Favianna Rodriguez is a printmaker who got her start as a political poster designer in the 1990s’ struggles for racial justice in California.
Her vibrant illustrations have become synonymous with grassroots efforts to defend Ethnic Studies, immigrant and women’s rights, affirmative action and youth activism. More recently, Rodriguez became renowned for her bold posters against racism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether handmade or printed en masse, her prints reflect new subjects, new ways of seeing, and the impact people can have on their conditions.
Rodriguez is also co-founder of Tumis Inc., a bilingual design studio providing graphics, web, and technology development for social justice. Rodriguez travels extensively to collaborate with organizations interested in using political graphics and the Internet to promote community building and social change.
In 2003, she helped established the Taller Tupac Amaru print studio to promote the practice of screenprinting among California-based artists. Through these programs, Rodriguez has mentored dozens of emerging young artists, and helped establish a multi-use arts facility in the heart of working-class East Oakland.
Rodriguez has lectured widely on the use of art in civic engagement and the work of artists who, like herself, are bridging the community and museum, the local and international. Rodriguez's has worked closely with artists in Mexico, Europe, and Japan, and her works appear in collections at Bellas Artes (Mexico City), The Glasgow Print Studio (Glasgow, Scotland), and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles). Favianna is also a member of the Justseeds Cooperative.
In 2008, Rodriguez was named one of Utne Reader magazine’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing the World".[1]
In the US
Internationally
In addition, her works have been displayed in England, Belgium, and Mexico. She was a 2005 artist-in-residence at San Francisco's prestigious de Young Museum, a 2007-2008 artist-in-residence at Kala Art Institute (Berkeley, CA), and received a 2006 Sea Change Residency from the Gaea Foundation (Provincetown, MA). Rodriguez is recipient of a 2005 award from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. [2]