Artist Statement

In July 1939 a freighter and its group of passengers fleeing persecution left Germany for the promise of safety in Bolivia. One group of refugees settled in the markedly different world of Oruro—high in the mountains at 12,000 feet above sea level where native languages such as Quechua and Aymara are spoken with the same frequency (if not more) as Spanish. Pauline Jakobsberg’s new exhibition, Haven, follows the story of three of these people, who happen to be her husband’s family, as they toiled to reconstruct a version of the life they had been forced to abandon.

New prints, as well as collages from years worth of saved prints, are combined in an on-going narrative in Haven. Jakobsberg says “I attempt to capture the intensity and emotional hardships of [the family’s] new surroundings and at the same time show Bolivia’s incredible richness that in time added to the lives of the newcomers…I strive to remember the family stories I heard over the years in bits and pieces , not unlike the bits and scraps that surround me while I work.” Jakobsberg’s rich imagery includes references to Bolivian artifacts, journal sketches, as well as her own experience of a commemorative trip back to Oruro

Biography

The hand pulled print has been Pauline Jakobsberg's medium of expression for the last 29 years. She is the co-founder of Washington Printmakers Gallery in Washington DC and founder of the Graphics Workshop, an environmentally safe printmaking studio in downtown Silver Spring, MD where members share ideas and techniques with visiting artists and students alike. Her works are in several private collections and have been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe including two solo shows in the Czech Republic.