An Art “Quinceanera” in the Borderlands.
Kim Bishop and Paul Karam, “Texas Size Print.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
An exhibition featuring large prints by a talented cohort of borderland artists opened last week [July 12, 2025] at the Centro Cultural Aztlan in San Antonio, Texas. The Centro press release described the exhibit as a prime example of community artists engaging “in the deeply rooted democratic art form of social commentary and collective expression.”
Luis M. Garza documentary. Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
The large print project originated when artists and educators Kim Bishop and Luis Valderas organized a team of borderland artists fifteen years ago for the purpose of producing large-scale street prints. The shared vision has manifested in the form of A³ Press, a series of pop-up industrial print events that transform public spaces into temporary printmaking studios, and has brought large-scale printmaking to diverse communities throughout the state of Texas.
Kim Bishop and Luis Valderas, left. San Anto Print. Courtesy of the artists.
This bold objective led to the creation of A³ Press print project by Kim Bishop, Luis Valderas, and Paul Karam in 2010. Initially conceived as educational outreach to highlight printmaking’s techniques and elevate national awareness of socio-political issues along the U.S.–Mexico border, these pop-up events swiftly evolved into something deeper. They engaged broad voices, brought in volunteers and local community members, raised national consciousness about socio-political issues, and created beautiful art through collaborative efforts.
The results shown in this year’s big print project exhibit are spectacular. There are more than a dozen large art works, some measuring 4×8 feet. The artists involved in the projects of A³ aspire to “demystify printmaking and democratize artistic creation.” The Centro’s exhibit curators, Bishop and Valderas, made sure that each print serves not only as an artistic statement, but as a vital historical document—”capturing concerns, struggles, and resilience within communities shaped by border dynamics, immigration, labor rights, human dignity, and cultural identity.”
Kim Bishop, “We Made a Promise.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Kim Bishop is a nationally exhibited artist who has been working from her San Antonio, Texas based studio for the past 20 years. She holds a Master of Fine Art in Contemporary Drawing and Painting from the University of Texas at San Antonio [UTSA], a Master of Arts in Education and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Arts from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.
Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
With over thirty six years of art education experience, Bishop is currently the Teen Programs Coordinator for the UTSA Professional and Continuing Education Department at the UTSA Southwest Campus and is an adjunct professor of Drawing and Visual Culture at UTSA. Her mission is to socially engage audiences in the process of art. Bishop is a co-founder of A³, a pop-up industrial street press, 3rd Space Art Gallery, and is a mentor for the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist program.
A³ Press artists preparing to print. Courtesy of Luis M. Garza documentary.
Nine of the creative prints in the Centro’s exhibit are by Kim Bishop. She was instrumental in firmly anchoring the A³ Press in South and West Texas, amassing a significant, historically rich body of work. Since its inception, over thirty collaborating printmakers have contributed to a collection of large-scale prints on paper and textile, chronicling socio-political realities in the borderland region and the wider state over the past two decades.
Bishop’s print, “We Made a Promise,” was printed in Austin several years ago, a tribute to the struggle of immigrants who cross the U.S. border in search of a better life. For many immigrants, a better life is escaping violence and political repression. In some instances they are escaping sheer starvation. In El Paso, Bishop and Valderas pulled two all-nighters to complete their prints. In her work, Bishop placed boot tracks, a metaphor for border crossing and movement, and added butterflies, a symbol of borderless migration.
Luis Valderas, “Volando Como Cuauhtémoc.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Valderas’s breathtaking portrayal of Aztec warrior Cuauhtémoc is a celebration of Mexican American cultural heritage, as well as a story of courage and resistance. The Cuauhtémoc print is strategically placed at the entrance of the Centro Cultural Aztlan exhibit. In honoring Cuauhtémoc, the last emperor of the Aztec Empire, Valderas reminds us of the precariousness of indigenous resistance against the Spanish conquest. When Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés’s army entered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in 1519, they inadvertently introduced a devastating smallpox epidemic that swept through the population. The epidemic aided the conquistadors as they vanquished the Aztec defenders and captured Cuauhtémoc.
Kim Bishop, “Original Sin.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Trained as a warrior and dedicated to the war god Huitzilopochtli, Cuauhtémoc was known for his determination and bravery. The Aztec chief was uncompromising in his opposition to the Spanish, rallying the warriors and their remaining allies to fiercely defend their capital city of Tenochtitlan during a four-month siege. When the Spanish failed to find the treasures they expected, they tortured Cuauhtémoc—burning his feet over coals—in an attempt to force him to reveal hidden gold. He endured the torture without betraying his people, and his stoicism became legendary.
A native of the South Texas borderlands, Luis Valderas is known for his work that fuses Mesoamerican mythology, science fiction, and Chicano identity. A multi-disciplinary artist, he received his BFA in Art Education from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1995. Valderas’s art explores themes of ancestry, borderlands, and speculative futures.
In 2005, Valderas co-founded and produced Project: MASA I, II, and III, a national group exhibition series highlighting Latino and Chicano artists who use outer space and science fiction to comment on social and political issues. The project has become a significant platform for Chicanx/Latinx futurism and creative exchange.
Luis Valderas, “The Mariachi Forever Stamp.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
The Centro Aztlan “Quinceanera” exhibit [15th anniversary] reveals how artists and printers Bishop, Valderas, and Karam conceived of the deployment of industrial street equipment—predominantly an imposing asphalt roller—to transform public spaces into temporary print studios. In one previous printing performance they utilized the entire length of the football field at Alamo Stadium. For this year’s Quinceanera, they took their steam rollers to the popular parking lot of the former San Antonio Pearl Brewery compound.
The A³ Press’s “Quinceanera” of pop-up events illustrates that art is a powerful communication instrument when it is visible, participatory, and rooted in local experience. In a video documentary about the A³ Press produced by Luis M. Garza, members of the project can be seen laying a thick marine birch wood carving on the ground, placing large sheets of paper over it, and lifting the finished print after the giant asphalt street roller has completed its pass over.
As a cohesive exhibition, this selection of A³ Press prints offers access to over a decade of evolving themes and methods shaped in the community. It showcases a distinctive model of public art intervention that is educational, mobilizing, healing, and enduring. By foregrounding collective authorship and lived experience, the exhibit amplifies marginalized narratives and recomposes communal power through hands‑on collaboration. Ultimately, the show positions printmaking not only as a complex art form, but as an ongoing site of cultural resistance—where communities author their own stories and demand to be heard.
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Copyright 2025 by Ricardo Romo. All photo credits as indicated above.