1st International Milwaukee Riso Invitational Closing Reception

June 26-August 29, 2026
Reception Saturday, August 29, 6-8pm

Spudnik Press is pleased to be the first stop on the national tour of 1st International Milwaukee Riso Invitational originating at Milwaukee’s Suburban Gallery. This collaborative exhibition and publishing project brings together an extraordinary group of contemporary artists, illustrators, and cultural producers to explore the power and substance of the democratic print.  

This inaugural invitational is produced in partnership with the The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop (CATS) and the artist‐run platform Bad at Sports, printed at the new CATS facility in Sarofim Hall on the campus of Rice University.

Each invited artist has created an original two‐color risograph print at 11Χ17 inches, editioned collaboratively for public distribution.

In keeping with the spirit of risograph culture—affordable, experimental, and accessible—30 of each print edition will be available free to gallery visitors, while the remaining 10 will be randomly distributed to participating artists. This gesture foregrounds a shared belief in art as both a gift and a tool for building cultural networks.

The invitational draws energy from the legacy of artist‐initiated print projects—ephemeral, distributable, and fiercely independent, said Brian Andrews, of Bad at Sports. It’s a celebration of artists using print as a means of connection, self ‐ expression, and resistance of the cultural machine.

Work by: Amanda Ross-Ho, Art Spiegelman, Beth Hetland, Betsy Odom, Cecilia Beaven, Christopher Sperandio, Chris Ware, Diana Guerrero-Macia, Heather Mekkelson, Ivan Brunetti, Jen Delos Reyes, Jennifer Willet, Jessica Campbell, Jessica Stockholder, Jason Dunda, Kuras and MacKenzie, Kyle O’Connell, Max Morris, Meg Duguid, Melissa Potter, Nura Ali, Oli Watt, OnSmith, Paul Krainak, Paul Nudd, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Peter Power, Ryan Peter Miller, Sandra Dillon, Shannon Stratton, Sergio Soave, Sonnenzimmer (Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi), Tamara Lee-Anne Cardinal, Tom Sanford

Spudnik Press
1821 W Hubbard St, #302
Chicago, IL 60622

This exhibition is curated by Duncan MacKenzie, Ryan Peter Miller, and Christopher Sperandio and was first exhibited at The Suburban in Milwaukee.  This show is a part a summer of midwest riso exhibitions organized by Spudnik Press.  A sister exhibition, 1st Annual Chicago and Vicinity Riso Exhibition will be taking place at Epiphany Center for the Arts: 201 S Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60607 from May 3- July 4, 2026 ( opening Sunday, May 3, 2–5pm)

Bad At Sports is the midwest’s leading site for arts journalism and contemporary art punditry. Boldly, it can be said that they are truly the providers of care for the wounded art soul and contemporary art worlder. In short, they are the strangest of artists and joke makers, surreal meaning hunters and philosophical provocateurs. Theirs is a quest of true horror… For what is art? Will we know it when we see it? And does it want to be known?ttps://badatsports.com/

The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop, or CATS, is a treasure trove of original comic art, comic books, and books on comics housed in the Department of Art at Rice University. CATS is a site for making comics and researching the topic of comics for students and professionals alike. Our collection of original comic art and vintage comics is growing!

The Abolitionist Atlas and Counter-Mapping as a Tool for Movement Building

Teach-in with Bria Miller

In this workshop, we will utilize The Abolitionist Atlas to explore counter-mapping as a tool for movement building. We will discuss how communities have historically developed counter-mapping practices in response to oppression and participants will be guided through methods for creating their own maps rooted in local organizing landscapes and histories while responding to broader revolutionary struggles.

RSVP

About The Abolitionist Atlas
The purpose of The Abolitionist Atlas is to explore where and how self-determination is spatialized in our everyday lives. This project centers abolitionist, New Afrikan socio-spatial practices emanating out of the Black South. Over the past year, Bria has traveled throughout Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, collaborating with community practitioners to map the organizations, institutions, infrastructures, and campaigns shaping abolitionist struggles across the region. The Atlas documents these movement landscapes through city-based profiles, maps, illustrations, and listings, while inviting readers to connect with, learn from, and contribute to the work represented within them 

About the Facilitator
Bria Miller is an urban designer, printmaker and organizer from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Her practice explores how communities map, represent, and transform the built environment in ways that build self-determination and cooperative futures. Through her New Afrikan counter-mapping practice, she publishes the Abolitionist Atlas and other print media as tools for movement building. 

Palak Patel: Can I get my friends to hold my hand?

Reception September 11, 5-7pm
September 11- October 9, 2026

In a new exhibition at Spudnik Press, artist Palak Patel transforms the flat, traditional print into something heavy, structural, and spatial. Originating from her residency, Patel’s project explores a simple but demanding question: can a screenprint function as a piece of architecture or a standalone sculpture?

Patel’s process relies on a constant, physical back-and-forth in the studio. Working on canvas, fabric, and paper, she builds her surfaces through contrasting layers—allowing water-based crayons and transparent inks to sink into the weave of raw cloth, while crisp silkscreened ink sits perfectly flat on top. This physical layering creates a distinct tension on the surface, where color and material are constantly pushing against one another.

The imagery driving this body of work bridges the private mind and the moving body. Patel translates the kinetic, high-energy rhythms of her boxing and dance practices alongside the quiet, text-heavy pages of her personal journals into monumental, large-scale drawings. By printing these fluid movements on an expansive scale, the resulting pieces shift from mere images on a wall into massive, physical interventions that dictate how a viewer moves through the gallery space.

In connection with the movement driving this body of work, the opening reception will feature a salsa dance lesson during the event by Studio E

Palak Patel is a Chicago-based printmaker and painter whose work centers on material weight, physical repetition, and the hidden texture of daily life. Raised in Vadodara, India, she finds her creative footing in the tangible things she carries—specifically the tattered, peeling notebooks in her tote bag that overflow with collected ephemera. Her practice is equally shaped by her time spent outside the studio at the boxing gym and within Latin dance socials, where she studies the mechanics of rhythm, impact, and human movement.

Palak earned her degree in painting and drawing from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, before moving to Chicago to complete her MFA in Printmedia at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has developed her work through residencies at Farwell House in Illinois and Poor Farm in Wisconsin. Her pieces have been exhibited across Chicago at venues including the South Asia Institute, the Research House for Asian Art, Color Club, and free range.

Programs at Spudnik Press are partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Driehaus Foundation, and the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. 

Drink & Draw: Fugitive Impressions Vol. 3 with Miguel Limón

How do images hold memory, spirit, and connection across places? Join us for an interactive print and publication workshop led by Artist-in-Residence Miguel Limón (Matiz Press).

Miguel’s multidisciplinary practice centers on Midwestern Mexican-American experiences in industrial landscapes, using photography, print, and independent publishing to document collective history. In thisl two-hour session, Miguel brings their collaborative approach into the studio to explore how individual visual fragments can weave into a shared community narrative.

Together, we’ll assemble paper collages using a mix of personal and group ephemera, then pass our compositions through the Risograph flatbed scanner. As the Riso layers each contributor’s material into our printed surfaces, individual fragments will blend into a unified, collective zine.

Participants are strongly encouraged to bring flat visual materials like family photos, paper ephemera, or found clippings.

RSVP encouraged so we can plan accordingly — drop-ins are also welcome.

Miguel Limón (they/them) is a Chicago-born artist, cultural worker, and founder of Matiz Press. A 2025–2027 Chicago Artists Coalition Resident with concurrent residencies at Spudnik Press and Kimball Arts Center, Miguel’s practice investigates memory, place, and industrial landscapes. Their work has been showcased at Comfort Station, Mana Contemporary, the Design Museum of Chicago, and the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago, with grant support from 3Arts, Aperture, and the Rauschenberg Foundation. Their photography appears regularly in Aperture, Vogue, and the Chicago Reader.

Drink & Draw is a low-key, drop-in social workshop devoted to drawing practices. There are no pretensions, no prerequisites, and newcomers are always welcome. Drink & Draw occurs on the second Wednesday of every month and features a special theme and a guest artist. Admission is a suggested donation of $10–$20 but this time you are helping us, so pick the $0 option at RSVP). We provide the drinks — you just bring yourself (and your friends, and your family; children are always welcome).

Drink & Draw is generously sponsored by The Long Drink