Xavier Viramontes
Artist Background
Xavier was born in Richmond, California. As a young man, he was drafted into the US Army and stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. Upon his discharge, and using the GI Bill he secured a Masters in Art. Xavier began working as a professional artist and teaching. The main body of Xaviers’ work is in form of etchings which reflect on his life growing up in a Hispanic household. His work can be found in the Mexican Museum in Chicago, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and the Smithsonian.
In the 1970’s he became involved with the Galeria de la Raza and worked on painting billboards and murals as well as silkscreen posters. During this time he created a silk screen poster Boycott Grapes that hangs in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian.
After a hiatus from political silkscreen work, the current political situation has inspired and ignited the passion to again create political posters that respond to the threats of our Democracy.
Artist Statement
I come from a painting backgrouond and I switched to printmaking more than 22 years ago. Though I still do paint occasionally, the main body of my work is in the form of multiple plate etchings. I switched to multiple plate etchiunges because I found I could work more quickly on my image ideas and when all the plates were completed, I could print a small edition. In painting, when the painting is done, you only have one painting. In etching you could print multiple copies.
The main theme of my work continues to be my family. I grew up in a Catholic Mexican/American family and we were exposed to a number of traditions unique to our culture and to our church. These prints that deal with my upbringing I call my ‘Serious Work’. I also do prints with less serious themes such as cowboys, dogs and cats. I call these prints my ‘fun’ prints.
All my images are made by combining four zinc plates. I have one plate for each of the primary colors (yellow, red and blue) plus a black plate which prints the line drawing. Each plate is printed one after another with the black plate (key plate) printed last. This combination of plates allows me to get a full range of colors along with a full range of drawing and textural effects.
