Kukuli Velarde and Justine Ditto on 'Philadelphia Pachamama'
Join artist Kukuli Velarde in a conversation with printer Justine Ditto about Philadelphia Pachamama, a new print edition by the artist published by the Brodsky Center at PAFA. Meet them in PAFA’s print studio and learn directly about the lithographic process and how this complex eleven-color print was executed, step by step. Hear from Velarde about her multi-media work and her “Pachamama Series.” Velarde is a practicing artist who was born in Peru and, since 2007, has been living and working in Kensington. She celebrates her neighborhood in this print by evoking the Andean religious fertility goddess of the Pachamama. The Pachamama is an origin myth that honors how place nurtures our sense of identity. Velarde embraces this notion as a philosophy that can be applied to wherever we find ourselves. In invoking her ancestral roots, Velarde seeks to counter the annihilation brought by colonization and envisions a world where pre-colonial views continue to inform the present. Philadelphia Pachamama acknowledges the deep-seated sense of belonging that brings together the longstanding communities that make Kensington a lively treasured neighborhood of Philadelphia.
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Image: Kukuli Velarde (American, born Peru 1962), Philadelphia Pachamama, 2024, 11-color lithograph on paper, 38 x 28 inches, Edition of 10. Published by the Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia.
Justine Ditto is a collaborative printer and visual artist. After receiving a BFA and Certificate with a focus in Printmaking from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), Justine received training as a Professional Printer at the Tamarind Institute of Fine Art Lithography. Ditto has worked collaboratively with artists-in-residence at the RAIR Foundation, completed the Post-Graduate Apprenticeship at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, was an artist-in-residence at Millersville University, and worked as a printer and studio assistant at Durham Press.
Ditto is the collaborative printer for the Brodsky Center at PAFA, and the Print Shop Manager at PAFA. She continues her artistic practice in woodcut, lithography, screen printing, intaglio, mixed media drawing, and painting, and has exhibited in galleries along the east coast. Originally from Houston, TX, Ditto is based in Denver, PA.
Kukuli Velarde is a Peruvian artist based in the United States since 1987. She has received awards and grants such as the Virginia Groot First Prize (2023), the Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), the United States Artists-Knight fellowship (2009), the Pew fellowship in Visual Arts (2003), the Anonymous is a Woman award (2000), among others. In 2013 her project CORPUS got the Grand Prize at the Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennial in South Korea. She held tenure as faculty at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2022. Her exhibition credits include: CORPUS touring exhibition at SECCA (NC), Halsey Institute (SC) and Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (CO) among other venues in 2022 and 2023, KUKULI VELARDE: THE COMPLICIT EYE at Taller (Philadelphia, 2018-19); KUKULI VELARDE at AMOCA, (Los Angeles 2017); PLUNDER ME, BABY at the Yenggi Museum of Ceramics’ Biennial of Taipei (Taiwan 2014); CORPUS (work in Progress) at the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennial (South Korea 2013); also KUKULI VELARDE: PLUNDER ME, BABY at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in (Kansas city, KS in 2013), PATRIMONIO at Barry Friedman Gallery (NY, 2010) and PLUNDER ME, BABY at Garth Clark Gallery (NY, 2007) She is married to Doug Herren, sculptor, and they have a daughter named Vida. They live in Philadelphia, PA. USA.
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