During the Fall of 2017, the letterpress studio was in transition to move into a new space across the street and escalated into a hot mess. Old prints began to resurface throughout this transition, reflecting the history of ideas that had developed around the presses within the space. Now the move is complete and the presses are hot & ready for some new work to be printed.
This selection of printed matter was created by students, some now alumni, faculty and visiting artists at the “old” space. It includes hand set type to digitally created works that employed processes such as laser cutting and photopolymer plates. The revival of letterpress has merged the old with the new, digital and analog, and gives artists and designers an opportunity to create new works in a variety of forms (books, broadsides, prints and more).
CURATOR: Over three years ago Lisa Angeles Watanabe landed in Chicago seeking an MFA in Visual Communication at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The school brought her face to face with the realization that bureaucracy and over-development have made our lives unnecessarily overcomplicated.
She recently graduated, returning to Tucson, where she earned her BFA in Visual Communication — Graphic Design at the University of Arizona. She is back with the intention of bringing her new experiences back to the desert. She has new ideas on the importance of devolution and returning to basics.