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The Print Center Announces the 99th ANNUAL International Competition Solo Exhibitions
Alanna Airitam: Black Diamonds: The Black Outlaw Bikers
William Camargo: The Sense of Brown
in the Zemel Family Gallery
and
Juana Estrada Hernández: !Echale Ganas!
January 24 – April 5, 2025
PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Print Center is pleased to present three new solo exhibitions of recent work by Alanna Airitam (born 1971, Queens, NY; lives Tucson, AZ), William Camargo (born 1989, Anaheim, CA; lives Anaheim) and Juana Estrada Hernández (born 1995, Luis Moya, Zacatecas, Mexico; lives Providence, RI). The solo exhibition winners were selected from the ten Finalists identified from the over 460 applications to the 99th ANNUAL International Competition.
I am pleased that this year’s ANNUAL exhibitions feature artists living and making art in cities across the United States who have brought compelling perspectives and dynamic artworks to The Print Center. Chosen from the juror’s selection of ten Finalists, the work of three artists of differing backgrounds and ethnicities: Alanna Airitam, William Camargo and Juana Estrada Hernández confront myriad American myths through powerful portraits of Black motorcyclists, sly interventions into the landscape and meaningful interpretations of the immigrant experience.
– Lauren Rosenblum, Jensen Bryan Curator
Marking the landmark 99th iteration of The Print Center’s ANNUAL International Competition, it is quite thrilling that the program continues to introduce us to some of the most exceptional work in print currently being created across the globe. We are pleased to have the opportunity to support these emerging artists as they build what we know will be stellar careers.
– Elizabeth Spungen, Executive Director
I am pleased that this year’s ANNUAL exhibitions feature artists living and making art in cities across the United States who have brought compelling perspectives and dynamic artworks to The Print Center. Chosen from the juror’s selection of ten Finalists, the work of three artists of differing backgrounds and ethnicities: Alanna Airitam, William Camargo and Juana Estrada Hernández confront myriad American myths through powerful portraits of Black motorcyclists, sly interventions into the landscape and meaningful interpretations of the immigrant experience.
– Lauren Rosenblum, Jensen Bryan Curator
Marking the landmark 99th iteration of The Print Center’s ANNUAL International Competition, it is quite thrilling that the program continues to introduce us to some of the most exceptional work in print currently being created across the globe. We are pleased to have the opportunity to support these emerging artists as they build what we know will be stellar careers.
– Elizabeth Spungen, Executive Director
Alanna Airitam: Black Diamonds: The Black Outlaw Bikers
Alanna Airitam’s exhibition is the East Coast debut of her ambitious project “Black Diamonds.” The series features large-scale photographic portraits of members of the Chosen Few motorcycle club founded in 1959 – one of three historically significant Black outlaw clubs founded in that era.
Initially organized as a Black biker club, with a code and dedication to brotherhood distinctly their own, the Chosen Few made the rare decision to integrate its membership during a time of legal segregation. This racial inclusivity remains a vital part of the club’s culture and their shared identity as members. With chapters now spread throughout the United States and the world, Airitam’s photographs feature portraits of men from its Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Long Beach and San Fernando Valley locations.
Alanna Airitam, Boss Mike, Chosen Few Nomad President, 2023, pigment print
Airitam is dedicated to securing the club members’ trust. Each figure is photographed against multiple backgrounds: the natural terrain of the motorcyclist’s home city or garage as well as a theatrical backdrop featuring a landscape inspired by 19th century Hudson River School painting. The intricate scenes of untamed wilderness inspired viewers of the time to consider the American landscape beyond civilization. Airitam conveys her sitters’ similar desire to explore the freedom of the open road. The portrait of Boss Mike, Chosen Few Nomad President, 2023, captures the proud motorcyclist in his garage with a knee on his bike and staring at the camera. Boss Mike’s nobility is heightened by the presence of the antique-looking backdrop.
The artist honors the Black outlaw motorcycle club’s place in American culture, which stands outside the dominant American Motorcycle Association. Airitam states, “My overarching objective is to illuminate their profound connections to the civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party, and broader American history, while striving to demystify their subculture and celebrate their invaluable cultural contributions. Moreover, I aim to initiate meaningful dialogues surrounding racial stereotypes within the outlaw motorcycle culture and examine the nuanced dynamics of freedom in motorcycle travel.”
Alanna Airitam’s exhibition is the East Coast debut of her ambitious project “Black Diamonds.” The series features large-scale photographic portraits of members of the Chosen Few motorcycle club founded in 1959 – one of three historically significant Black outlaw clubs founded in that era.
Initially organized as a Black biker club, with a code and dedication to brotherhood distinctly their own, the Chosen Few made the rare decision to integrate its membership during a time of legal segregation. This racial inclusivity remains a vital part of the club’s culture and their shared identity as members. With chapters now spread throughout the United States and the world, Airitam’s photographs feature portraits of men from its Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Long Beach and San Fernando Valley locations.
Alanna Airitam, Boss Mike, Chosen Few Nomad President, 2023, pigment print
Airitam is dedicated to securing the club members’ trust. Each figure is photographed against multiple backgrounds: the natural terrain of the motorcyclist’s home city or garage as well as a theatrical backdrop featuring a landscape inspired by 19th century Hudson River School painting. The intricate scenes of untamed wilderness inspired viewers of the time to consider the American landscape beyond civilization. Airitam conveys her sitters’ similar desire to explore the freedom of the open road. The portrait of Boss Mike, Chosen Few Nomad President, 2023, captures the proud motorcyclist in his garage with a knee on his bike and staring at the camera. Boss Mike’s nobility is heightened by the presence of the antique-looking backdrop.
The artist honors the Black outlaw motorcycle club’s place in American culture, which stands outside the dominant American Motorcycle Association. Airitam states, “My overarching objective is to illuminate their profound connections to the civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party, and broader American history, while striving to demystify their subculture and celebrate their invaluable cultural contributions. Moreover, I aim to initiate meaningful dialogues surrounding racial stereotypes within the outlaw motorcycle culture and examine the nuanced dynamics of freedom in motorcycle travel.”
Alanna Airitam is a photo-based, conceptual artist who uses non-traditional materials and techniques to question contemporary and historical narratives. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including at the New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence; San Diego Art Institute, CA; Torrance Art Museum, CA; and Center for Creative Photography and Tucson Museum of Art, both AZ; as well as at the Africa Foto Fair, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Her work is in the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Center for Creative Photography and Tucson Museum of Art, among others. Airitam’s honors include an Arizona Commission on the Arts Artist Opportunity Grant and San Diego Art Prize. She was a Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 Finalist and was on the Silver Eye Center for Photography’s Silver List in 2021. Her work has been recognized in Artdoc Photography Magazine, BBC News, Chicago Tribune, GOTHAM Magazine and Lenscratch, among others. Airitam is the cofounder the Southwest Black Arts Collective.
William Camargo: The Sense of Brown
William Camargo’s exhibition features performative photographs made over the last five years from several interrelated series. By centering his own body, Camargo strives to “negotiate the legacies and disempowerment of brown people in my hometown of Anaheim, California.” At the same time, as a person of color recreating works of famous photographers, he intervenes in historically exclusionary art histories and provides commentary on the history of photography.
Photographs from the “Origins and Displacement” series, 2018–2023, were primarily made during the period of intensive social unrest during the global pandemic. In them, Camargo poses with handmade signs covering his face and torso in solitary protest in front of buildings and other locations throughout the predominantly Hispanic and Latino city of Anaheim. The artist draws on research materials, such as newspapers, to recover these sites’ historical significance. In his photograph Ya’ll Forget Who Worked Here, 2020, he holds a sign that reads “Brown women used to pack oranges here” in front of the Packing House built by Sunkist citrus in 1919. Now a gourmet food hall, the juxtaposition of the building’s past and present draws attention to issues of racism, exploitative labor practices, and gentrification in this community. The power of this image has led to its appearance in Bomb and The New Yorker magazines.
Camargo stated, “I use my brown body to conduct these interventions. I use historical texts and contemporary stories to establish a connection in which the same injustices are repackaged through language and neoliberal policies.”
William Camargo: The Sense of Brown
William Camargo’s exhibition features performative photographs made over the last five years from several interrelated series. By centering his own body, Camargo strives to “negotiate the legacies and disempowerment of brown people in my hometown of Anaheim, California.” At the same time, as a person of color recreating works of famous photographers, he intervenes in historically exclusionary art histories and provides commentary on the history of photography.
Photographs from the “Origins and Displacement” series, 2018–2023, were primarily made during the period of intensive social unrest during the global pandemic. In them, Camargo poses with handmade signs covering his face and torso in solitary protest in front of buildings and other locations throughout the predominantly Hispanic and Latino city of Anaheim. The artist draws on research materials, such as newspapers, to recover these sites’ historical significance. In his photograph Ya’ll Forget Who Worked Here, 2020, he holds a sign that reads “Brown women used to pack oranges here” in front of the Packing House built by Sunkist citrus in 1919. Now a gourmet food hall, the juxtaposition of the building’s past and present draws attention to issues of racism, exploitative labor practices, and gentrification in this community. The power of this image has led to its appearance in Bomb and The New Yorker magazines.
Camargo stated, “I use my brown body to conduct these interventions. I use historical texts and contemporary stories to establish a connection in which the same injustices are repackaged through language and neoliberal policies.”
His impulse to revive suppressed social or political histories and to comment on standard art historical narratives is continued in his most recent work, in which Camargo restages photographs by well-known artists. In this work, he interrogates “a photographic history that continuously omits or tokenizes BIPOC and Queer perspectives in the medium,” especially observable in the portrait and landscape genres. In A Little Brown Interference, 2022, Camargo’s hand and tattooed arm reach out from behind the camera to alternately obscure a country road, a forest clearing and a cloudy sky. The presence of his brown body becomes a physical reminder of how the myth of the American landscape continues to obscure the many people of color who inhabit its terrain. In his self-portrait, Me As Subcomandante Marcos, Holding A 3d "Aztec", Mask, After Gillian Wearing, 2024, he is dressed and masked as the anti-capitalist leader of the Zapatista militant group of primarily indigenous people in Mexico, in a staging that challenges the idea of a stable personal or political identity.
William Camargo has a Professional Photography Certificate from Fullerton College, a BFA from California State University, Fullerton, and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University, all CA. Camargo has exhibited widely, including at the Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY; Cerritos College Art Gallery, CA; Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL; Princeton University Art Museum, NJ; and The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, Riverside, CA. His work is held in collections including the Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, WI; California State University, Fullerton; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, CA; and the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA. Camargo has had residencies at the Herron School of Art and Design; Center for Photography at Woodstock; The Latinx Project, New York University; Light Work; Penumbra Foundation and TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image. His monograph, We Been Here, was published in 2022. He is a photography lecturer at the University of California, San Diego and California State University, Fullerton.
Juana Estrada Hernández: !Echale Ganas!
Juana Estrada Hernández grew up hearing the Spanish phrase, “!Echale Ganas!” in her home. While the phrase does not have a direct translation, her family used it as an encouragement to “go for it,” “persevere,” and “give it your all,” to make it through trying times and pursue their dreams. The exhibition title refers to that family sentiment. It comprises a selection of prints and a monumental sculptural installation that speak directly to her family’s immigration story and center on the socio-political issues that arise from the US-Mexico borderlands. With “!Echale Ganas!,” the artist calls out to viewers with a message of encouragement and perseverance during a moment of renewed anti-immigration rhetoric and policy proposals.
Juana Estrada Hernández: !Echale Ganas!
Juana Estrada Hernández grew up hearing the Spanish phrase, “!Echale Ganas!” in her home. While the phrase does not have a direct translation, her family used it as an encouragement to “go for it,” “persevere,” and “give it your all,” to make it through trying times and pursue their dreams. The exhibition title refers to that family sentiment. It comprises a selection of prints and a monumental sculptural installation that speak directly to her family’s immigration story and center on the socio-political issues that arise from the US-Mexico borderlands. With “!Echale Ganas!,” the artist calls out to viewers with a message of encouragement and perseverance during a moment of renewed anti-immigration rhetoric and policy proposals.
Estrada Hernández arrived in Denver, CO, as a child and since then has sought out her family's intergenerational immigration stories. She creates bold lithographs and detailed etchings depicting these experiences, as well as Mexican and Mexican Americans' cultural and economic contributions to the United States. "My work," she has said, "pays homage to my Mexican culture, drawing on visual references from Mexican traditions, foods, and language. Within my artwork, I highlight the importance of holding on to one's own culture as a method of resistance, pride, and celebration." The brightly colored lithograph El Juego Americano 1, 2023, features a festive piñata in the shape of the continental United States blowing in the wind, and the etching Nopalaso en nombre de nuestras familias!, 2021, relates the separation of a family by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Estrada Hernández’s large-scale sculptural installation, Lo que no les enseñan parte 2, 2019, represents her family’s migration experience across the United States-Mexico borderlands and her own visit to this area as an adult. It also registers the impact of her getting legal residency and employment authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The piece includes ten large monotypes made with clothing covered in brown ink mixed with soil and six paper mâché sculptures of gallon jugs made from her numerous DACA applications. The work recalls the ruddy landscape of the desert strewn with discarded items left behind by migrants and her legal journey in the United States.
The artist said, “I accept the responsibility to use my artwork and voice to advocate for and expose my audience to social-political issues that impact my community. Transformation in societal thought and immigration policies in the United States could mean living in a society without fear of family separation, providing opportunities to undocumented communities, and hope for a better world.”
Estrada Hernández’s large-scale sculptural installation, Lo que no les enseñan parte 2, 2019, represents her family’s migration experience across the United States-Mexico borderlands and her own visit to this area as an adult. It also registers the impact of her getting legal residency and employment authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The piece includes ten large monotypes made with clothing covered in brown ink mixed with soil and six paper mâché sculptures of gallon jugs made from her numerous DACA applications. The work recalls the ruddy landscape of the desert strewn with discarded items left behind by migrants and her legal journey in the United States.
The artist said, “I accept the responsibility to use my artwork and voice to advocate for and expose my audience to social-political issues that impact my community. Transformation in societal thought and immigration policies in the United States could mean living in a society without fear of family separation, providing opportunities to undocumented communities, and hope for a better world.”
Juana Estrada Hernández has a BFA from Fort Hays State University, KS, and an MFA from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Tamarind Institute and University of New Mexico Art Museum, all Albuquerque; National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL; Janet Turner Print Museum, Chico, CA; Cleveland Art Institute, OH; El Paso Museum of Art, TX; Print Center New York, NY; and Roswell Art Museum, NM. Collections holding her work include the University of New Mexico Printmaking Collection, Albuquerque; Chicago Printmakers Collaborative; Janet Turner Print Museum; Samek Art Museum, Lewisburg, PA; and New Mexico State Department of Cultural Affairs, Santa Fe; as well as Laval University, Quebec City; and National Library and Archives of Quebec, Montreal, Canada. She has received awards and residencies including the Bloom Artist Residency, Chicago Printmakers Collaborative; Elkard Artist-in-Residence, Bucknell University; Fulcrum Fund Grant, 516 Arts; International Artist Residency, Megalo Print Studios; and New Voices Program, Print Center New York. Estrada Hernández is Assistant Professor of Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.
All images are courtesy of the Artists.
Programs
Gallery Talk & Opening Reception
Thursday, January 23, 2025
5:30pm, Gallery Talk with Juana Estrada Hernández and Lauren Rosenblum, Jensen Bryan Curator
6 – 7:30pm, Opening Reception
Artist Talks (all Thursdays at 6pm, on Zoom)
The artists will discuss the works in the exhibition and their artistic practices.
February 20, William Camargo
March 6, Juana Estrada Hernández
April 3, Alanna Airitam
All of The Print Center’s exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. To register for a Zoom event or for more information visit printcenter.org.
About the 99th ANNUAL International Competition
Solo exhibition winners were among the 10 Finalists selected from the 465 international artists who submitted to the 99th ANNUAL International Competition juried by Drew Sawyer, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY and Dr. Claudia Zapata, Associate Curator of Latino Art, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin. Online portfolios of all the Finalists’ and Semifinalists’ work will be available online beginning in February 2025.
The ANNUAL is one of the oldest and most prestigious competitions in the United States, which is juried each year by distinguished colleagues in the fields of photography, printmaking, book arts and contemporary art. Artists who use printmaking and/or photography as critical components of their work, or whose work pushes the boundaries of traditional photographic and printmaking practices, are encouraged to enter. The ANNUAL’s focus reflects The Print Center’s interest in the use of photography and printmaking in intriguing and expansive ways, both in content and in process. Awards from the ANNUAL include three museum purchase awards: the Art Museum of West Virginia University Purchase Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Purchase Award and Stinnett Philadelphia Museum of Art Collection Award as well as numerous additional awards and prizes.
Finalists
Alanna Airitam, William Camargo, Elizabeth Chang, Chen Xiangyun, Tony Chirinos, Juana Estrada Hernández, Marina Grize, Diana Guerra, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, Peri Law
Semifinalists
Inbal Abergil, Ben Altman, Chris Bartlett, Eric Bladholm, Lauren Cardenas, James Ehlers, Alex “Fdez” Fernández, Lya Finston, Nancy Floyd, Matthew Garcia, Francis Gonzalez Camacho, Adrian Gonzalez, Raymond Grubb, Claire Hansen, Veronica Jackson, Amanda Macuba, Kalena Marshall Garcia, Valentine Ollawa, Walter Plotnick, Hyunmin Ryu, Yesuk Seo, Natia Ser, Junli Song, Christopher Velasco, Cristina Velásquez
Support for the ANNUAL is offered by the Art Museum of West Virginia University, BOMB Magazine, Tom Callan + Martin McNamara, Fireball Printing, Alida Fish, Fitler Club, Hahnemühle, the Olcott Family, Jeannie Pearce, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Photo Review, Printmaking Today, Renaissance Graphic Arts, Society for Photographic Education, the Stinnett Family, Stockbridge Fine Art Print and the Zemel Family.
About The Print Center
Mission
For more than a century, The Print Center has encouraged the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts through exhibitions, publications and educational programs. The Print Center has an international voice and a strong sense of local purpose. Free and open to the public, it presents changing exhibitions, which highlight established and emerging, local, national and international contemporary artists. It mounts one of the oldest annual art competitions in the country, now in its 99th year, provides the Artists-in-Schools Program to Philadelphia public high school students and its Gallery Store offers a carefully selected array of contemporary prints and photographs onsite and online.
Funders
Support for The Print Center is offered by: Edna W. Andrade Fund; Children Can Shape the Future; Forman Family Fund; Sheila Fortune Foundation; Fund for Children; Allen Hilles Fund; IFPDA Foundation; William King Foundation; Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation; Christopher Ludwick Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; William Penn Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; Philadelphia Cultural Fund; The Philadelphia Foundation; Rosenlund Family Foundation; Henrietta Tower Wurts Memorial; and our Board of Governors, Luminaries, members and friends.
All images are courtesy of the Artists.
Programs
Gallery Talk & Opening Reception
Thursday, January 23, 2025
5:30pm, Gallery Talk with Juana Estrada Hernández and Lauren Rosenblum, Jensen Bryan Curator
6 – 7:30pm, Opening Reception
Artist Talks (all Thursdays at 6pm, on Zoom)
The artists will discuss the works in the exhibition and their artistic practices.
February 20, William Camargo
March 6, Juana Estrada Hernández
April 3, Alanna Airitam
All of The Print Center’s exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. To register for a Zoom event or for more information visit printcenter.org.
About the 99th ANNUAL International Competition
Solo exhibition winners were among the 10 Finalists selected from the 465 international artists who submitted to the 99th ANNUAL International Competition juried by Drew Sawyer, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY and Dr. Claudia Zapata, Associate Curator of Latino Art, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin. Online portfolios of all the Finalists’ and Semifinalists’ work will be available online beginning in February 2025.
The ANNUAL is one of the oldest and most prestigious competitions in the United States, which is juried each year by distinguished colleagues in the fields of photography, printmaking, book arts and contemporary art. Artists who use printmaking and/or photography as critical components of their work, or whose work pushes the boundaries of traditional photographic and printmaking practices, are encouraged to enter. The ANNUAL’s focus reflects The Print Center’s interest in the use of photography and printmaking in intriguing and expansive ways, both in content and in process. Awards from the ANNUAL include three museum purchase awards: the Art Museum of West Virginia University Purchase Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Purchase Award and Stinnett Philadelphia Museum of Art Collection Award as well as numerous additional awards and prizes.
Finalists
Alanna Airitam, William Camargo, Elizabeth Chang, Chen Xiangyun, Tony Chirinos, Juana Estrada Hernández, Marina Grize, Diana Guerra, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, Peri Law
Semifinalists
Inbal Abergil, Ben Altman, Chris Bartlett, Eric Bladholm, Lauren Cardenas, James Ehlers, Alex “Fdez” Fernández, Lya Finston, Nancy Floyd, Matthew Garcia, Francis Gonzalez Camacho, Adrian Gonzalez, Raymond Grubb, Claire Hansen, Veronica Jackson, Amanda Macuba, Kalena Marshall Garcia, Valentine Ollawa, Walter Plotnick, Hyunmin Ryu, Yesuk Seo, Natia Ser, Junli Song, Christopher Velasco, Cristina Velásquez
Support for the ANNUAL is offered by the Art Museum of West Virginia University, BOMB Magazine, Tom Callan + Martin McNamara, Fireball Printing, Alida Fish, Fitler Club, Hahnemühle, the Olcott Family, Jeannie Pearce, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Photo Review, Printmaking Today, Renaissance Graphic Arts, Society for Photographic Education, the Stinnett Family, Stockbridge Fine Art Print and the Zemel Family.
About The Print Center
Mission
For more than a century, The Print Center has encouraged the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts through exhibitions, publications and educational programs. The Print Center has an international voice and a strong sense of local purpose. Free and open to the public, it presents changing exhibitions, which highlight established and emerging, local, national and international contemporary artists. It mounts one of the oldest annual art competitions in the country, now in its 99th year, provides the Artists-in-Schools Program to Philadelphia public high school students and its Gallery Store offers a carefully selected array of contemporary prints and photographs onsite and online.
Funders
Support for The Print Center is offered by: Edna W. Andrade Fund; Children Can Shape the Future; Forman Family Fund; Sheila Fortune Foundation; Fund for Children; Allen Hilles Fund; IFPDA Foundation; William King Foundation; Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation; Christopher Ludwick Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; William Penn Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; Philadelphia Cultural Fund; The Philadelphia Foundation; Rosenlund Family Foundation; Henrietta Tower Wurts Memorial; and our Board of Governors, Luminaries, members and friends.
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