Badgers are pioneers in many fields — not just in science and discovery, but also in education and the arts. When UW–Parkside created an artist-in-residence program in the spring of 2022, it turned to printmaker Roberto Torres Mata to fill the inaugural position.
Born in California to Mexican parents, Mata has drawn on his experiences to create works that explore a sense of transition, vulnerability, and alienation. “One of my signature pieces is called The Path That Leads Us,” he says. “It has this duality with the journey, navigating in a harsh environment where there’s not a sense of secureness or safety.”
Mata completed his tenure as Parkside’s first artist-in-residence in the spring of 2023. Read more about his experience and the inspiration behind his work.
What does an artist-in-residence do?
It was a lot of work. In the span of the residency, I made two full bodies of work for one solo exhibition at UW–Parkside, [and it] also traveled to Holland, Michigan. I did another solo exhibition at Hope College. I taught a class one day out of the week. And then I had students have open lab work, so they could come in during my office hours and [I could] support their projects. I was also teaching here at UW–Madison in printmaking — advanced screen printing.
Is printmaking your primary medium?
Printmaking allowed me to really experiment with my narrative as an artist and [explore] the personal situations about my family coming from Mexico, immigrating to the United States: issues with migration, issues with how climate change is affecting people’s movement, economics, politics, and policies. Through my work, I put those issues, those problems, into context on paper. I share the accessibility of prints across a wider spectrum of the public, so people have access to them.
Now that the residency is over, what’s next for you?
I [put on] another solo exhibition, which happened September 17 to October 21. That was Mi Casa Es Su Casa. I am planning a trip — through a research grant provided by Tandem Press here in Madison — to travel to Europe for a month to do some research for printmaking, looking at old masters like Albrecht Dürer and contemporaries.
