Paper in Profile: Mixografia and Taller de Gráfica Mexicana

This exhibition offered an engaging survey of international contemporary art and some of its modernist precursors framed within the compelling history of Mixografia, the collaborative printmaking and sculptural multiples workshop. Featuring the work of 60 different artists, the exhibition included powerful, representative work by some of the biggest names in the contemporary art world.

Founded in Mexico City as Taller de Gráfica Mexicana in 1968 and based in Los Angeles since the mid-1980s, the Mixografia Workshop uses its own techniques and processes to produce and publish sculptural multiples and handmade paper prints, allowing artists to incorporate unprecedented dimension and detail into their work, creating three-dimensional prints, or relief sculpture in paper. The “prints,” each a single sheet of paper, can be as deep as 3 inches, allowing an entirely new level of trompe l’oeil. Since its inception, the workshop has helped artists realize their visions through processes and styles unique to each individual. At the same time, while the works take countless forms, they are unmistakably Mixografia.

“Paper in Profile: Mixografia and Taller de Gráfica Mexicana” featured more than 130 prints and some large-scale serial installations. The exhibition also included didactic displays demonstrating the Mixografia techniques and archival documents elucidating important moments in the workshop’s history.

The museum published a comprehensive, fully illustrated hardcover catalogue to accompany the exhibition, with an essay on each artist included.