Robert Blackburn Untitled (aka Broken Stone), c.1960s–1971, Lithograph. Image: 12 x 8 inches (detail). ⒸThe Trust for Robert Blackburn. Used with permission.
Press & Pull: Two Decades at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center - 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
September 9 – November 14, 2025
Opening reception: September 9, 2025 6-8PM
Curated by Shameekia Shantel Johnson in collaboration with Essye Klempner, Program Director and Jazmine Catasús, Artistic Director of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, a program of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
Haig Aivazian, Xenobia Bailey, Chakaia Booker, Robert Blackburn, Romare Bearden, Betty Blayton, Camille Billops, Elizabeth Catlett, Ed Clark, Renee Cox, Lizania Cruz, Devraj Dakoji, Raque Ford, Michele Godwin, Maren Hassinger, Baseera Khan, Tsedaye Makonnen, Glendalys Medina, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Dindga McCannon, Otto Neals, Ademola Olugebefola, Stephanie Santana, Krishna Reddy, Shellyne Rodriguez, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Kenny Rivero, Elliott Jamal Robbins, Faith Ringgold, Charles White, and Michael Kelly Williams
Press & Pull: Two Decades at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop is a survey exhibition marking 20 years of continuity and evolution of the workshop and its community following the passing of its founder, artist, educator, and master printer Robert Blackburn (1920–2003). The exhibition features over 35 original prints, archival ephemera, and video, drawn predominantly from the printshop’s historic collection and archive. This includes works by legacy printshop artists alongside recently published, contemporary works. Together, this exhibition explores the printshop’s critical history, its contributions to the development of printmaking form and practice, and the active evolution of a printmaking community who in Blackburn’s guiding vision of access, equity, and collaboration has made this America’s oldest, continuously operating cooperative printshop.
The Printmaking Workshop (PMW) was founded in 1947 by Robert Blackburn, and in the six decades that he ran the printshop he fostered an atmosphere of tolerance, artistic freedom and mutual support that opened important opportunities for artists of color to develop their artistic practices and build solidarity and community. PMW served as an incubator for generations of artists, especially marginalized artists, ethnic minorities and women printmakers, whose radical, transgressive practices reflect the environment that shaped them. Its inclusive character made it a vital site of innovation and the pioneering of new printmaking techniques. Today, the contributions of those artists who worked at PMW are indisputably recognized as an essential part of art history and foundational in the contemporary cultural landscape.
Accompanying Blackburn’s own artworks, the exhibition assembles works in the collection by artists with a range of political sensibilities, age, and background, but that all share an important sense of curiosity and unbounded experimentation that The Printmaking Workshop always championed. This includes landmark members of the Black Arts Movement: Faith Ringgold, Ademola Olugebefola and Dindga McCannon; community leaders, such as Romare Bearden and Betty Blayton; and technical innovators, including Krishna Reddy and Michael Kelly Williams. Together they are presented in conversation with the printshop’s more contemporary publication of artists like Xenobia Bailey and Baseera Khan, whose continued engagement with Blackburn’s legacy brings it into the contemporary moment.
The exhibition also includes yet unexhibited excerpts from The Only Thing That Lasts, an oral history film documenting the lived experiences of the PMW’s multigenerational community. Produced by Camille Crain Drummond and funded by the Hauser & Wirth Institute, the oral history includes narratives from artists and cultural workers such as robin holder, Dindga McCannon, Eleanor Magid, Nitza Tuiño, and Richard Powell.
Following its presentation at the James Gallery - CUNY Graduate Center, Press & Pull will travel to the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) in Boston, opening in early 2026. This second venue extends the reach of the exhibition and its mission to celebrate Blackburn’s enduring influence on contemporary printmaking and community-based art practice.
PROGRAMMING
Tuesday, September 9. 6-8PM
@ The James Gallery CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, NYC 10016
Press and Pull Exhibition Opening
Saturday, September 20, 4 - 6PM
@ Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, 323 W 39th Street, NYC 10018
Annual RBPMW Members Exhibition
Saturday, September 27, 3 - 5PM
@ The James Gallery CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, NYC 10016
The Emergence of New York City Community Printshops
Moderator Lauren Rosenblum (CUNY Grad Center), Eleanor Magid (Founder of Lower East Side Printshop), Nitza Tufiño (Taller Boricua) and robin holder (former Assistant Director of The Printmaking Workshop)
Tuesday, September 30, 6 - 8PM
@ The James Gallery CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, NYC 10016
Cooperation: A Political, Economic and Social Theory with Bernard E. Harcourt
Saturday, October 4, 1 - 3 PM
@ Children's Art Carnival, 62 Hamilton Terrace, NYC 10031
Print Workshop | Carve, Press, Repeat! with Alannah Sears
Tuesday, October 7, 6PM
@ The Emily Harvey Foundation, 537 Broadway #2, NYC 10012
Screening & Launch: Blackburn Oral History Project
Saturday, October 11, 12PM
@ Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, 323 W 39th Street, NYC 10018
Print Demonstration | Viscosity-Stencil Monotype Demonstration with Michael Kelly Williams
Sunday, October 12, 3PM
@ Kenkeleba House, 214 East 2nd Street, New York, NY 10009
Creative Collectives Panel Discussion robin holder (The Printmaking Workshop), Jazmine Catasús (RBPMW), Dionis Ortiz (Children’s Art Carnival), Stephanie Santana (Black Women of Print), Dindga McCannon (Weusi and Where We At: Black Women Artists), and Ademola Olugebefola (Weusi)
Saturday, October 18, 2PM
@ Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, 323 W 39th Street, NYC 10018
EFA Open Studios: featuring Devin N. Morris
Saturday, November 1, 1 - 3 PM
@ Children's Art Carnival, 62 Hamilton Terrace, NYC 10031
Print Workshop | Blueprint & Brush: Mixed Media Cyanotypes with Dionis Ortiz
Saturday, November 15
@ The James Gallery CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, NYC 10016
1 - 3PM | Print Workshop | Glitter Watercolor Monotype with Raque Ford
3 - 4 PM | Asilah Oui: Robert Blackburn in Morocco Presentation by Imani Congdon
4- 6 PM | Closing Reception | Press & Pull: Two Decades at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Sunday, December 14, 3 PM
@ Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, 323 W 39th Street, NYC 10018
Bob's Birthday Bash: Jazz Music and Monotype Holiday Card
About the Curator
Shameekia Shantel Johnson is a writer, curator, and researcher of Afro-Caribbean ancestry from New York City. Working from the critical framework of social architecture, she considers the multidimensional relationship between people, politics, narrative, and environment.
Acknowledgments
Funding for this exhibition has been generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, with additional support from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Dedalus Foundation, Hauser & Wirth Institute and Speedball Art Products. These partners have supported the development of the exhibition, public programming, and the broader efforts to preserve and share the Workshop’s artistic and cultural legacy.
FOR PRESS INQUIRIES
Essye Klempner, Director of Programming and Partnerships
917-596-6497 | essye@efanyc.org
Incorporated in 1992, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) is dedicated to providing artists across all disciplines with space, tools, and a cooperative forum for the development of individual practice. After awarding 107 grants in its early years, EFA transformed its impact in 1998 by acquiring a twelve-story building in Midtown Manhattan, creating a permanent hub for long-term artist support, collaboration, and innovation. EFA’s main two programs are: the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW) and the EFA Studio Program.
Founded in 1947 by visionary artist and master printer Robert Blackburn, the Printmaking Workshop is the longest-running community print shop in the United States. Celebrated for its spirit of collaboration and inclusivity, the workshop has long served as a creative haven for artists of all backgrounds, fostering technical innovation and aesthetic exploration in printmaking. In 2002, Blackburn ensured the continuity of this legacy by relocating the workshop to the EFA, where it now operates as the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW). Today, RBPMW continues Blackburn’s mission by providing an accessible and affordable studio environment that supports both traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques, and stewards the Robert Blackburn Print Collection.