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Michael Menchaca, ‘Castizo no. 2,’ 2019, from the suite of 16 screen prints, La Raza Cosmica 20XX, 2019. Screen print. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, Friends of PDP Photographic Fund in honor of Lindsey Buhl, 2021.249.2

Detroit Institute of Arts surveys 21st-century prints

Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Michael Menchaca, ‘Castizo no. 2,’ 2019, from the suite of 16 screen prints, La Raza Cosmica 20XX, 2019. Screen print. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, Friends of PDP Photographic Fund in honor of Lindsey Buhl, 2021.249.2
Michael Menchaca, ‘Castizo no. 2,’ 2019, from the suite of 16 screen prints, La Raza Cosmica 20XX, 2019. Screen print. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, Friends of PDP Photographic Fund in honor of Lindsey Buhl, 2021.249.2

DETROIT — The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) presents Printmaking in the Twenty-First Century, an exhibition that celebrates the range and ingenuity of artwork by contemporary printmakers, through April 9, 2023. This exhibition features works using the latest digital tools, techniques used in the 15th century, and a combination of these methods that speaks to our current times. The exhibition also highlights many works acquired recently by the DIA.

Included in this exhibition are more than 60 prints, posters, and artists’ books by diverse local, national and international artists, such as Hernan Bas, Susan Goethel Campbell, Enrique Chagoya, Marc Dion, Nicole Eisenman, Walton Ford, Chitra Ganesh, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, Michael Menchaca, Ryan Standfest, Katia Santibanez, James Siena, Dyani White Hawk and Ai Weiwei. Printers and publishers include Crown Point Press, San Francisco; Durham Press, Durham, Pennsylvania; Gemini GEL, Los Angeles, California; Harlan & Weaver, New York, New York; Highpoint Editions, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Signal-Return, Detroit, Michigan; and Stewart & Stewart, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Walton Ford, ‘Dying Words,’ 2005. Aquatint etching with hard ground, spit bite, dry point, scraping and burnishing on paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, PDP General Fund with funds from John and Mary Biello, 2022.26
Walton Ford, ‘Dying Words,’ 2005. Aquatint etching with hard ground, spit bite, dry point, scraping and burnishing on paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, PDP General Fund with funds from John and Mary Biello, 2022.26

This exhibition includes the full set of 24 posters in the On Press Project: Prints for Nonprofits, 2018-22, printed and published by Signal-Return. The project highlights 24 Detroit-area artists including: Mark Arminski, Ouizi (Louise Jones), Sabrina Nelson, Renata Palubinskas, Pat Perry, Vito Valdez, W. C. Bevan, Olyamai Dabls, Andy Krieger, Nicole MacDonald, Azucena Nava-Morena, Renee Rials, Tyanna Buie, Sue Carman-Vian, Mary Fortuna, Charles McGee, Hubert Massey, Ryan Standfest, Jide Aje, Carole Harris, Kathy Leisen, Yvette Rock, Tylonn Sawyer and Clinton Snider. The Detroit nonprofit letterpress printshop Signal-Return continues the history of letterpress and relief printing as a way of making affordable works of art for everyone.

Robert Pruitt, ‘Negra Es Bella,’ 2044. Two-color lithograph. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, John S. Newberry Fund, 2020.13. Copyright © of the artist and Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Robert Pruitt, ‘Negra Es Bella,’ 2044. Two-color lithograph. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, John S. Newberry Fund, 2020.13. Copyright © of the artist and Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Seattle, Washington

DIA Curator of Prints & Drawings, Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs and exhibition curator Clare Rogan explained, “This exhibition celebrates the incredible range of contemporary prints being made today. From the most ambitious, large, and technically complex series to smaller, witty comments.” Rogan continued, “the artists bring their diverse experiences and identities (Black, Latinx, Native American, white, female, male, LGBTQ) to create work that responds to life today.”

The exhibition also features new acquisitions, including:

Dyani White Hawk, Wowahokunkiya, ‘Lead,’ from the set of four titled ‘Takes Care of Them,’ 2019. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, with funds from the Robert L. and Joan M. Roberts Trust, 2020.92.1
Dyani White Hawk, Wowahokunkiya, ‘Lead,’ from the set of four titled Takes Care of Them, 2019. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, with funds from the Robert L. and Joan M. Roberts Trust, 2020.92.1

Takes Care of Them, 2019, Dyani White Hawk, Sicangu Lakota, a set of four screen prints, Detroit Institute of Arts. The four screenprints represent traditional dentalium dresses, printed in more than 18 layers of screen print and metal foil. White Hawk explains that the set honors Indigenous women and “the ways the women in our lives stand guard, protect, and nurture our well-being.”

Rashid Johnson, ‘Untitled (Anxious Crowd),’ 2018, soft-ground etching. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, John S. Newberry Fund, 2020.23
Rashid Johnson, ‘Untitled (Anxious Crowd),’ 2018, soft-ground etching. Detroit Institute of Arts, museum purchase, John S. Newberry Fund, 2020.23

Untitled (Anxious Crowd), 2018, Rashid Johnson, American, soft-ground etching, Detroit Institute of Arts. Rashid Johnson expressed his anxiety as a Black man and father of a Black son. He drew the energetic line with soft-ground etching to express the anxiety of being in public as a Black man.

Visit the website for the Detroit Institute of Arts and see its dedicated page for Printmaking in the Twenty-First Century.