The Serie Project, Inc.
Quinton Gonzalez, Chicano 15, 2008.
Austin, TX is known for music so it’s not surprising that hand-screenprinted music posters are a big part of the local color. Wayne Alan Brenner wrote an informative article called The Art Is Formally Known as Prints for the Austin Chronicle back in early November about the scene. If you can forgive the title, it’s definitely worth a read. Brenner does a good job of documenting the lineage of recent Austin screenprinting. It’s a pretty tangled web but he manages to cut through it and tell a story of a vibrant community. In the article, Sam Coronado and his Serie Project get their due respect as a real force in the Austin print community so I decided I was long overdue for a visit.
Located in East Austin, The Serie Project, Inc. is “a non-profit Latino organization that produces, promotes and exhibits serigraph prints created by established and emerging artists.” Master Printer Sam Coronado started the Serie Project in 1993 after a visit to Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles. To date, Serie has trained countless printers and worked with over 150 artists. Assistant Director James Beard had some time to show me the shop and some prints.
A gray day in Austin is pretty rare but that was the case back in December when I stopped by Serie.
Alex Rubio, El Spider, 1995.
The Serie HQ has racks of prints categorized by year. Above is a relatively early Serie print by Alex Rubio. The majority of the catalog is available online for viewing and for purchase. My pictures aren’t the best but you can follow the title links to see cleaned-up images on the Serie website. Reflecting the variety of artists that come though to make silkscreens, there is a broad range of subject and style. Here are a few more…
Matthew Rodrigez, In the Second Grade…, 2007.
Miguel Aragon, Pastos Verdes y Cielos!! Azules, 2006.
Lula Macondes, A Tapioca da Tia Lu, 2007.
Serie Project’s newest print- Fun by Richard Duardo. Duardo runs Modern Multiples in Los Angeles.
The printing for Serie Project is actually done at Coronado Studios which is located in an adjacent building. Again, note the unusually gray sky.
TMI Jaguar Parallel One-Arm Spring-lift. Bad-ass! Available here.
Unidentified baseball print.
Some work by James Beard who was kind enough to show me around the shop. The She-ram print on the right is for sale HERE.
It wouldn’t be a Texas printshop without a horned skull above a work space, would it?
The Serie 2010 calendar.
This Decoder Ring sticker was on the emulsion refrigerator- breaking hearts and breaking squeegees.
Word from James Beard is that Serie will be partnering with silkscreen guru Andy MacDougall of Squeegeeville to do some work live at the Flatstock (hosted by American Poster Institute and SXSW). “During the 3 day course of Flatstock, we will be printing posters from a group of poster artists and Serie artists in person, on the premises. Passerby’s will be able to observe and ask questions while we print away, and the produced prints will be available for sale (sending 1/2 to the designer, 1/2 for sale by us).” Printeresting should be on the scene so you can look forward to pictures of the event here.
Thank you for the kind article Jason. It was good having you visit our compound. We do have an open studio, so anyone else interested in touring the compound and seeing our work can make an appointment with me at james [@] serieproject.org. Viva la serigrafia!
[…] being kind enough to feature us on his blog and share his thoughts on printmaking with us. You can view the full post here. This was written by James. Posted on Thursday, January 21, 2010, at 10:47 am. Filed under News. […]
Thanks for the linkage tip o’ the hat, Jason ~ and for this illustrated look at some of what the Serie Project offers.