Place and experience

“Our Time Here Is Brief”(monotype with gold foil), by Lynn Brofsky, at the Boston Printmakers 2023 North American Print Biennial, through Dec. 9.

She says:

“As the years go by, my images and subjects shift, mediums and techniques change and grow; I have found that more than anything, the driving force in my work is the relationship between place and human experience.

“I grew up in Colorado, where family road trips from Denver took us out to areas of farmland, mesas, deserts and forgotten towns populated with skeletal relics of industry. Embedded with ghosts of what they once were, their energy always spoke to me. This is what I come back to, our fragile existence, the way we relate, love, isolate and abandon ourselves and the places we live in.

“Moved by the sensuality of the human figure, asymmetry, architecture, landscape, growth and decay, and perceived connections, I attempt to relate my stories, my own narrative of contrasts.’’

From Cuba to Somerville

“Manolete” (bullfighter) (woodcut), by Rafael Zara, in the show “Connections/Conexiones,’’ at Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, Mass., through April 9.

The gallery explains:

The Brickbottom Gallery is showing original prints by contemporary Cuban artists, most of whom are living on the island. This is the first half of an international print exchange. In 2019, Janette Brossard Duharte, president of the Printmaking section of the Visual Artist Association of Cuba, approached The Boston Printmakers with an idea for an international print exchange. She invited members of The Boston Printmakers to exhibit in Havana and asked the organization to sponsor an exhibit of Cuban artists in the Boston area. The Boston Printmakers happily accepted and the Brickbottom Gallery agreed to exhibit the original prints, never shown here before….

“Brossard brought the work of 37 artists to the gallery from Havana in 2019. The subjects of the prints explore themes ranging from politics to religion to eroticism. The graphic styles run the gamut from realism to colorful abstraction to the printed book. The history of Cuban printmaking began with the necessity to promote Cuban cigars and developed … with the production of strong silkscreen prints to advertise films and to make political statements. Contemporary printmakers have expanded their output to include lithography, etching, woodcuts as well as silkscreen. All of these mediums are present in the Brickbottom Gallery exhibition.’’