HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — Two new screenprinting exhibitions focused on community, human migration and displacement are on display at Hope College’s De Pree Gallery.

In October, Wisconsin-based artist Roberto Torres Mata held a two-day workshop at CultureWorks, a Holland art nonprofit, on screenprinting.

“Screenprinting has this ability of the multiple. The power of the multiple really allows (the artist) to really expand on multiple aspects of the work on paper,” Mata said.

Nine local high school and college students participated.

“He had them making their own screens, creating marks directly on the screen with drawing fluid and then layering their own screens and collaborating and playing around with how those marks can be developed,” Lisa Walcott, the interim gallery director, said.

The work the students created, a 10-yard collaborative piece, is on display in the group exhibition titled “Mark Making: Creating Community Through Screenprinting.”

“The roll of paper was out on the sidewalk. It was a beautiful fall day. Everybody was getting their hands dirty, smearing and making marks and then adding their screens on top. That layering process and working all together was definitely a highlight of the workshop for a lot of the students,” Walcott said, adding that the students got to work alongside Mata.

Mata has a solo exhibition titled “Movement with the Marks.” He said it is about the transition between spaces, landscapes, migration and dealing with the causes that affect migration.

“My work provokes a sense of time, memory, place, nostalgic feelings in a sense because, for myself, I moved so many times. It’s hard to keep track of a specific moment. So for me to capture that through a visual, dynamic piece, makes more sense to me,” Mata said.

“For me, it’s a perspective of how to use printmaking in a more graphic aspect to capture those feelings, emotions, the impact that is happening within our borders,” Mata said.

Most of his work on display is screenprinting, but there are also a few sculptures.

“Within the space, there’s five walking sticks that he created (with) marks on top of, burned into, added things on top of them. They’re also about movement through space and using a lot of similar marks to the screen prints but they’re in more of a sculptural form,” Walcott said.

The De Pree Gallery is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibitions run through Feb. 23.

Hope College is hosting the exhibitions in partnership with CultureWorks and with a grant from Mellon Community-Based Partnership.