PrintAustin kicks off Jan. 15 with Delita Martin, juror of “The Contemporary Print: 5×5”
Join Sightlines editor Jeanne Claire van Ryzin for a discussion with Martin on her artistic practice, launching the Black Box Press Art as Activism Fund, and the jurying process behind the prints featured in “The Contemporary Print: 5×5,” PrintAustin’s signature exhibition.
The online event is at 7 p.m. Jan. 15. RSVP for the link at printaustin.org/events/
Martin is the founder of Black Box Press in Huffman, Texas. Her work combines printmaking with drawing, painting, hand-stitching, and collage to create a visual language that offers insight into the marginalization of Black women. Her vibrant and powerful works are nationally and internationally recognized, having appeared in several publications, book covers, and in mainstream movies.
Martin’s current work deals with reconstructing the identity of Black women by piecing together the signs, symbols, and language found in what could be called everyday life from slavery through modern times.
Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Martin has exhibited her work in State of the Arts: Discovering American Art Now and was named one of sixteen African American artists to watch by the International Review of African American Art. Recently she was the Keynote Speaker at the Mid America Print Council Conference Power of Print: Resistance & Revolution at Kent State University.
Through Black Box Press Studio, Martin founded the initiative Art As Activism Fund, whose mission is to support artists in the production of an exhibition that brings together the creative energy of the arts to move us emotionally with the strategic planning of activism necessary to bring about social change. The fund is a targeted initiative to bring focus to how art can be used as a captivating means of shifting perspectives, changing mindsets, and evoking powerful emotions, which can have a broad effect on the landscape and discourse around social justice in the world. Black Box Press Studio offers limited edition prints and other merchandise as a means to support this fund.
Sightlines is a media sponsor of PrintAustin
