“The City of Austin has announced the allocation of its fiscal year 2013 Cultural Arts Funding Program awards. Notable for diversity, and many small grants to specific, quirky projects, either directly or through a broad-minded sponsored project option, the long list is cumbersome to untangle, but interesting,” says Bill Davenport, author of the article.
He adds, “It’s nice to see that the authorities handing out the handouts apparently see the value in crazy projects as tourist attractions. Maybe, lacking competition from the finely-tuned development departments of major museums, smaller visual arts orgs find credibility easier to come by?”
Read the rest of the article by Bill Davenport on Glasstire.
Thank you to the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division for their consistent support of the Serie Project throughout the years!
Harriett and Ricardo Romo discuss “Estampas de la Raza” with curator Lyle Williams from McNay Art Museum on Vimeo.
“We didn’t expect something as broad as this,” says Dr. Romo. “We felt that we had devoted a lot of time and effort into collecting it, and we appreciate that someone could look at this and say that this is important to this community and beyond.”
Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Nahual Soldier, 2012
Click here to purchase this print.
Born in El Salvador in 1978, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo immigrated to Canada in 1989 as a result of the 12-year civil war in El Salvador. He attended the Ontario College of Art and Design (Toronto 1998-2001) and received an MFA from Concordia University (2004-2007), and he currently lives and works in Montreal, Canada.
Castillo’s allegorical drawings explore issues of collective memory, cultural identity and historical trauma. Using the body as a symbol and site for trauma, his work is engaged with the possibilities of narrative manifested in personal iconography.
Below is an interview during his residency at the Serie Project in the summer of 2012:
How would you describe the imagery in your print?
“I’ve developed a personal repertory of imagery over the years. My idea has always been to fuse my cultural background with my personal background. I’ve revised this imagery, and I keep recycling my own imagery – I’ve arrived at a personal iconography, in a way.
On Saturday, November 17, 2012, we will be having our first annual fundraiser. You can read the official description of the event here, but we’d like to give you the real reasons we’re having this fundraiser.
Sam Coronado started this non-profit in way East Austin (the Montopolis neighborhood), long before it became hip to live here, back in 1993. He envisioned a workshop where artists could benefit from collaboration and learn the serigraphy technique in a positive, encouraging, intimate, apprenticeship-type setting, and where affordable printmaking services and fine art prints could be made available to the community.
Because of Sam’s vision and tremendous dedication, the Serie Project has fostered over 250 artists to produce a rare collection of serigraphs, launching many of them into successful creative careers.
Ruth Buentello, Baby Daddy, 2012
Ruth Buentello is a first generation Chicana – her parents are from Piedras Niegras, a border town in Mexico. She grew up speaking Spanish and still does at home, holding on strong to her Mexican roots. Much of her work depicts family relationships. “That’s what I know best,” she says. “I don’t know anything else but my family and living with them.”
Her work often features her mother and father, and the relationship that they have – illustrating his masculinity and her femininity. In the video interview below, Buentello highlights a piece called “Under the Colchas,” in which her mother is laying down on the bed, and her father is sitting at the foot of the bed, wearing his cowboy hat.
Although Buentello draws from traditional Chicano/Mexican experiences, the way she expresses the themes in her artwork is contemporary and sometimes experimental. Together with the San Antonio based Chicana art collective, Más Rudas, her work takes on the form of bold installations and collage murals. On their Facebook page, they state they are “brown and proud” and “archiving our history, who else is gonna do it?”
To inquire about purchasing the screen print she produced as part the Serie XIX Artist in Residence program, Baby Daddy, please contact serie@serieproject.org.
Click on “more” to see the interview video and read the rest of the article…
Estampas de la Raza
From September 25, 2012 through January 27, 2013, the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio is featuring the exhibition “Estampas de la Raza: Contemporary Prints from the Romo Collection,” celebrating the recent gift to the McNay of works from the collection of Harriett and Ricardo Romo. Because the Romos have been ardent supporters of our organization, a large portion of the collection consists of Serie Project prints.
This survey of Mexican American and Latino printmakers chronicles the late 1960s at the outset of the Chicano Movement to the confident expressions of the 2000s. More than 60 prints by 44 artists reveal the richness of a mixed cultural heritage, with depictions of Frida Kahlo, lowriders, the Statue of Liberty, tattoos, and the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Organized thematically in five sections, both the catalogue and the exhibition focus on aspects of the Latino experience in the United States: the identity of individuals striving to define themselves; the Chicano Movement’s struggle to achieve economic, political, and personal equality; tradition, memory, and culture in the everyday lives of Latinos; icons that serve as guideposts; and other voices revealing the complex and ever-changing directions Latinos choose. Many images are larger than life, serving up a colorful, visual feast.
Read more about the story behind the Romos’ history of art collecting – on the McNay Art Museum website.
Sep 19
Buy prints on our website!
Serie Project Print Shop
For those of you who have been long-time loyal supporters of the Serie Project by purchasing our prints (thank you!), we’ve made it even easier. We are no longer using Etsy to sell prints we’ve produced over the last 19 years – we’ve moved sales to our own website!
To view the catalog, simply click on “Print Shop” in the menu at the top. There are multiple ways to search the inventory. You can sort alphabetically, or by price, or you can view by series (I through XIX). If it doesn’t have the blue “ADD TO CART” button, sadly, it means it’s not for sale. But we have plenty of pieces that are for sale, and most of them are in the $250-$300 range, making it extremely affordable to own unique, fine art serigraphy in a wide range of themes such as nature, Aztec and Maya themes, social politics, pop culture, Latino and Hispanic culture, women’s issues, abstract and surreal, and more. (Check out our Pinterest page to see our serigraphs organized by a variety of categories.)
You can also create an account on our website to track your orders. Some of these pieces are selling fast and are only available in very limited quantities, so if you see something you like, it’s best to purchase it as soon as you can! Once the last piece in the edition sells, it’s no longer available, and will not re-print another edition.
If you have any questions about a particular piece, please free to contact us at serie@serieproject.org or call (512) 385-3591.