The International Jury to Select Works and Award Prizes for the XI Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe, held in 1995, was made up of Florent Bex, Belgian critic and art historian; Kathleen Caraccio, a printmaker from the Robert Blackburn Workshop in New York; Ticio Escobar, Director of the Cultural Center in the Municipality of Asunción, Paraguay; Enrique García Gutiérrez, professor at the Universidad de Puerto Rico; Ivonne Pini, coordinator of the magazine, Art Nexus; Fayga Ostrower, a Brazilian artist; and Bélgica Rodríguez, Latin American art historian and critic from Venezuela.
The Biennial de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano was one of the most important events held in the Caribbean region, given that it fostered an exchange of ideas and contact among different artists. The first of these biennials was organized by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Institute of Puerto Rican Culture] (ICP) in 1970. Printmaking was selected because it was a form of expression that was widely practiced by Puerto Rican artists, who were producing very high quality work. In 1986, “y del Caribe” [and Caribbean] was added to the name of the biennial so it could include that geographic area in the event. Parallel to this change, the biennial included two exhibitions to recognize artists’ work: one to honor a Puerto Rican artist and the other to honor a foreign artist.