Bringing letterpress to Miami
Bookleggers Library is a close neighbor to me at Bakehouse. I have printed for them on a few occasions already. Coming up on October 11 the entire back yard outside of the main building will be celebrating kids, artists and books in combination. I have attended these events and am happy to be included into the event this year. If you have kids and you love books, this is the event for you. Free Books! Free prints!
https://www.bookleggerslibrary.com/adventure-leggers-2025
Moving is a job, but new neighbors and friends that follow you around appreciate the new digs. I see most everyone that still lives in the neighborhood one way or the other. Junior printers, mentors, collaborators, and upcoming events will keep me busy for a while.
About the same time that I moved from Little Haiti, Amanda Keeley interviewed me as part of her Book Arts Talks at Books & Books in Coral Gables. Since I spent quite a bit of time in school, or in artists residencies, Amanda and several of my friends were brought up to date on my practice in book arts. Other friends including my junior printer in front of the studio, are ready to print soon.
The neighbor that I miss the most is Amanda Keeley, of Exile Projects. She has taught me so much about working with other people and printers. The Queen of the Miami Zine Fair brought this printer to hang out with friends, Zinesters and former students in the Design District. Lucky for me, we are still close and her partner in (Zine) crime, Katelyn Kopenhaver, is at Bakehouse with me.
Now in its 15th year in 2025, Locust Projects invited me to speak with their high school students as they created their installation for the 2025 edition of Locust Art Builders (LAB). For most of those fifteen years I had some of my students participating in that program (from Beach High and Hialeah High). Watching them create the installation over a few visits, and seeing those students during their opening is always uplifting. We overlapped in that time when I participated in their 2025 Spring Fling: Space Oddity Fund Raiser and Auction.
My most recent artists book with Campbell McGrath was on display with art with many of Miami’s makers.
Some of those Locust Builders came to visit me in the studio as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLdgLMGERAQ
Having spent eight years at the Emerson Dorsch Building in Little Haiti was a challenge for this guy who likes to stay put in the neighborhoods he loves. Still… progress is progress. My studio at Bakehouse Art Complex is beginning to come together. My official portrait by the fabulous Pedro Wazzan is surreal and settling at the same time.
Tom has been busy at the Bakehouse printing, cutting, folding, and sewing books. Stop by and check out the activity.
The Department of Art & Art History proudly presents CENTENNIAL: University of Miami Print Exchange 2025, a dynamic exhibition celebrating the creative contributions of alumni and faculty from the last 32 years. Curated by Professor Emeritus, Lise Drost, the show highlights a diverse range of printmaking practices that honor the university’s artistic legacy.
Celebrate 100 years with us at a reception for the artists on Thursday, November 6, 2025, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
When Lise Drost began teaching at the University of Miami in 1993, she introduced the tradition of a print exchange each semester, a common practice among communities of printmaking artists to make editions of prints to exchange with one another. The Centennial Exchange brings together students and faculty from the last 32 years with the instruction to make a series of 28 multiples using either traditional print or digital means. The group includes BFA and MFA alumni from 1994 to 2024, some former and current faculty, and an impressive range of imagery and approaches to contemporary printmaking. Media in the exhibition include etching, woodcut, reduction linoleum, risograph, silkscreen, collograph, letterpress, monotype, and luminography.
In addition to Lise Drost, the participants are Jennifer Basile, Abraham Camayd, Christine Di Staola, Thomas J. Engleman, Kari Fernandez, Daniele Gabriel, Nicole Hand, Kathleen Hudspeth, Catherine Kramer, Eddy A. Lopez, Victoria Rose Martin, Randi Matushevitz, John McCaffrey, Charlisa Montrope, Brian Reedy, Rachel Alderton Rippes, Beatriz Rodriguez, Claudia Scalise, Barbara Scheer, Lani Shapton, Scott Smith, Jeannette Stargala, Jonathan Beaumont Thomas, Kyle Trowbridge and Tom Virgin.
Printmaking was first introduced to the University of Miami curriculum by George Merrick’s younger brother, Richard, who was born in Coconut Grove in 1903 and studied at the Art Students League in New York in the early 1920s, and taught at the University beginning in the 1930s and again after a tour of duty in World War II, up until 1969. Much of the print equipment he acquired is still in use by students in the Rainbow Building printmaking facility.
CENTENNIAL: University of Miami Print Exchange 2025 is on view through January 16, 2026, at the College of Arts & Sciences, Ashe 140 Gallery, 1252 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146.
I am delighted to be a recepient of the 2025 MIA Grant from Miami Dade County Cultural Affairs. The grant is an unrestricted award that allows artists to work on long term projects. It is important to me to continue observing and documenting the city I live in, as well as the people I have taught and learned from in twenty five years of MDCPS Title I Public Schools.
It is my great honor to preview my first Art in Public Places installation. Five of my prints are at the Miami-Dade County Civil & Probate Courthouse in Downtown Miami. This artwork is part of the collection of Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places program, made possible with the support of the Art in Public Places Trust, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioner.
Thanks to @artinpublicplacesmdc, @miamidadearts and @bakehouseartcomplex @amandacarriesanfilippo and the entire Art in Public Places team.
Tom Virgin, A penny for your thoughts #1, 2025. Letterpress print, Miami-Dade County Civil & Probate Courthouse. Image (Francesco Casale), courtesy of Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Art in Public Places Trust.
I am grateful for the finely crafted frames created by Nick Gilmore using reclaimed Dade County Pine, reflecting the history contained in these works. @gilmoreworks @frameonwheels
Read the full interview of Tom Virgin with Voyage MIA at https://voyagemia.com/interview/tom-virgin-on-life-lessons-legacy-highlight