Commencement Event

Solace in Witnessing: Printmaking as an act of dignifying humanity

Date & Time

November 13 – 22, 2026Daily 11 AM – 4 PM

Location

CCA Campus Gallery | 1480 17th Street, San Francisco, California, 94107

The delicate barrier of each human body exists as a bridge. Witnessing and experiencing life, letting it exhilarate us and letting it harrow us. With the means to create, we each must contemplate, how ought we act? The printmaker, whether through intent or coincidence, precisely captures the events of their time. The subject of violence and cruelty across time demands our attention. This exhibition includes works on paper that expose the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, Argentina’s Dirty War, the massacre of the Lakota peoples at Wounded Knee, Ukrainian life in Soviet times, and critiques of the Vietnam war. Each is a window into a moment, dignifying it with a visual record. These events are not far away: they inform understandings of history, and they deserve our acknowledgement. In the face of great suffering and deprivation, works from the Japanese Ukiyo-e period and contemporary print artists offer solace in the home, beauty, and the environment. Each act of cruelty and every act of compassionate witnessing documented in print becomes our legacy. In this exhibition, we voice a collective desire for rebirth and justice. As artists, we hold crisp paper, etch deep lines, seeking the awe of saturated ink on the page. These documents carry the events of our time into an uncertain future. As artists: how ought we act? How ought we react?