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Mixografia is a publisher of fine art prints and a contemporary art gallery located in the Central-Alameda neighborhood southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. Mixografia also refers to the workshop's printing process of the same name, which involves the production of handmade paper editions that make use of three-dimensional relief and surface texture.
Luis and Lea Remba were avid collectors of Pre-Columbian art objects, antiques, and other Mexican art. They began their endeavors into the production of fine art prints after purchasing the painting Escena Callejera by the painter Pablo O'Higgins. In the interest of restoring the paint surface after decades of wear, they connected with O'Higgins who was also a founding member of the printmaking collective known as Taller de Grafica Popular. O'Higgins had close associations with many prominent artists working in Mexico including, Luis Arenal, Leopoldo Mendez, Sarah Jimenez, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. O'Higgins sought the workshop's services to print an exhibition catalog for a retrospective of his work at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes.
Following this initial collaboration, O'Higgins developed a suite of fine art Lithography with the printshop. At O'Higgins' suggestion upon completing these editions, Taller de Grafica Mexicana transitioned its operations toward the production of fine art prints. As they established their new facilities, the workshop developed roster of collaborative partnerships, publishing printed editions by artists including: Karel Appel, Leonora Carrington, Gunther Gerzso, and Rodolfo Morales.
Though Tamayo was already experienced in the use of traditional print media, he sought to integrate textural effects into his printed artworks.
As the workshop advanced its processes to accommodate Tamayo's technical demands, the workshop along with Tamayo conceived of the term Mixografia, both as the workshop's new namesake and also to indicate the mixture of graphic processes used in the creation of the prints.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Gray coordinated with the workshop to collaborate on projects with visiting artists. Luis and Lea Remba's son Shaye Remba opened and managed a second workshop in Los Angeles in order to carry out the production of these projects.
By 1990, the workshop ended its operations in Mexico City, and transitioned Mixografia's business and operations fully to Los Angeles. The workshop sought collaborations with artists whose own studio practices would be compatible with the Mixografia's methods.
Mixografia currently conducts all of its operations from its Central-Alameda workshop space. The workshop continues to publish editions by established and mid-career artists. Recent collaborations include editions by John Baldessari, Jacob Hashimoto, Alex Israel, Analia Saban, and Jonas Wood.
The early experiments indicated that commercial paper had a tendency to tear and warp under pressure, due to the stress created by the textured surface of the printing plate. The workshop formulated a paper making technique that allowed for a degree of pliability due to the cotton pulp's high moisture content after being mixed into a slurry. The physical characteristics of the paper pulp allowed for a level of ink absorption that accommodated Rufino Tamayo's desired aesthetic outcome.
In 1979, Tamayo began developing his edition Dos Personajes Atacados por Perros, which the workshop completed in 1983. To create a print at Tamayo's intended scale, the workshop coordinated with a marble quarry in Mexico to obtain an unblemished stone measuring 60 x 97.5 inches, and prepared it using traditional lithographic techniques for the initial printing layer. The workshop fabricated a hoist apparatus and a custom press bed to accommodate the size of the print. After first making a lithographic impression, master printers then inked a textured cast copper printing plate to embed its inked and textured surface into the handmade paper in a second pass through the press.
Luis Remba, and later his son Shaye Remba, designed and developed numerous iterations of the workshop's printing and papermaking equipment.
The paper mill involves a series of containers and mixing devices that combine the dry cotton pulp with a liquid solution with alkaline buffering agents to create a semiliquid slurry. A master printer pours the solution into a deckle that has been built to the size of the edition, after which much of the water is drawn out to form a pliable yet semi-solid sheet of paper. The paper's high moisture content and loosely bonded fibers allow it to withstand the heavy pressure from the rolling press, in order to hold the form of the printing plate and its textured surface without tearing.
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