiorito, Katherine Freygang, Caoilfhinn Geary, Jane Goldman, Yeung Ha, Jani Hoberg, Linda Hunsaker, Lynne Johnson, Juliet Kane, Deirdre Kelly, Catherine Kernan, Kate MacDonald, Ruchika Madan, Ginette Malouin, Norberto Marrero*, Ibrahim Miranda*, Adrienne Momi, Ines Monguio, Melissa Lowry Mosley, Angela Oates, Molly O’Callaghan, Deb Olin, Osmeivy Ortega*, Sylvie Pinsonneault, Wendy Prellwitz, Angel Ramirez*, Elaine Ricklin, Karla Betancourt Rodríguez, Victor Rosas, Tricia Ross, Michelle Rozic, Katherine Sheehan, Annie Silverman, Barbara Belle Sloan, Kathleen Thoma, J Michael Walker and Monica Weisblott. (*Artists from Havana, Cuba)
Artists from Puerto Rico: Lizette Cruz, Poli Marichal, Ada Rosa Rivera and Migdalia Umpierre.
Student artists from the San Alejandro Art Institute: Anyeli Rodríguez Fuentes, Marcos Rodríguez González, Noslen Castellanos Herrera, Yoan Alejandro Izquierdo Pardo, Celín Hernández Romero, Suamy Hernández Romero, Elizabeth Talía Blanco Sarmiento, Mauricio Díaz Toirac, Delianis de la Caridad Morales Vázquez
The Paper Boats Pop Up for PuertoGrabando 2025 presents the work of 77 artists. Each artist created a Paper Boat print to respond to a conceptual idea of migration and flux, participating in one of the 5 Calls organized following the delay of the 2020 conference. Each Call represented a new destination and installation for the growing collaborative Paper Boat Flotilla project.
The 20 artists selected for the 2020 SGCI Portfolio will be included in the Pop Up with prints presented on the walls and folded as boats, along with the Flotilla prints.
Leave The Trace
Organizer: Marta Kubiak
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: TBA
Participating Artists:Participating Artists: Ioannis Annastasiou, Michał Chojecki, Patrycja Chrzanowska, Maja Dokudowicz, Grzegorz Gajos, Helena Hauswirt, Magda Hlawacz, Damian Idzikowski, Aleksandra Janik, Anna Kodź, Michalina W. Klasik, Michał Krawiec, Marta Kubiak, Iwona Matkowska, Dorota Nowak-Rodzińska, Marta Pogorzelec, Martyna Rzepecka, Vasyl Savchenko, Małgorzata ETBER Warlikowska
Leaving traces is an integral part of our existence. These traces take various forms and are interpreted by us differently. Sometimes they are permanent and tactile, other times they are fleeting and difficult to catch. They can be just a memory or have a huge impact — on the surroundings, the environment, human and animal beings. We can no longer leave a place as we found it. As printmakers, we leave innumerable of these remains, including completely accidental ones. The proposed project can be made in any technique, both graphic and from the border of different disciplines, as it will be reproduced and printed in the form of risographs taped in the urban space of San Juan or in another proposed location.
Inside Out / Outside In – Between Printmaking and Sculpture
Artist: Alicja Habisiak-Matczak
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Hilton Caribe, viewable during conference hours
The exhibition will show the effects of the advanced research which Alicja Habisiak-Matczak, Polish artist and academic based in Lodz, Poland, conducts at the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. Architecture – Light – Space – Movement are the topics of her works.
“Inside and Out / Outside In’ shows a collection of prints, print objects and artist’s books made between 2020 and 2024. It will include experimental intaglio techniques developed by the author such as monotype etching, etched frottages and eco-electrolytic etchings as well as laser etchings on plexi. 2D works will be complemented by three-dimensional print and drawing objects made with the use of laser as well as artist’s books combining prints, monotypes and drawings.
The title refers to the specific dualism of interior and exterior, often depicted at the same time, combining different points of view on a given architectural object on the plane of one graphic or – more recently – in one graphic object, which in three dimensions shows the interpenetration of what is inside with what is outside.
IEA Editions / Experimentation and Collaboration Through Research-Based Residencies
Organizer: Myles Calvert
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Hilton Caribe, during conference hours
The Institute for Electronic Arts (IEA) at Alfred University is a cutting-edge facility within the School of Art and Design, focusing on interactive multimedia, experimental sonic/video production, and digital imaging. It fosters cultural and technological experimentation and artistic exploration. We support cross-disciplinary work and artist residencies, with early funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and NYSCA. The institute plans to showcase archived prints relevant to the PuertoGrabando conference and to soft-launch IEA Editions, a collaborative new endeavor. The IEA’s print media studios offer state-of-the-art technology for various print forms, including digital large-format printing and traditional techniques. The open call process ensures diversity, with upcoming residencies including artists from LatinX-Hispanic, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, Native American, and LGBTQIA+ communities. Notable artists like Ann Hamilton and Xu Bing, alongside emerging talents, are part of the IEA’s vibrant artistic community.
Landscape Contemplations
Artist: Tomasz Matczak
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto, Río Piedras (UPRRP), Art Building, Gallery A, M-F, 9-4:30pm
The exhibition will show about 20 works realized between 2014 and 2024. Matczak’s prints are the fruit of continuous observation of natural phenomena. He is fascinated with the unique atmosphere created by light and color in different landscapes and the emotions they evoke. He transforms simple sketches into more monumental visions, suggesting the metaphysical meaning of what happens around us. The main theme of some of his works is the meeting of the sky and the earth and the exchange of energy between them. He often reduces the color scale, concentrating on subtle variations of tones to create a specific, intimate atmosphere that invites the observer to enter the world of his imagination.
Sistema
Artist: Sheila Goloborotko
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: TBA
Printmakers understand the power of multiple repetitions; it isn’t redundancy; it’s the backbone of their craft. However, it is nature, wiser than human beings, who truly understands the power of repetition. Silent, simple, built up over centuries, tiny coral lived, died, and calcified to build the ground on which we’re standing, the very walls surrounding us. Nature, ever generous, likes to keep things open to us. This exhibit pays homage via printmaking and installation of cutout printed Mylar and aluminum to the small bodies that became the building blocks of our everyday lives.
Reinventing Invasives: Etchings on Papers Made with Invasive Plants
Artist: Rachel Singel
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Hilton Caribe, during conference hours
No matter where you are in Puerto Rico, if you look out into the distance, you are likely to see a tree that looks like a red fountain. If you examine the flowers you will see brilliant orange-red petals much like the shape and color of tulips. Its origin is west central equatorial Africa, thus the name “African tulip tree.”
Indeed, the dispersal of species around the world is a natural event, however often, as in the case with the African tulip tree which was brought to Puerto Rico because of its beauty, a non-native species may be transported by humans and become invasive.
By virtue of their geographic remoteness, islands have some of the world’s most unique species. Such an impressive superlative is at the same time a liability. Because of their isolation, there is nowhere for endemic species to go when threatened by invaders brought to the islands by humans.
This exhibition seeks to highlight how humans have greatly accelerated the process of invasion, particularly on islands that are more vulnerable to invasive species.
All of the paper in the exhibition is made from invasive plants from areas in the United States including Tree of Heaven and Oriental Bittersweet from Louisville, Kentucky. I then plan to print on this paper copper etchings of endemic plants from Puerto Rico, as well as other endemic species from our ecosystem to highlight their important roles.
I illustrate plants such as the Puerto Rican Hibiscus, or Flor de maga (Montezuma Speciossisima), the national flower of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico’s mountain province, with variable growth conditions and deep valleys, can foster the evolution of such unique new species.
My primary goal as an artist is to create work while consuming as little as possible and then find ways of using my art to bring awareness to nature’s immense complexity and promote environmental consciousness. Invasive plants are negatively affecting the ecosystems of islands such as Puerto Rico and threaten the extinction of native species.
The Smallest Distance Between Us: Challenging Otherness and Telling Stories
Organizer: Kelda Martensen
Participating Artists: Jite Agbro, Otts Bolisay, Mandolin Brassaw, Romson Bustillo, Tatiana Garmendia, Kerstin Graudins, Jessica Jacobsen, Kamla Kakaria, Amanda Knowles, Elijah Martel, Kelda Martensen, Rickie Wolfe
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: TBA
This pop-up exhibition asks: Can we develop and deepen our cultural understanding by engaging in others’ stories? What roles do language, race, nationality and citizenship play along with imagery and material in telling our own stories and in bearing witness to the stories of others?
Storytelling is central to cultural survival and the ability to thrive. This pop-up exhibition invites artists who identify as queer and/or non-binary and/or people of color and/or women to respond to the literature of Puerto Rico, and to incorporate their own cultural identities in doing so. Artists who are white should take care to be sure their work does not borrow from the oppression of others, but instead gives intellectual and artistic credit where it is due; amplifying voices and ideas of Puerto Rico and being mindful of one’s privilege as an artist belonging to the white dominant culture. This exhibition hopes to promote understanding by way of reading and processing creative work, highlight shared experiences while celebrating one’s unique story, and challenge the notion of otherness faced by Puerto Ricans and other US minorities. Using the work of Puerto Rican authors as a starting point serves as a challenging and intimate parameter for telling one’s own story.
Invited artists use personal narrative, language, and cultural storytelling to investigate questions of identity and otherness in their work. Work included will showcase traditional and mixed media printmaking, artist books and zines.
Can U See Her Project
Artist: Lillian Young
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Hilton Caribe, during conference hours
The Can U See Her project is an ongoing series of original prints, buttons, and stickers that feature Black women of the Civil Rights movement, spanning from the 1800s to now. All of the women featured contributed to the history of Civil Rights, equality, and American history in big and small ways. But their stories have been pushed out of the mainstream narrative.
The main goal of this project is to reintroduce as many of these women to the mainstream by creating works that feature their image, names, and if possible a quote. Each print tells a unique personal story using various printing techniques depending on the subject. Black women have contributed greatly in many ways to society, but their stories and images have long been ignored and muted. It’s time for that to change. This series began in 2017 and will continue for the foreseeable future.
The Ocean Inside – A print-video project
Organizer: Eveline Kolijn
Participating voices and the name of the language spoken in the video:
Yerlan Aubakirov (Russian), Jamie Bertram (English), Daisy Casimiri (Papiamento), Nicolas de Jesus (Nahuatl), Cornelis Kolijn (Dutch), Mahira Murad (Urdu), Beatriz Palacios (Spanish), Mireille Perron (French), Katarina Pizania (Greek), Roselyn Pondo (Tagalog), Lyne Sleiman (Arabic), Xiaoyu Sun (Mandarin), Josiah Taundi (Shona), Jo Tito (Te Reo Mãori), Minoru Ueda (Japanese), Bozenna Wisniewska (Polish)
Exhibition Location & Open Hours: Hilton Caribe, during conference hours
In my practice, I explore a general question: what is nature and how do we position ourselves in it? I grew up in the Caribbean in the 70s and have returned in recent years, observing the beauty of coral reefs and their current demise due to the ocean’s changing chemistry. The Ocean Inside is based on my intensely personal experience of witnessing the devastating effects of climate change and other human-made environmental stresses on the coral reefs firsthand.
The projection veil is made with a hand-cut and hand-printed 4×4 feet tiling pattern, printed with reflecting mica on translucent polyester. It depicts a network of plankton which represents the web of life.
I filmed and edited the video footage between 2013-2018. It serves to heighten awareness on climate change affecting the oceans, generate ecological literacy and to reflect on passage of time, human exceptionalism and connectedness of life. To complement the soundscapes of the video audio track, I recorded waves of voices that speak 16 short statements in their native language. The following languages are represented: Dutch, English, French, Greek, Japanese, Mandarin, Nahuatl, Papiamento, Polish, Russian, Shona, Spanish, Tagalog, Te Reo Mãori and Urdu.