Fine Arts Center Gallery presents printmaking exhibition from Maritza Davila

Jan. 14, 2009 -- The Fine Arts Center Gallery at Arkansas State University-Jonesboro is pleased to present “Ancestry, Culture and Other Influences,” an exhibition of recent work by Memphis printmaker Maritza Davila. An opening reception honoring the artist will be held Tuesday, January 20 from 5-6:30 p.m. The Fine Arts Center Gallery is located at 114 South Caraway Road, Jonesboro. “Ancestry, Culture, and Other Influences will be on view through Thursday, Feb. 12.

Davila is a professor of Fine Arts at the Memphis College of Art where she has taught printmaking and foundations since 1982. She is also owner of the printmaking studio Atabeira Press, established in 1989. Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, she received a BA in Art Education at the University of Puerto Rico in 1974 and an MFA in painting and printmaking at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, in 1977.

Davila has lectured and exhibited worldwide, with solo shows in New York, Maine, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia and group exhibitions throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Poland, Finland, France, Norway, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. Her work is included in collections in the United States, France, Spain, Puerto Rico, Poland, and Japan.

A printmaker whose work reflects the nature and influences of her Puerto Rican culture, Davila writes, “The thread that runs through all my work is ancestry—the collection of inseparable qualities that, through blood and culture and beyond our ability to control, help make us who we are. While we may not be able to consent to the qualities of the past that have shaped us, we do exercise choice in how we regard our essential selves. In my work, the view to ancestry is represented by memories that are woven or contemplated through symbols of passage: windows, arches, doorways, gates. What we see, remember, or pass through includes elements of family, culture, and religion as well as social, racial, and gender facets of life. In a word: identity.”

Davila continues, “Each of us connects at all these levels through experience that unfolds with increasing complexity as we grow older. Even as those moments differ from family to family or from person to person, the experiences become a part of our essential selves. My artwork reflects these experiences framed within frames. Exteriors blend with interiors, and geometric shapes contrast with the organic to reveal shadings of womanhood, home relationships, environment, and roots. Color and texture create an atmosphere of emotional and spiritual evolution. Techniques used include but are not limited to screenprinting, intaglio, polymer plates, and collograph. These are selected for conceptual needs of the images. The process of creating multiples, monoprints, monotypes, or books corresponds to my philosophy of developing an image or object as part of a journey that requires time, discipline and commitment.”

The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. The Fine Arts Center Gallery is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For additional information, contact the ASU Department of Art at (870) 972-3050.            

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