Lea, Shaye, and Luis Remba in the Mixografia Workshop, 2016. | Photo: Courtesy of Mixografia.
At the industrial downtown end of Adams Boulevard, the American Dream is thriving, as one family business reinvents the modern art of printmaking.
The history of the Mixografia Workshop is an archetypal story of a family -- the Rembas -- originally from Mexico, pursuing new horizons for the family business, putting down deep roots and finding success in the U.S. through innovation and hard work, with the next generation growing up in the business before taking over and evolving it. What's really fascinating is that this story has unfolded inside the upper echelons of the Los Angeles art world -- because the Remba family business is inventing an absolutely unique approach to printmaking that has literally changed the game to bridge the span between sculpture and image. From Ruscha to Baldessari, Bourgeois to Tamayo, many artists' most engaging and popular works have been made at this Los Angeles landmark that you've probably never heard of. But with the increased cultural traffic in their industrial stretch of downtown, and the debut of their newly renovated 6,000-square-foot public gallery space adjacent to the production workshop, that low profile is about to get a big spotlight.
Plaza de Santo Domingo, where Taller de Grafica Mexicana was originally located, circa 1970. | Photo: Courtesy of Mixografia.
The Remba family has been involved in the art business going back three generations, since family patriarch Luis Remba, as a young man, first learned the classic printing techniques at his father's commercial printing firm in Mexico City. In 1968, the workshop under Luis' stewardship executed a suite of prints for Pablo O'Higgins for a show at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. It was O'Higgins who first suggested that Luis open his own fine art workshop, which he did with his wife Lea. After a few years of popularity among artists like David Alfaro Siqueiros and Leonora Carrington, they began a collaboration with Rufino Tamayo that would change the course of their lives -- and art history.
Tamayo was already internationally known for his masterful printmaking, but he had been interested in finding ways to achieve more texture and dimension, to give his prints the quality of presence of objects as well as images -- something that with the Rembas' help he would soon become even more known for. At his instigation and inspiration, the Rembas set off to work to modify conventional lithography to address the issue of surface and depth, looking to collage, painting, and bas-relief for aesthetic effects. What they came up with is a two-part solution. Think of it as a kind of handmade analog cousin to 3-D digital printing. The first involves making a dimensional object from any material imaginable and from it making a reverse copper plate that will be used for printing. The second is the development of a handmade cotton paper capable of enduring this amped-up approach to running reproductions; and in fact Luis and Lea's son Shaye conceived and built a whole new generation of papermaking machines in 1982. These days, Shaye oversees all the production at the workshop -- the proud and brilliant standard-bearer of the Mixografia empire.
Rufino Tamayo working on creating the lithographic stone for Dos Personajes Atacados Por Perros, 1983. | Photo: Courtesy of Mixografia.
Tamayo's spirit still watches over the workshop, in the form of an impressive display of the mammoth slate used to produce the world's largest stone litho. The artist went on to produce 80 editions with what had by then become Mixografia's registered trademark, during nearly 20 years of fruitful collaboration. Nearly 40 years and many miles from those early days, the Mixografia Gallery will be officially opened with a show of new works by longtime Mixografista Analia Saban. Already known for her unique relationship of using commonplace found objects and non-traditional materials, Saban's anti-Pop, conceptually rich works often depict an earnest ironic appreciation for modern life's detritus. The new print series Paper or Plastic? is a perfect example, in its totally convincing mimicry of a flimsy yet eternally durable generic plastic shopping bag.
Analia Saban, Have a Nice Day, Thank You! Plastic Bag, 2016. | Photo: Courtesy of Mixografia.
These soon-to-be debuted works hearken to another recent workshop favorite, Dario Escobar's cheeky Untitled (Basketball) from 2013, in the way it too replicates the qualities of a specific real-world object -- in this case, the skin of a deconstructed basketball. As impressive as artists like Escobar and Saban's collaborations with the studio have been, they are but the latest in what has been some 30 years of quietly mind-blowing projects with artists like Tamayo of course, Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Alberto Burri, Robert Graham, Jason Martin, Kiki Smith, Frank Stella, and Rachel Whiteread -- many of whom have conceived and executed both realistic and more conceptual, abstract, whimsical, poetic, and even experimental masterpieces. Some highlights include: Baldessari's Concrete Couples (2015) and A-B-C Art (Low Relief) (2009); Peter Halley's Prison with Smokestack I (2014); Ruscha's Rusty Signs (2014), New Wood, Old Wood (2007), and others; Burri's Mixoblack (1990); Bourgeois' Crochet series (1998); and extensive work with Robert Graham and Frank Romero.
With Luis and Lea as spry and inspired as ever, Shaye joyfully at the workshop helm, and the art world's thirst for innovation apparently unshakable, neither the Rembas nor Mixografia will be slowing down anytime soon.
Kenneth Noland inking the printing plate for his Winds monoprints, 1982.
Most recent headlines
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
18/12/2025
At 7.45pm on 1st January 1926, the precursor to RT , then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish state's first public radio transmission. From those first c...
18/12/2025
Step out of the vault and into the future of gaming with Fallout: New Vegas streaming on GeForce NOW, just in time to celebrate the newest season of the hit Ama...
18/12/2025
December 18 2025, 05:30 (PST) The Movie Experience SLO Becomes First U.S. Exhib...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Inducts 10 Industry Icons During Unforgettable ...
17/12/2025
ESPN to Debut MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats, a New AI-Driven NFL Data-AltCastThe series, powered by Adrenaline TruPlay AI, launches Dec. 22 and runs through ...
17/12/2025
Inaugural Optum Golf Channel Games Debut Under the Lights' in Primetime on ...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Audiences Watched Over 103 Billion Minutes of TV on Thanksgiving Day
NFL Games ...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Stars Visit Berklee for Weeklong Celebration Andrew Choi and EJAE, who voiced the film's main characters and contributed to its soundtr...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Inside The Unseen World Of Indian Customs: Netflix Reveals The...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix announces PAPARAZZI KING: the docu series coming to Ne...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First Look at Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole Pr...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Welcomes Warner Bros. Discovery Board Recommendation
Business
17 December 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
After Careful Revi...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
The Hao AI Lab research team at the University of California San Diego - at the forefront of pioneering AI model innovation - recently received an NVIDIA DGX B...
17/12/2025
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
Lea, Shaye, and Luis Remba in the Mixografia Workshop, 2016. | Photo: Courtesy of Mixografia. 
