Oxbow Building
The River Print Suite is a series of large-scale prints that was produced on site at Pearl’s new Oxbow office building by the Pop-Up Industrial Press (the A3 Press) operated by Bishop & Valderas LLC. The suite will feature a 16’ x 4’ black and white collaborative exquisite corpse images created from five interchangeable relief plates. The river themed suite will also include a print portfolio of each of the five images used to make the 16 foot prints. A bas relief will be assembled from the sealed maple relief plates and exhibited in Oxbow’s north lobby at 1803 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78215.
Using the exquisite corpse method developed by the Bureau of Surrealist Research, the team of collaborating artists carved relief plates from 3’ x 3’ x 1” maple plywood with a river themed image unseen by each other until printing day. The A3 Pop-Up Industrial Press is a guerrilla style form of printmaking that brings printmaking to the streets. It requires the collaboration of not just the artists but the community to make it happen. The printing event serves both as a spectacle that creates memories and a mixer that introduces the community to its members. The volunteers required to make it happen are all introduced and taught the specific skill set of large-scale printmaking on the spot.
Valderas, a large-scale printmaker, pioneered large scale printmaking in San Antonio with the very first large-scale print made in San Antonio the spring of 2005 at the Blue Star parking lot along the river in collaboration with the now defunct Stone Metal Press. There were subsequent print events held, but after the closing of SMP, Bishop & Valderas co-founded the A3 Press in 2010. In collaboration with artist Paul Karam, the first large-scale printing event produced by their new Pop-Up Industrial Press was the Texas Size Print-2011. TSP is a three-color interchangeable plate mono-print collaboration, the largest to date, that the team produced and then stretched from goal-post to goal-post at Alamo Stadium. It was a temporary public art installation involving over a hundred community volunteers, art students and SAISD. Since then Bishop & Valderas have produced and participated in events that introduce and educate artists and their communities about large-scale printmaking in Kingsville, San Marcos, El Paso, Austin, Brownsville and Dallas. The A3 Press has collaborated with institutions such as Art Pace, San Anto Cultural Arts, The San Marcos Hispanic Culture Center, The City of San Antonio, The City of El Paso, The Elisabet Ney Museum, UTSA and Texas A&M University—San Antonio. Throughout its operation the A3 Press has developed an archive of prints produced in its events as well.
She Is Sacred
Woodcut
36” x 36”
My piece centers on the life-giving power of water. The movement of my cuts express the flow and speed of the water. The female form lends itself perfectly to this notion as I connect the flowing water to create her and indigenous iconography to give her distinction. I want the viewer to experience the water as a person, as indigenous peoples do, giving life to the planet. A nurturing person who is the lifeforce of the world. A sacred river to treat as a lover but to defend like a mother.
WATCH THE 3MIN PRODUCTION OF THE PIECE
The artists/printmakers featured in the print suite include:
Ricky Armendariz, Kim Bishop, Juan de Dios Mora, Brandy González and Luis Valderas.