Felicia rice interview 1978
Felicia Rice (born 1954) is an American book artist, typographer, letterpress printer, fine art publisher, and educator. She lectures and exhibits internationally, and her books can be found in collections from Special Collections, Cecil H. Green Library (Stanford University) to the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) to the Bodleian Library (University of Oxford). Since establishing Moving Parts Press in Santa Cruz, CA in 1977, Rice has collaborated with and published notable writers and artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Contents
- Felicia rice interview 1978
- Felicia rice founder of moving parts press
- Early life
- Artistic activity
- Major collaborations
- Notable publications
- Selected collections exhibitions and performances
- Recent awards and grants
- Teaching
- References
Felicia rice founder of moving parts press
Early life
As a daughter of artist Miriam C. Rice (founding faculty of the Mendocino Art Center, founder of the International Mushroom Dye Institute, and author of Mushrooms for Color) and artist Ray Rice (painter, mosaicist, and animator of experimental films), Felicia grew up immersed in the modern art scene of San Francisco and Mendocino during the 1950s–60s.
Her parents’ circle included former apprentices of Diego Rivera and friends of Frida Kahlo. She wrote, “As a young child I would sneak into my father’s studio to study José Guadalupe Posada’s prints sensationalizing fire, murder, freakish births. I grew up in California with the legacy of the Spanish land grants, the Californios, the Mexican muralists and their saints (San Francisco, Santa Cruz). I am a member of a hybrid community of immigrants and artists; we use multiple languages.” Finding her calling and dedicating herself to book arts as a university student in the 1970s, Rice worked with and learned from master printers William Everson, Jack Stauffacher, Adrian Wilson, and Sherwood Grover. She received a BA with Highest Honors from UCSC, 1978.
Artistic activity
Since 1977, Felicia Rice has published books, broadsides and prints under the Moving Parts Press imprint. These editions of new literature, works in translation, and contemporary art explore the relationship of word and image, typography and the visual arts, the fine arts, politics and popular culture. Since 1991, the press's editorial focus has been on Latino/a arts and literature.
Commenting on Rice’s work, Guillermo Gómez-Peña wrote, “Felicia is not just a book artist. She is also what insiders call a 'letterpress printer,' which means that she masterfully utilizes raised metal type and combines it with new digital tools. In this sense Felicia’s praxis extends from ancient book making techniques all the way to cyber-art. Her collaborative projects create book structures in which word and image meet and merge into a total experience."
Major collaborations
Notable publications
Selected collections, exhibitions, and performances
Rice’s limited edition artists' books, broadsides, and prints can be found in Special Collections at Stanford's Cecil H. Green Library; Victoria & Albert Museum (London); the Bodleian Library; Rare Books and Manuscripts at the New York Public Library; the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); Bancroft Library (University of California at Berkeley); Special Collections at University Library (University of California-Santa Cruz); Special Collections at the University of Iowa; the Getty Museum; Yale University Art Gallery; and the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.).
Recent exhibitions featuring Rice's work include the Codex International Book Fair (2017); a solo exhibition at Special Collections, University of Iowa (2016); the Segundo Concurso de Internacional de Libro Artista in Guadalajara, Mexico (2014); "The Art of the Book in California: Five Contemporary Presses" at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, in Washington, D.C., and at several sites in Mexico; and "Obsidian Mirror-Travels: Refracting Ancient Mexican Art and Archeology,” at the Getty Research Institute (2011).
Rice has performed her spoken word pieces at the University of Iowa (2016); the University of Southern California and the University of California-Irvine (2015); the Galería de la Raza (2015); Michigan State University (2014); and the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, UC-Santa Cruz (2014).
Recent awards and grants
Teaching
Rice taught book arts at University of California, Santa Cruz for fourteen years; she then became the director of the UCSC Extension graphic design program. She currently manages UCSC’s Digital Arts and New Media MFA Program and is a speaker at international conferences and book arts centers.