Julianna Kirwin’s upcoming show at Hecho a Mano is titled “Babcia,” which means “grandmother” in Polish. The majority of her work in the show honors her relationship with her own Polish grandmother, who came from a rural area near Krakow and immigrated to the US alone and settled in New Britain, CT in a neighborhood known as Little Poland. Beginning in the early 20th century, New Britain was settled by Polish immigrants who came to work in the “Hardware City of the World,” and the neighborhood still celebrates Polish culture with shops featuring Polish-made goods and many residents still speaking their native language. Because her grandmother only spoke Polish, a language Kirwin never learned, the two communicated through hands-on activities. “She has meant a lot to me and has influenced me as an artist,” Kirwin says. Her work in this show strives to recreate her grandmother’s kitchen through woodblock, linocut and monotype, as well as 3D pieces and relief prints that will be wheat-pasted to the gallery wall. Kirwin brings the kitchen to life through the every-day objects that remind her of her grandmother: her aprons, cookware, tablecloth, the food they would prepare together and her long hair, which she would comb for hours every day.



“More than anything, her generosity and the details of her kitchen and neighborhood fascinated me as a kid,” Kirwin says.
In addition to her work honoring her grandmother, Kirwin will show a large woodblock print titled “Pan American Unity,” which mirrors a 1940 fresco by Diego Rivera that shares the same name. Rivera’s piece communicated his vision of the “marriage of artistic expression of the North and South of this continent,” calling for cultural harmony and collaboration during a time of global upheaval. Kirwin’s, meanwhile, is made up of eleven individual woodcut panels printed onto cloth and depicts some of her favorite artists, poets and writers, and a diverse array of female activists “whose lives have reached across boundaries to form my vision of a Pan American Unity,” the artist says. Her print includes Gustave Baumann, Berta Cacares, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dolores Huerta, Michelle Bachelet, Joy Harjo, Deb Haaland, Angela Davis, Isabel Allende, Helen Cordero, X Gonzalez, Maria Martines, Francisco Toledo, and the artist herself. Kirwin’s print answers Rivera’s call with a work honoring “the fundamental rights that each woman or man represents as foundational principles of our shared continent,” Kirwin says.
The inspiration for this piece is drawn in part from Kirwin’s training as a printmaker, much of which was in Oaxaca, Mexico where she studied with artists including Enrique Flores, Federico Valdez and Abram Torres. “I have always been attracted to printmaking,” Kirwin says, an appeal that stems from her Polish roots and the traditions of stenciling, paper cutting, and graphic wall decoration that are still prevalent in Polish culture today. She also visits Oaxaca frequently, and the city’s printmaking traditions influence her own in many ways.



Kirwin is also the founder of Herstory, a three-year-old printmaking collective based in Albuquerque with a mission to create portraits of women who have shaped the way we see and understand the world. “Wheat-pasted images are so common on the streets of Oaxaca, and most print shops are collectives, so it was a model I wanted to try in the US,” Kirwin says. Herstory’s first session was in honor of International Women’s Day, and since then its four core members have continued to invite others to learn their technique and create portraits of women they would like to honor. “Each of our members brings something very important to the mix,” Kirwin says, describing the sense of fun and camaraderie during the printmaking sessions she holds at her studio. “Unlike many artforms, printmaking works best as a shared experience,” she says.
July 8th's Artist talk


Babcia will open at Hecho a Mano on Friday, July 5 and will be on view until July 29.