Image: Gallery 400, UIC, Chicago
UIC Gallery 400 in Chicago will present ‘Press & Pull: A Legacy of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop,’ a survey of the workshop’s origins, collaborative culture and technical innovation. The exhibition will run from September 11 through December 12, 2026, at the University of Illinois Chicago gallery, with an opening reception scheduled for September 11 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Founded in 1947 by artist, educator and master printer Robert Blackburn (1920–2003), the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop emerged during an era of racial segregation, when artists of color faced limited opportunities. The workshop also followed the dissolution of the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, which had supported community art centers across the United States, including Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center. Blackburn established a shared environment for racial integration, mentorship and collective creativity.
‘Press & Pull’ will bring together 38 prints made at the workshop, along with archival ephemera, photographs and video drawn from its records. The presentation will also include an additional 45 prints examining historical similarities and differences between the workshop and printmaking practices in Chicago. Together, the materials connect Blackburn’s institution to the development of communal printmaking networks in the city and elsewhere.
The Chicago-focused section considers several forces that shaped the city’s print culture, including the founding of the South Side Community Art Center, the migration of African Americans from the South and Jewish communities from the Soviet Bloc, the Black Arts Movement, and the exchange of skills in print shops that have since closed and in contemporary printers’ guilds. Artists represented in the exhibition include Camille Billops, Elizabeth Catlett, Eldzier Cortor, Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Charles White, McArthur Binion, Barbara Jones-Hogu and Richard Hunt, as well as the Chicago Printers Guild.
The exhibition includes photographs and video excerpts from ‘The Only Thing That Lasts,’ an oral-history film documenting the multigenerational community associated with the workshop. Produced by Camille Crain Drummond and funded by the Hauser & Wirth Institute, the film includes accounts from artists and cultural workers including robin holder, Dindga McCannon, Eleanor Magid, Nitza Tuiño and Richard Powell. Works identified in the exhibition materials include Camille Billops’s ‘I am Black, I am Black, I am Dangerously Black’ (1973), Eldzier Cortor’s ‘L’Abbatoire No. VI (The Slaughterhouse No. VI)’ (c. 1955) and Ron Adams’s ‘Blackburn’ (2002).
Curated by Shameekia Shantel Johnson with Jazmine Catasús, Essye Klempner and Ethel Renia, the Chicago iteration is organized by Denny Mwaura and Lorelei Stewart. The exhibition originated at the James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center, where it was shown from August 26 to November 14, 2025, and subsequently traveled to the MassArt Art Museum from January 22 to May 31, 2026. At Gallery 400, it will be accompanied by a September 19 workshop on risograph, relief and monotype techniques; a September 24 discussion on Blackburn’s legacy and Chicago printmaking; an October 22 film program; and a December 1 virtual tour. Gallery 400 is located at 400 S. Peoria Street and is free and open to all.
