Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Celebrates 80 Years at The Armory Show
Not-for-Profit Section: Booth N7
Benefit Editions
Mel Edwards
Mohammad Omer Khalil
Blackburn Legacy Fellows
Cynthia Hawkins
Ademola Olugebefola
Dindga McCannon
In 2027, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW) will celebrate 80 years since artist, educator, and master printer Robert Blackburn founded the Printmaking Workshop in New York City. Now the longest-running community printshop in the United States, RBPMW will mark this milestone at The Armory Show with a presentation celebrating the artists, relationships, and spirit of generosity that have shaped Blackburn’s enduring legacy. Celebrating 80 Years, brings together two distinct & interconnected initiatives: Benefit Editions by Mel Edwards and Mohammad Omer Khalil, and Blackburn Legacy Fellows, honoring the continuing influence of artists who worked with and knew Robert Blackburn.
Our presentation will include three special editions created by the late Mel Edwards, marking a particularly meaningful collaboration between the artist and the Workshop. Edwards returned last February, just weeks before his passing on March 30, 2026.
Edwards first came to the Printmaking Workshop when he moved to New York in 1967. His innovative approach to print reflected his sculptural work in industrial forms, labor, violence, history, and the African diaspora. He experimented with stencils made from chains and wire, using them to block sprayed paint and create areas of exposed copper for etching. Over the years, he collaborated in printmaking with poet and wife, Jayne Cortez, extending his practice into monotype and lithography.
For his recent editions, Edwards arrived with canvas tote of materials, including a wooden U-shaped form used to developed copper plates. Working in the Blackburn Study Center, temporarily transformed into a makeshift studio, Edwards created the plates with Master Printer Jazmine Catasús, who subsequently etched them for more than 45 minutes.
During the process, Edwards spoke about his history of printing with Robert Blackburn, traveling to Cairo with Workshop artists Juan Sanchez, Kay WalkingStick, and further about his travels in Senegal to a print studio with his friend and artist Souleymane Keïta. As Catasús proofed the plates in the days that followed, the project resulted in three dedicated BATs to help continue and preserve the mission of the Workshop.
We would like to thank Mel Edward's wife, Diala Toure, and Page Benkowski and Alexander Gray at Alexander Gray Associates for making this collaboration possible.
Mohammad Omer Khalil has been an important figure in contemporary printmaking for more than five decades. Khalil’s friendship with Blackburn began in New York in 1967, when he joined the Workshop as a lead printer and educator. Blackburn Study Center exhibition Common Ground curated by Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed included sixty years of his work with support by the Teiger Foundation.
The Blackburn Legacy Fellows include Cynthia Hawkins, Dindga McCannon, and Ademola Olugebefola. It extends Robert Blackburn’s spirit of collaboration, experimentation, and community into the next generation. The one-year fellowship supports an artist who worked with and knew Blackburn, recognizing the enduring significance of their artistic relationship and their place within the history of the Printmaking Workshop.
Cynthia Hawkins (b. 1950, Queens, NY) first came to the Workshop in 1983. She has consistently painted abstractly and in series, exploring diverse literary, philosophical, and scientific influences within a delineated structure. Hawkins’ work utilizes a highly developed vocabulary of symbols and signs to investigate color, movement, and light, and her work is dense with richly evocative meaning.
She is represented by Paula Cooper Gallery.
Ademola Olugebefola (b. 1941, U.S. Virgin Islands) first came to the Workshop circa 1965. Ademola Olugebefola is an educator, activist, and multidisciplinary artist whose work spans painting, printmaking, design, and performance. He became a key figure in Harlem’s cultural scene during the Black Arts Movement and early Afro-Futurist Movement. A founding member of the Weusi Artist Collective and former Educational Director of the Weusi Academy of African Arts and Studies, he also studied at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. An elder of the Yoruba Temple, his practice is rooted in African diasporic identity, spirituality, and community activism. His work is held in numerous collections including the Studio Museum in Harlem and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Dindga McCannon (b. 1947, Harlem) Began her career studying with Harlem Renaissance artists including Jacob Lawrence, Charles Alston, Richard Mayhew, and Al Loving at the Art Students League of New York and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. She went on to become a pillar of the influential African-American art collective Weusi, and later a co-founder (with Faith Ringgold) of Where We At, a groundbreaking collective affiliated with the Black Arts Movement.
She is represented by Fridman Gallery, with a solo exhibition Yesterday and Today through October 18.
