Gravura Brasileira

I became a printmaker while working on my final graduation thesis for a B.Arch in Architecture and Urban Planning in Brazil, in 1981. For my graduation thesis I created a limited edition of an artist’s book, a suite of 20 signed serigraphs and objects. This project became the open door to my passion for printing and my development as an artist and later as an educator. I started teaching printmaking as soon as I finished my graduate studies at Brooklyn College, in 1986.

Teaching printmaking enables me to draw upon my cultural and artistic experience as a thinker, researcher and learner. I teach my students to effectively create something new, outside of limitations, and perhaps more importantly, to always gain a transformative experience. With this thoughts in mind, I founded Goloborotko`s Studio, in 1989 as a center for production and diffusion of printmaking whose principal goal is to encourage the voice and vision of individual artists in a nurturing environment that supports the creation of works that push the boundaries of printmaking. Goloborotko’s Studio has a gallery space dedicated to exhibit prints.

In the fall of 2006, I had the opportunity to invite Eduardo Besen, director of gallery Gravura Brasileira to showcase Brazilian Contemporary prints at Goloborotko`s Studio. This successful event became the catalyst of a series of connections and collaborations and in October, 2007 Eduardo Besen curated, upon the invitation of Fine Arts Chairperson Prof. Donna Moran, the exhibition Contemporary Brazilian Printmakers presented at Steuben West Gallery at Pratt. This exhibition was the beginning of a successful alliance, and provided a creative artistic dialogue among artists, faculty, students, and the general public. The open conversation about printmaking techniques, approaches and resources brought together the two Americas – from North to South – where artistic venues, voices and territories until then untouched, were discovered and explored.

Inspired by the success of this collaboration I created the project PRATT PRINTS: Faculty Exhibition at Gravura Brasileira and Universidade Belas Artes in São Paulo, and I received The Pratt Faculty Development Fund to curate the exhibition. In the fall of 2008, a new exhibition PRINTed: Graphic Horizons in collaboration with Gravura Brasileira and Universidade Belas Artes was presented at Pratt Galleries.

PRATT PRINTS is a natural development of a fruitful international relationship between Pratt Institute, Gravura Brasileira, and Universidade Belas Artes. This Exhibition builds bridges between different artistic communities, and among artists with different upbringings and cultural origins, that use printmaking as a form of expression – either as an exploration or as final medium.

PRATT PRINTS presents a wide spectrum of voices and examines the various manifestations in contemporary printmaking. It gives us an opportunity to understand how artists who reflect on contemporary trends and explore artistic frontiers, nurture not only the artistic and cultural life of its own community, but communities abroad. This exhibition has special emphasis on artistic development, linking individuals from different communities, cultural ethnicities and identities to experience artwork that is not an end in itself, but an opportunity for discovery.

As artists and thinkers, we all identify with the idea that cultural exchange stretches artistic boundaries. There is always a true demand for international dialogue, in which a variety of creative concepts and methods are reflected upon collectively. This exhibition provides the continuation of a constructive dialogue among artists fostering an active participation amongst the arts across various cultures and supports intercultural dialogue as an essential tool for learning and it will also support sharing wisdom as an essential tool for artistic development.

PRATT PRINTS: Faculty Exhibition is a fascinating and beautiful experience where I find myself touching history. This exhibition reveals a sense of connection between artists linked by the same practice: printmaking. And while the practice is the same, the particularity of each artist’s views is immeasurable.


Sheila Goloborotko
New York, January 2009


I am deeply thankful to Prof. Donna Moran (Professor and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Pratt Institute), and Prof. Kelly Driscoll (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute) for their hard work as part of the Exhibition Committee. I am also grateful to Dr. Helena Freddi, Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Universidade Belas Artes, for her participation in this project and for her kind invitation to present this exhibition including prints from Pratt graduate students at Universidade Belas Artes. Finally, my deepest thanks to Eduardo Besen, director of gallery Gravura Brasileira, for his boundless passion for printmaking and Brazilian prints.