MIXOGRAFIA

Film by Eric Minh Swenson.

Mixografia is a Los Angeles-based fine arts printer and publisher, expanding the realm of printmaking by incorporating dimensionality and relief into a traditionally two-dimensional medium. Mixografia® prints are produced using custom print and papermaking machinery that has been designed and built in house to fit the specific needs of each artwork. Mixografia aims to provide every artist with a collaborative and enriching experience, accommodating each artist’s unique working style and highlighting their creative visions. Our adjoined gallery space exhibits artworks produced by the workshop, highlighting both new releases and artworks produced by Mixografia since 1969, including the largest lithographic stone in the world. Mixografia enriches the field of contemporary printmaking by continuing to innovate and bring creative energy to every project the workshop undertakes.
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Mixografia was founded in Mexico City by Luis Remba, whose family has been involved in printmaking for two generations. In 1969, using the knowledge and skills he gained from his father’s commercial printing business, Luis opened Taller de Gráfica Mexicana, a fine art printing studio that specialized in lithography. Luis and his wife Lea invited artists into the workshop, providing them with studio space and an environment to explore their creative ideas.

The Mixografia® method was conceived in 1973 as the result of a collaboration between Taller de Gráfica Mexicana and renowned Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. The Rembas invited Tamayo to create a series of prints, and the artist agreed upon the condition that the studio develop a technique that would allow him to produce his prints in relief. Tamayo was looking to expand the realm of printmaking by incorporating aspects of texture and dimensionality into his artwork. Luis Remba rose to the challenge by inventing a process that not only allowed Tamayo to create prints in relief, but also registered the artwork’s very fine texture and detail.

The production of a Mixografia® print, involves placing wet paper pulp over a three-dimensional printing plate and running it through the press at very high pressure. The moist paper fibers are forced into the grooves of the plate, at once absorbing the ink and forming the raised quality of the print. Unable to use commercial paper for this new kind of printing, Shaye Remba, developed a papermaking facility in their studio. The name of the print shop was changed to reflect the name of the medium for which it had become known: “Mixografia.”

The workshop was interested in broadening its reach, so in 1984 Luis and Lea moved to Los Angeles to set up a second location. Soon after, Shaye joined his family in LA and Mixografia began operating out of the newly established printmaking facilities in Downtown Los Angeles. As artists continued to approach the studio with increasingly creative and diverse ideas for Mixografia prints, the workshop invented new machinery and techniques to fit the needs of each project.

As the Mixografia® printing technique has developed and evolved, it has been able to produce increasingly complex works of art that have come to re-define the category of “print.” The versatility of Mixografia® prints has allowed artists to incorporate materials such as gold leaf gilding, cast resin, raw pigment, LED lights, inkjet paper and thumbtacks into their artwork, and has produced prints with up to two and a half inches of relief.

Today the Workshop is directed by Shaye Remba, and continues to attract major national and international artists. Through its dedication, perseverance, and desire to set new standards of graphic art, Mixografia has enriched the Los Angeles artistic community and reached audiences all over the world.

For more info on Eric Minh Swenson visit his website at thuvanarts.com. His art films can be seen at thuvanarts.com/take1

Eric Minh Swenson also covers the international art scene and his writings and photo essays can be seen at Huffington Post Arts : http://m.huffpost.com/us/author/eric-...