In this essay the curator Zuleiva Vivas (b. 1951) provides an overview of the work being done in 1993 by the members of the Taller Huella in Venezuela. It should be noted that Vivas was the director of the Galería Sotavento from 1985 through 1995. During that decade Sotavento’s management took an interest in young artists with innovative ideas, and featured prints as much as any other medium in the gallery’s exhibitions. The Taller Huella was started in Caracas in 1980 by five artists who had graduated from CEGRA (Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica) and were members of the TAGA (Taller de Artistas Gráficos Asociados). The Taller was very active from 1980 to 1995 and has survived, intermittently, since then. They also played an important teaching role and organized exhibitions in Venezuela and abroad (Casa de las Américas, Havana, 1993 and the Venezuelan Embassy in Paris, 1995). The Taller has also been a meeting place for printmakers such as Carúpano (Luis Adrián León, b. 1949), Pancho Quilici (b. 1954), and Lihie Talmor (b. 1944), among others who were invited to share their passion for and their knowledge about printmaking.
For more information about TAGA, see the article by Bélgica Rodríguez “El TAGA: un sueño de verdad” [doc. no. 1068980]; see also the following newspaper articles by Mara Comerlati: “El TAGA le ofrece al artista la libertad de crear” [doc. no. 1101412], “Al reencuentro de Pedro Ángel González a través de sus grabados” [doc. no. 1164576], and “El TAGA aspira a ser la casa del artista gráfico venezolano” [doc. no. 1081133].
