Luis Camnitzer (b. 1937) was born in Lübbock, Germany; he emigrated to Uruguay two years later as a result of World War II. He has lived in the United States since 1964. In 1964–65 in New York City, Camnitzer, José Guillermo Castillo, and Liliana Porter started the New York Graphic Workshop (NYGW), a space where classes were held and other artists’ graphic works were printed. It was also a place where artists gathered to discuss printmaking and its role in contemporary society. Camnitzer mentioned these details in the essay he wrote for the catalogue of the NYGW exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in Caracas in 1969.The NYGW’s ideas mentioned by Camnitzer are particularly helpful in understanding the artistic development of Liliana Porter (b. 1941) during this period, when she began to use non-traditional materials such as acetate and Plexiglas, produced offset versions of her prints, created environment installations, and included “actual” materials just like nails and threads in her works. All these techniques were characteristic of a re-conceptualizing of the graphic image. While the NYGW exhibition was at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Liliana Porter had a solo show, also in Caracas, at the Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo [Faculty of Architecture and Planning] at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.The NYGW closed in about 1970. In 1975, Porter and Camnitzer, who were married at that time, opened the Studio Camnitzer-Porter in Valdottavo (Lucca). After they separated, the studio became the Studio Camnitzer. José Guillermo Castillo was born in 1938 in Caracas (Venezuela) and moved to New York in 1963.
