The Multicultural Center will host a selection woodblock prints created by the Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca (ASARO), a collective of young Mexican artists, in a new exhibit on display through Oct. 9 in its gallery on the second floor of Baker University Center.
"These prints give their makers the ability to voice their discontent in an expressive, evocative and direct way," said Caitlin Nolan, co-curator and a printmaking graduate student. "Because of the tumultuous political situation in Oaxaca many ASARO artists remain anonymous and would have great difficulty bringing their work out of the country for exhibition."
Seldom seen in the United States, ASARO's remarkable woodblock prints are part of Mexico's long tradition of popular revolutionary art. The artists sell woodblock prints for 100 pesos, roughly $10, in Oaxaca's zocalo, or the public square. ASARO's main objective, however, is to use the artwork in activist statements that highlight injustice and the turmoil of the area.
ASARO's acts have included creating paper stencils of an arrested comrade and painting her portrait over the walls of the historic city center. The group also printed 3-foot-tall woodblock prints of goose-stepping police monsters on tissue paper. By dawn a chorus line of mutant police was pasted to a cathedral's wall.
The exhibit was curated by Nolan and Kevin McCloskey, a professor at the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where the prints are on loan from its collection.
The exhibit will conclude on Oct. 9 with a lecture and reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. The gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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