Announcing APANO's BIPOC Printmakers Residency

APANO is excited to offer a BIPOC Printmakers Residency at Orchards of 82nd using the East Portland Art + Justice Lab’s Mobile Print Studio!

Resident artists will have access to the studio for 3 months, receive a $3000 stipend with a $800 materials budget, host 2 open studio sessions each month, and create a special APANO edition print on current organizing or advocacy work.

The three chosen artists are AMP members and Mobile Print Studio Riso Trainers, Jia Lu Ni, Raveena Bhalara, and Timme Lu!

Jia Lu Ni (she/her)

Jia Lu is a queer multidisciplinary designer who is passionate about building a deep understanding of people through ethnography to design products, services, and experiences that make a meaningful difference in their lives. She thrives when she is collaborating with others learning something new. She spent the last year as a Mobile Print Studio Riso Trainer and an AMP member. Follow her on IG: @jialuni

Raveena Bhalara (she/her)

Raveena is a multidisciplinary designer, artist, and writer originally from Houston. She is also the author of the self-published essay collection, “Gay, Brown, and Hungry” about her melodramatic life and her love for Taco Bell. She spent the last year as a Mobile Print Studio Riso Trainer and an AMP member. More of her work can be found at www.bhalara.com

Timme Lu (he/him)

Timme Lu is a Chinese-American printer and designer currently based in Portland, Oregon. Born on the east coast, raised on the west, and occasionally drifting in between. His work sits in nostalgia, shapes, senses, and an abundance of self-doubt. With a focus in letterpress and graphic design, most pieces take the form of a book. He is inspired by shifts/constants in spaces, soft/hard edges, and the unique individuals he has encountered along the way. He’s afraid of the dark, heights, and socializing. He loves snacking, paper smells, sound/body waves, fuzzy textures, and staring out windows. He spent the last year as a Mobile Print Studio Riso Trainer and an AMP member. www.timmelu.com

In 2020, APANO’s East Portland Art + Justice Lab began three initiatives from the Orchards of 82nd Art Plan, Living Futures: Past, Present and Future. They included an Artist Residency program, the O82 Art Crew, and a Mobile Print Studio. The Lab acts as a platform that amplifies the knowledge and resources available in areas of resilience, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural diversity, and resourcefulness directly by the people themselves at the Orchards of 82nd. The Lab focuses on creating and keeping cultural memories and the social fabric of the neighborhood intact through experimental art-making activities, discussions, and more.

The residency came about from the work in 2021 with the Mobile Print Studio by local community members. It supports access to robust, community-led artmaking and exhibition opportunities for BIPOC artists, cultural workers, and community members in East Portland’s Jade District at the Orchards of 82nd.

Each artist will have 3 months to create new work using APANO’s risograph machine in the Mobile Print Studio. A risograph is essentially a modern-day stencil printer. The Riso internally creates a stencil that is laid onto a drum filled with ink which then spins at high speed, forcing the ink through the stencil onto the paper. This process creates a unique textured print that cannot be replicated.

With the residency, each artist will produce a special edition print about APANO’s organizing and advocacy work. They will also have open studio hours for community members to use the riso and work on their own projects. Jia Lu Ni will host community hours with a monthly Intro to Riso workshop by appointment on Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings of each month.

The schedule is as follows:

Sunday, February 13, 10 am - 12 pm: Intro to Riso
Thursday, February 17, 6 - 8 pm: Community Hours
Sunday, March 13, 10 am - 12 pm: Intro to Riso
Thursday,March 17, 6 - 8 pm: Community Hours
Sunday, April 10, 10 am - 12 pm: Intro to Riso
Thursday, March 14, 6 - 8 pm: Community Hours

(For safety around COVID, community members must be vaxxed and boosted.)

Sign up here to join the community hours.



This programming message brought to you by APANO Communities United Fund, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.