The LAPS National Print Exhibition is celebrating it's 20th anniversary! Starting in 1973, when the first LAPS National Print Exhibition was held at the Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Park, the organization has been presenting a biennial exhibition overview of the artist print. Over the years, many talented and committed artists have volunteered their time to organize the exhibit in conjunction with notable jurors from across the country. James Brown, then director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, juried the first National. Each year the National has produced a catalogue of the participating artists and the prints included in the exhibition along with the juror's statements.
Since 1973, LAPS has sponsored a National Print Exhibition every two years. Unlike many other print exhibitions, LAPS includes recent work from the major presses that are so prominent in Los Angeles, encouraging a thorough dialogue of the contemporary print. Artists of international stature exhibit alongside local and national artists juried into the show. Many generous vendors, corporations, organizations and private collectors have been supporters of the National Exhibition, donating cash awards and purchase prizes.
In the past years, jurors have included Archana Horsting, Ruth Weisberg, Ed Ruscha, Nathan Oliveira, Ynez Johnston, Laddie John Dill, Henry Hopkins, Elizabeth Smith, Bruce Davis to name a few.
Other exhibition venues since the LA Municipal Gallery have included the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at UCLA, which hosted the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth National exhibitions. The Laband Gallery at Loyola Marymount University and the Pasadena Armory Center for the Arts have hosted multiple Nationals. The 19th National was hosted by the Riverside Art Museum.
Over the years, the local LAPS group has expanded and now is an international society of well over 400 artist/printmakers from all across the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Egypt.
New artist members are juried in each year by distinguished jurors: fellow artists, curators, educators and collectors. In addition, LAPS offers Associate, Student, and Patron memberships.
If you are interested in purchasing a catalogue from one of the past Nationals, please state the specific number of the exhibition, and place your request here.
Over the years, the local LAPS group has expanded and now is an international society of well over 400 artist/printmakers from all across the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Egypt. New applicants are juried in each year by distinguished jurors: fellow artists, curators, educators and collectors. In addition, LAPS offers Associate, Student, and Patron memberships.