Close to the Ground

March 18, 2026 – April 24, 2026
Opening Reception: March 28, 6–8 pm

Fanny Allié
Dana Bell
Chakaia Booker
Molly Crabapple
Devraj Dakoji
Michael Eade
Beth Ganz
Patricia Leighton
Nazanin Noroozi
Kenny Rivero
Xin Song
Jia Sung
Michael Kelly Williams

EFA Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works printed at EFA Studios and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Through woodcut, photogravure, lithography, chine collé, intaglio and blind embossing, the artists in the exhibition engage with printmaking as both a formal discipline and a way of thinking through the concerns that animate their broader practices. Across diverse approaches, the works explore how the printed mark can carry memory, myth, figuration, and humor in equal measure, and how the material conditions of the medium open spaces for shared meaning.

Watson Mere: The Forces

March 18, 2026 – April 1, 2026
Opening Reception: March 18, 6–8 pm

EFA Gallery
323 West 39th St., New York, NY, 3rd Floor
Hours: Tue–Fri, 12–5 pm

Curated by Jesse Bandler Firestone

EFA Gallery is pleased to present The Forces, a solo presentation of new work by EFA Studio Member Watson Mere.

The exhibition brings together a recent body of paintings devoted to the artist’s spiritual awakening in the context of Haitian Vodou and Americana. Developed following Mere’s recent residency at Haiti Cultural Exchange, the works that comprise The Forces depict visions, symbolism, and ritual motifs rooted in Yoruba religion (Ifá/Orisha) and West African Vodun, as well as Haitian Vodou. The paintings are built on highly textured surfaces composed of acrylic paint mixed with sugar, forming a thick, stucco-like ground that Mere manipulates into dimensional patterns reminiscent of flames, scorched earth, and rising heat. Fire appears throughout the works as image, process, memory and portal where tableaux of interdimensional and ancestral communing are revealed. 

Press & Pull: Two Decades at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop

January 22 – May 31, 2026

MassArt Art Museum
Sandra & David Bakalar Gallery
621 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

Haig Aivazian, Xenobia Bailey, Chakaia Booker, Robert Blackburn, Romare Bearden, Betty Blayton, Camille Billops, Elizabeth Catlett, Ed Clark, Renee Cox, Lizania Cruz, Devraj Dakoji, Raque Ford, Michele Godwin, Maren Hassinger, Baseera Khan, Tsedaye Makonnen, Glendalys Medina, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Dindga McCannon, Otto Neals, Ademola Olugebefola, Stephanie Santana, Krishna Reddy, Shellyne Rodriguez, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Kenny Rivero, Elliott Jamal Robbins, Faith Ringgold, Charles White, and Michael Kelly Williams

Press & Pull: Two Decades at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop traces the Workshop’s early foundations, culture of innovation, and ongoing role as a hub for mentorship and collaboration. Featuring more than 35 prints by legacy and contemporary artists, the exhibition celebrates the impact of Robert Blackburn (1920–2003) and his enduring vision of equity, experimentation, and community in American printmaking.

Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground

March 28 - May 31, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 28, 3-6 PM

Blackburn Study Center
323 West 39th St., 2nd Fl

JOINT EXHIBITIONS / PROGRAMMING
Twelve Gates Arts: April 3 - May 15 
Arab American Museum, Dearborn: March 28 - May 31 
Maqam Studios Brooklyn: Starts April 25 
Jay Seven Inc., Brooklyn: March 28 - May 31 

Over the next three years, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop will foreground its international connections through Global Impressions, a programming initiative that builds on Blackburn’s legacy of solidarity with artists from the Global South, showing how print has functioned as both cultural resistance and diasporic exchange. Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground curated by Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed is the first iteration of Global Impressions series, to be held at the Blackburn Study Center, a space dedicated to the history and legacy of Robert Blackburn. 

Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Ground is a focused survey of work by the New York-based Sudanese artist and master printmaker Mohammed Omer Khalil (b.1936). The exhibition presents a selection of his paintings and printed works spanning six decades, employing collage and offering tribute to the scenes, sounds and syntax influential to Khalil’s visual language. The exhibition program includes stories, discussions, music performances, and poetry readings. 

OIL MONOTYPE

Instructor: BRUCE WALDMAN

SATURDAY & SUNDAY
3/14 & 3/15
11:00AM - 3:00PM