Ruiz-Healy Art is pleased to announce the gallery's sixth year of participation in the 30th edition of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA), the world's largest art fair for prints and editions. The gallery is honored to present works by Alejandro Diaz, Celia Álvarez Muñoz, César A. Martínez, Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Ethel Shipton, Juan de Dios Mora, Lina Puerta, Nate Cassie, Richard “Ricky” Armendariz, Mathias Goeritz, and Willy Kautz-Jippies Asquerosos. Encompassing works from the 1980s to 2023, the Figurative and Conceptual artists presented seek inspiration from the natural and spiritual worlds and immigrant experience and identity.

In 1998, Celia Álvarez Muñoz came to work with Katherine Brimberry at Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking on the print titled Sweet Nothings. The source for the image came from Celia’s innovative photographic images of objects, which were placed on tiers of plexiglass over weathered concrete in natural sunlight that created a layered image. This was a pre-digital era; all layering was done with single black-and-white film exposures. It was Celia’s wish that the print have a “candy-like” color, so Flatbed collaborated with the studio of Sam Coronado and his printer Brian Johnson to screen print the image using layers of color. The finished print has over ten color screen print runs. Over the color image, Brimberry worked with Álvarez Muñoz to create a letterpress relief plate to print the text in ink so transparent that only in the right light or angle it can be legible: “Saint Anthony would help you find anything, including novios, boyfriends provided you prayed to him for nine weeks.”

Ricky Armendariz finds influence for his conceptual works from his experiences being raised in El Paso, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border. His woodblock prints represent his connection with Mexican culture, iconography, and the Southwest flora and fauna. Most of the work presented at this year's edition of the IFPDA was created while in residence at The Anderson Ranch Arts Center

Kautz-Jippies Asquerosos explores gold's spiritual and materialistic implications in his works Quid Pro Quo (The Secret) and Quid Pro Quo (Suprasensible). The use of gold and the interest in its lighting and reflective character from religious art’s perspective or from a purely formal point of view (for the way it interacts with space, for example) enters in conflict on the same level with the dominant understanding about this material as “a positive expression of wealth and superabundance” where luminosity escalates the merchandise’s charm.

A strong conceptual base informs Ethel Shipton's practice and encompasses a variety of expressions. Through text and landscape, Shipton spotlights instants of clarity that flit by in the comings and goings of daily life.

"With the Tree series, I find imagery that references the idea of connectivity and place; very specific trees to a specific place, time, or people I was involved with. These pieces are more obviously trees because you have more than just the central image of the particular tree I am working with. Still, you have a horizon line, a sky, and the in situ, so they are less abstract and more representational now. The idea concerns connectivity, branching, and natural patterns.”- Nate Cassie.

"Mint Green Tiled Texture" epitomizes Lina Puerta’s artistic practice of exploring the form, composition, and delicacy of urban living and its interconnectedness to the natural world. Puerta focuses on the systems and syntax that comprise the human and natural world, whether anatomically, industrially, or mechanically. There is tension, overlap, and a similar chaos and order between the two worlds. This print focuses on layers and surfaces at both a macro and a micro level. City grid lines mirror reptilian scales, and a sense of magical realism underscores the formal composition of a map.

Juan de Dios Mora was born in Yahualica, Mexico, and moved to the United States when he was fourteen. His works are inspired by the Latino immigrant experience, paying homage to the community’s ingenuity, resilience, and ability to transform humble objects into something beautiful. As part of The Crazy Devices series, the linocut depicts a boy in a flying contraption with a lucha libre mask on its front “bumper” and a carved wooden goat mask on the back. Mora describes his subjects as ‘characters’ whose devices are creative, surreal, and reflective of their will to survive in a new environment. The artist explains, “Above all, the devices symbolize the freedom, hope, and style of the crafty owners, which will last forever.”

As a conceptual artist, Alejandro Diaz often uses unassuming visual imagery to convey complex ideas of culture, identity, and politics as he subverts preconceived notions of the “high” and “low.” Boy on a Burro exemplifies Diaz’s artistic style: conceptual, campy, humorous, provocative, and always emblematic of his Mexican American roots. With elements of Picasso-esque faces and a “make-it-yourself” sense of craft, Diaz creates a unique narrative of his artistic vision.

Frontal and direct, César Martinez’s portraits reflect the artist’s mastery of color, form, and composition. The Bato (Dude) is a consistent source of inspiration for Cesar Martinez, as it is emblematic of the Contemporary Chicano culture that plays a strong role in the artist’s identity. Bato Azul represents a specific date, figure, and moment in history that Martinez interacted with. Seemingly lonely, tough, empty, and confrontational, Martinez creates a unique icon of Chicano history that disrupts the long-standing status quo of art historical canons of portraiture. Inspired by traditional Mexican embroidery, Martinez’s Serape series illustrates the colorful and bright palette that both lends to beauty and cultural appreciation. We see concepts of Abstract Expressionism harmonizing over Contemporary visuals, both visualizing emotion and internal messages for the viewer and artist alike.

Mathias Goeritz’s Mensaje, 1982, is a fine-art paper relief created by hand; it incorporates unprecedented detail and sculptural form in a traditionally two-dimensional format. The gilded work has a luminosity that echoes Goeritz's investigations at the time with the stained-glass environments in churches. Light, after all, is a sacred element. Mathias collaborated with the Remba's, founders of the Taller de Gráfica Mexicana, at their Mexico City workshop. The atelier produces and publishes handmade paper prints, multiples, and sculptures in all media that enlarge the language of editions by incorporating dimensionality and relief into a traditionally two-dimensional medium. Luis and Lea Remba, founders of the high-end art printing company, brought their enterprise from Mexico City to Los Angeles over 30 years ago, and with that, their name changed to Mixografia.