By Ni Baliness
Students from the printmaking course Art 370 stood proudly by their creations while friends and supporters snapped photos of the exhibit featured on the third floor of the University Library,
Debuting with an opening reception on March 18, “Inspired Printmaking” is the first art exhibition Long Beach State’s School of Art has created in partnership with the University Archives.
Printmaking is the process of making multiple images using different matrixes such as woodblocks, screen stencils, or a drawing that can be printed multiple times.
To create their original prints, students visited the Special Collections and University Archives to research and gain inspiration from a plethora of work from “master artists” including Andy Warhol and Katsushika Hokusai.
The archive, according to University Archivist Librarian Heather Steele Gajewski, consists of over 500 art and photographic prints that the center houses.
“It gives them first-hand, intimate experience with the art that hopefully inspires them in their own work when they see the lines and the values and details of the artwork,” Steele Gajewski said.
Michael Nannery decided to sell some of his own lithographs for students and guests. Nannery explained that the waterfall lithograph was created when his father-in-law took him and his wife to visit the Takachiho Gorge in Japan. Photo credit: Ni Baliness
Despite this being the first exhibition of its kind, the tradition of Art 370 students visiting the archives center has existed long before.
Long Beach State alumnus, School of Art lecturer and Gallery Coordinator, Michael Nannery said he remembers his own professor, Roxanne Sexauer, bringing his class to see the archives.
His inspiration to create the exhibition came from an idea to inspire students to utilize the resources the university has to offer.
“I wanted to fire up my students about this idea of researching art or any idea you have and taking advantage of whatever resources you have as a student,” Nannery said.
When picking out which pieces of artworks to show students, Nannery drew from the emotional impact of the 2024 presidential election.
“I remember it was right after the election so it was a little bit of a doom and gloom for the class and for the campus and for half of the world,” Nannery said. “I kind of picked out these works that kind of dealt with the ideas of like culture, class, consumerism and different scenarios.”
Diana Lomeli’s original prints, which were inspired by the famous Francisco Goya’s piece, features key differences from its inspiration. Lomeli said she decided to keep her subject looking towards the viewers to showcase emotion and chose to purposefully exclude the naked body’s private areas because she believes a person is more than their “reproductive system or what is between their legs.” Photo credit: Ni Baliness
Fourth-year studio art major, Diana Lomeli found her inspiration from a piece called “The Little Prisoner” by Francisco Goya.
Her technique included using a zinc metal plate and a scoring tool to etch her design. After placing it in a vat of acid to secure the marks on the plate, Lomeli said she was able to roll ink onto the grooves and transfer it onto paper.
“When I first saw it, I immediately gravitated towards it because it was such a small print compared to this one and it was such heavy line work in it,” Lomeli said. “I thought it was relevant right now in the state of our country and how probably a lot of people will feel like a prisoner or like they are restricted or like they can’t exist.”
Maya Aragon, a 22-year-old student intern for Flux Art Space, said they came to the opening reception to support Nannery and the students.
“Being a student artist myself, it is inspiring to see people my age doing such great things and exhibiting their work,” Aragon said.
The featured student works in the “Inspired Printmaking” exhibition will be on display until May 2.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2:41 p.m. on Monday, March 24 to correct information in the second photo caption.
