On Saturday, June 29th, 2019, Self Help Graphics & Art hosted its Annual Print Fair and Exhibition, a highly anticipated one-day pop-up event for art lovers to see a culmination of new works printed between 2018-2019 through the Professional Printmaking Program, as well as hundreds of prints from the archive. The Annual Print Fair featured serigraphs, monoprints, as well as new relief and intaglio print editions for sale, alongside our Utopia/Dystopia exhibition, curated by Artist Miyo Stevens-Gandara. 

Hundreds of visitors of all ages from all over Los Angeles County, including several featured exhibition artists, came to Self Help Graphics & Art to engage with the printmaking arts community. Throughout the course of the day, a multitude of prints were sold, including two sets of J. Leigh Garcia’s untitled prints in the Utopia/Dystopia exhibition, “Che” by Salomón Huerta, “Corazón de Aztlan” by Frank Romero, and other notable prints by Artists Dewey Tafoya, Marianne Sadowski, Victor Rosas, and John Valdez. In addition to a diverse selection of prints, visitors had the opportunity to participate in workshops headed by several Artists in Residence, including Ni Santas, Viktor Rosas, and Martha Carrillo. 

Ni Santas hosted a family friendly workshop to create sun prints, otherwise known as cyanotypes, using found objects in nature and transparency sheets with drawn Sharpie designs that were exposed to the sun on special paper to create a negative image print. Rosas and Carrillo hosted an ArtPunk inspired workshop in which participants created a design and printed their image onto strips of cloth using relief printmaking, which they later sowed and embellished on textiles. 

The Annual Print Fair may be over, but the Utopia/Dystopia exhibition will run through August 10, 2019. Prints for sale will remain on display through August 1, 2019. To view prints for sale or view the exhibition, please visit SHG during gallery hours Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM- 5:00 PM or shop prints and merchandise at the online shop anytime.

Thank you to all who attended the Annual Print Fair and Exhibition and continue to support SHG! If you weren’t able to make it, but wish to make a donation to the organization, visit the online donation page or text “SHG45” to 41444.

Gabrielle Garcia is a Self Help Graphics & Art Getty Marrow Undergraduate Intern and recent graduate of Scripps College.