Reductive Silkscreen, made during residency, 50cm x 70 cm
Victoria Jure is a printmaker and photographer based in Argentina, who employs drawing, printmaking and photography in her work. Jure visited Zea Mays in 2018 as part of the ZMP Artist Mentorship Program, and spent three months working in the studio alongside her mentor Nancy Diessner. Jure’s work often features human figures, faces and candid portraits. She employs expressive linework and photography to create her portraiture. Her photographs capture revealing moments of personality, and her prints display collections of abstracted faces and emotions.
Recalling the impact of her residency, Jure says, “My time at Zea Mays changed my work completely since I had never done a residency in another country before. This experience gave me a new outlook about art and open new possibilities of work as I learn techniques that I had never seen before.”
In the studio, Jure played with many different techniques before she settled on photopolymer as a focus. “I learned other techniques like Photo Collagraph with Esther S. White, Reductive Silkscreen with Dan Chiaccio and Etching with Liz Chalfin until I focused on Photopolymer with my mentor Nancy Diessner. Spending time in Zea Mays working among other artists and sharing the same space with them, was a very rewarding experience since it gave you the possibility to learn from each other and improve artistically every day.”
Photo collagraph 21 x 27.9cm(Left) and Photopolymer 40 x 60 cm(Right) from residency
Jure says she was affected by her time working in the studio’s community, and hopes to someday return. She notes, “Zea Mays Printmaking is an example of a hard working community and a good influence on the world because of the values they apply to care for the planet and human health. I hope to have the possibility to return to continuing learning from all the professionals working there in order to apply those values and techniques in my own studio.”
Digital work, 2020
Digital work, 2020
Since returning to Argentina, she has incorporated the ideas and green-printmaking techniques she acquired into her artmaking. While the pandemic has prevented Jure from teaching, it has also prompted her to adapt her art making practice in new ways. “During the pandemic I had to rethink the way I produce art since I did not want to use all the material I have in case I could not buy it easily, so I started to work the concept of printmaking in a digital way doing motion graphics, animation, gifs, etc.” Her new work, visible in the included gifs seem a natural immersion of her evocative line-making with her photography.
Follow Victoria Jure’s art making via Instagram @victoria_jure
And view more of her work on her website here https://victoriajure.com.ar/
Digital work, 2020