Pedro Barbeito | Photo by Adam Atkinson
Research area: My body of work for the past 30 years reflects on the ways that “seeing”—our visual interactions with and experience of the world—is mediated by technologies. I have a long-standing and complicated relationship with visual technologies, both old and new—a relationship marked as much by excitement and attraction as skepticism and disappointment. My work asks: How do the “technological” visual languages that surround us today shape what we see, and how do they compare to the experiences provided through the analog technologies of the past (e.g., oil painting, sculpture or printmaking)? What do we gain and what do we lose with each new technology? How can we become more critical and skeptical of something that appears so immediate and natural: the eye, the image, and all their enhancements?
My Lafayette journey: I was attracted to Lafayette College as the position offered was a joint position where I teach printmaking and also direct EPI, a professional nonprofit printshop. This allows me to use the professional side of the printmaking studio as a pedagogical tool for students.
Each semester, EPI invites one or two professional artists for one-week residencies to develop and work on a print edition. This is an amazing opportunity for students, who engage with the artists and see how they develop a body of work, and also have the opportunity over the course of the residency to establish a deeper relationship with the artist. This relationship continues after the residency as we follow the artist’s career and attend, when possible, their NYC exhibits. This November, current and former Lafayette students will be attending Alteronce Gumby’s (EPI artist-in-residence, spring 2024) exhibit at Nicola Vassell gallery in NYC, where he will be exhibiting new paintings as well as the print project developed with students at Lafayette College. These EPI projects have also strengthened my relationship with the participating students. Through the many hours of working together, we get to know each other better, and I continue to advise them for years after their graduation.
What I’m teaching this fall, and what I’ll be teaching in the spring: This fall, I’m teaching two Beginning Printmaking courses. In the spring semester, I’ll also be teaching Interdisciplinary Printmaking. It is in this 200-level course that students further develop their printmaking skill sets and are able to work with EPI’s visiting artists.
The course centers around new and old technologies that are not commonly used in printmaking, and how they can inform a printmaking language. We use a laser cutter, 100-ton hydraulic press, and vacuum former in conjunction with more common printmaking techniques—relief printing, screen printing, and paper casting. This experimental approach to printmaking has brought some of the most celebrated international artists such as Philip Pearlstein, Tariku Shiferaw, and Chila Burman to come and work on print editions with us at Lafayette College. The techniques students learn are some of the most cutting-edge work methodologies used in printmaking; they share these skills with the artists, and in return they learn about a professional artist’s process, what it takes to participate in the art world today, and how the art market works.
Read more about faculty members who have been promoted to associate professor with continuous tenure.
