In the Fold: A Critical Dialogue on Blackness + Printmaking, a conversation with Delita Martin, Chloe Alexander and Tanekeya Word

She Sent Him Back to His Mother, Stephanie Santana, 2020

“As artists, collectively and individually, we are continuously asking ourselves questions and creating artwork that are iterations of those inquiries. What unfolds is an expansion of the intersections of our lives on varied planes. Each artist will take you into the fold and invite a critical dialogue on their art praxis and discuss a homeplace they all share, Black Women of Print.”

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Join us for what will be a thoughtful and powerful conversation with three printmakers, Delita Martin, Tanekeya Word and Chloe Alexander. Tanekeya Word is the founder of Black Women of Print, an organization which aims to promote the visibility of mid-career and established Black women printmakers, through accessible educational outreach, to create an equitable future within the discipline of printmaking.

Thursday, June 23, 6:30pm
$10; free for Highpoint Contributing Members
Register for the event here.
Please note that this event has limited capacity. Highpoint is not requiring masks in the gallery space as of this writing, but that is subject to change. Masks are encouraged for all attendees.

“I wanted to create a place where intergenerational Black women printmakers could form bonds like Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs and Elizabeth Catlett. From Mid-Career to Established printmakers, it is my hope that we all can learn something from one another, support one another and also have a home so that the world can get to know the intersectional narratives of Black womanhood and our creative processes.”

— Tanekeya Word

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Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and a MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formally a member of the fine arts faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Martin is currently working as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press.

Primarily working from oral traditions, along with vintage and family photographs as a source of inspiration; Martin’s work explores the power of the narrative impulse.

www.blackboxstudio.com

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Chloe Alexander is a printmaker and educator who works in various techniques to create one-of-a-kind prints, drawings, and varied editions. Chloe obtained both her BFA and M. Ed. from Georgia State University in Atlanta and has since exhibited work
widely, including at Kai Lin Art Gallery in Atlanta, the International Print Center New York, and the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair in London

thehaplessprintmaker.com

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Tanekeya Word was born in the Mississippi Delta and those memories are rooted within her praxis.

In her work, she explores subaltern spaces: Black interiority in the United States of America and the cultural connection to identity, history, memory and re-memory.

Tanekeya earned a BA in English and Afro-American Studies, from Howard University and has a MA in Arts Management. She completed her doctoral
program in May 2019 and is currently an Urban Education PhD dissertator with a specialization in Critical Race Theory in Art Education.

Tanekeya Word is based in Milwaukee, WI and is the owner and sole operator of Womanist Press Studio

www.tanekeyaword.com

Highpoint Editions at EXPO Chicago

Highpoint Editions visits the EXPO Chicago

Early April, Highpoint Editions exhibited at EXPO Chicago, a fine art fair that featured over 140 exhibitors from around the country, with some international representation, as well. We exhibited new works by Julie Mehretu, Delita Martin, Rico Gatson, Julie Buffalohead and Jim Hodges, along with favorite prints by Willie Cole, Jim Hodges, Andrea Carlson, Do Ho Suh, and Lisa Nankivil.

Over 30,000 visitors attended the fair this year, and it was so clear that people were hungry for events like this one -- energy was high, and the overwhelming feeling throughout the fair were of excitement and reinvigoration from being able to view art in person. We hope to participate in this fair again!

Keepsakes, a new suite by Delita Martin

Joyce, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a sister.

We are honored to be able to announce the completion of a suite of seven prints by artist Delita Martin. Martin's use of color, pattern and portraiture is powerful, and these incredibly (perhaps deceptively) tender pieces capture the same persistent and confrontational energy characteristic of her larger body of work.

Over the pandemic, Highpoint Editions worked with Martin to ship pieces back and forth, making progress remotely. Because of the size of this suite and the edition — making 140 prints in total — each one stitched by hand with embroidery thread, Martin recruited women from her area in Huffman, TX to assist with the stitching. She describes what became a kind of quilting bee, wherein she felt honored to be surrounded by these women’s conversation, let in on a time honored tradition and bestowed with community wisdom. Contributing sewists include: Sandra Sayles, Wilma J. Evans, Georgia Harper and Sandy Patterson.

The suite is available for purchase now. Please click HERE for pricing. Email alex@highpointprintmaking.org with questions!

Ann, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a longtime friend of the artist.

From the artist:

Keepsakes is a series of prints that look beyond the surface of objects at the memories they hold. Their purpose is to preserve the childhood of young Black girls and act as mementos of innocence. In this way, Keepsakes is a direct act against “adultification”, a perspective where adults view Black girls as less than innocent and more adult-like, ripping away their innocence and replacing it with labels such as “disruptive”, “loud” or “manipulative”. These labels often result in their mistreatment. 

This varied series shows portraits of little Black girls peering from the folds of vintage christening gowns. Such gowns, typically a shade of white symbolize innocence and purity in the Christian doctrine that teaches all men were created blameless and free of sin. However the dresses in these works are slightly yellowed signifying the passage of time and suggesting that perhaps such notions are not equally applied. 

Personal objects have long been a reflection of memory, personal and cultural identity. The dresses in this series act as repositories for both memory and identity. 

Trina, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a sister.

Karen, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a sister.

Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and a MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Martin is currently working as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press. 

Primarily working from oral traditions, along with vintage and family photographs as a source of inspiration, Martin’s work explores the power of the narrative impulse.

Her finished works combine collaging, drawing, painting, printmaking and sewing techniques, placing her figures amid patterns to visually represent what it looks like when we become the spiritual other: when we pray or meditate … we enter the “veilscape.” Martin's layering of technique and material, as well as her use of pattern and color, signifies a liminal space – the space between the waking life and the spirit life. By fusing this visual language with oral storytelling in this different space she offers other identities and other narratives for women of color.

Real Positions: Self-Portraits by Seitu Ken Jones at Homewood Studios

From January 4th through the 29th Homewood Studios is presenting new work by Seitu Ken Jones. Jones writes of the new work: “They are actually images of me in some of the conditions and struggles African American men have been placed in America. There is an image of me as an enslaved man painted in warm colors, another is me in blue as a part of the Great Migration and the painting in red is me in the current reckoning.”

Learn more about the exhibition and read the full curatorial statement here!

Tales from the Co-op: Jon Mahnke

Rebuild, polymergravure

I’ve been making prints since I was a junior in high school , where I fell in love with etching. I completed my bachelors degree at the University of Iowa, and my masters in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota. I enjoy printmaking as an artistic endeavor as well as a nice day job that pays the bills. My wife and I started an illustration and screen printing business that sells greeting cards and printed kitchen towels called Crankosaurus press. Despite printing thousands of products a year, I still have a deep passion for printing as my primary artistic medium.

I am working primarily in photopolymer gravure, a process I learned from Keith Taylor in a course taught at Highpoint. It allows me to take images drawn on the computer and transform them into intaglio prints. These works have been inspired by the overwhelming amount of construction in Minneapolis recently.

Primarily working at home for yourself can be a lonely endeavor, Highpoint offers me a wonderful social lifeline as well as a reliable well equipped print facility. It's wonderful to have somewhere to go with welcoming staff and co-op members. Working around other amazing artists has given me new ideas and definitely helped me improve as an artist.

Leslie Barlow MAEP Exhibition at Mia

Creator: Charles Walbridge | Credit: Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art | Copyright: © Minneapolis Institute of Art

Leslie Barlow’s MAEP exhibition “Within, Between, and Beyond” explores representation, race, family, and belonging. Comprised of both paintings and video interviews, the work shares stories of 16 Minnesotans who use the terms mixed race, multiracial, and/or transnational/transracial adoptee to identify themselves and their lived experiences. “Within, Between, and Beyond” invites us to hold space for, recognize, and reconsider our presumptions about race in Minnesota.

Within, Between, and Beyond is on view in the U.S. Bank Gallery from July 26, 2021 through October 31, 2021

Read more about the exhibition and related programming here!