Artwork by Julio Granda, printed by Barry Sternlieb

PRESS kicks off the 2012 season of Downstreet Art with Ink in the Blood: Printed Works on Paper featuring the work of artists Julio Granda and Barry Sternlieb, two creative forces in the Berkshires that have joined together for three decades of collaboration. This exhibit shows the marriage of their specialties. Barry prints  and Julio designs and together they create remarkable broadsides.

Barry, the original owner of the Vandercook Universal III that is the cornerstone of PRESS, defines broadsides as “a hybrid form that creates an interdependent or symbiotic relationship between word and image. The impact of this marriage should be greater than just reading one poem or viewing artwork, and should represent a new experience in which each element carries its own weight while contributing to a perfect balance of power as a whole.”

The collaborative work displayed at this exhibit embodies just that, combining image and text of two artists to create cohesive and interdependent pieces.

Julio was born in New York City and spent his high school years in Tampa, Florida. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1950, serving two tours of duty in Korea. He received his art training at the School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union in New York City. He later earned his MFA in painting at the University of Collections of Libraries and Museums as well as private collections throughout the United States. Among the poets and translators with whom he has collaborated or whose work he has illuminated are Martin Espada, Frederico Garcia Lorca, W.S. Merwin, Paul Metcalf/Herman Melville, Pablo Neruda, Rainer Maria Rilke, Richard Wilbur, Grace Paley, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Barry Sternlieb is the author of four chapbooks, the latest of which, Winter Crows, was awarded the 2008 Codhill Press Poetry Prize. His work appears in Poetry, The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Gettysburg Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Commonweal, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), Alaska Quarterly Review, The Sewanee Review, Southwest Review and others. In addition, he is the recipient of a 2004 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Poetry. Finally, he edits Mad River Press, specializing in the very slow creation of handmade limited edition letterpress poetry broadsides and chapbooks since 1986.

He and his wife, Maureen, live in Richmond. They have two grown daughters.