When Alexis Nutini opened his South Philly print shop in 2018, he wanted to pay tribute to his roots. He recalled how, when he began his artistic career at 19, he would travel to his native Mexico to visit childhood friends and show them the new paintings he had worked on. His friends would jokingly describe his work as “more or less” — or as the Mexican saying goes: “meh…es un dos, tres” (it’s a two, three).
To keep that memory alive and remain humble as an artist, Nutini named his new business “Dos Tres Press.”
For the Philadelphia-based artist, time has been his greatest teacher. Now 45, Nutini understands why perfection in art can be a double-edged sword.
“Early in my career, I had the wrong idea that all my artwork had to be perfect,” Nutini told Billy Penn. “Dos Tres Press is a reminder of where I grew up and that not everything has to be so serious.”
Dos Tres Press is a creative alliance studio where Nutini serves as a master printmaker for other artists, specializing in the traditional technique of woodcuts and combining it with new technologies of plate-making with Computer Numerical Control (CNC) routing and laser-cutting.
Nutini has worked with more than 20 renowned local and international artists, including sculptors Miguel Horn and El Anatsui, muralist Calo Rosa, and painter Sam Gilliam. He also collaborates with the non-profit cultural institute Brandywine Workshop and Archives.
Collaboration is central to his artistic ethos, Nutini says. “Other artists’ works are sometimes worth more than mine because they are better known, but collaborating is part of Dos Tres Press. You have to serve and remember where you come from.”
From Mexico to Pennsylvania
Nutini was born in Mexico City, near the port of Veracruz. At the age of 10, he moved with his family to Pennsylvania when his father landed a position as a professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. From there, his art education began informally, with family trips “to towns where they did their studies and to anthropology museums.”
In 2001, Nutini had one of the most influential moments of his career when he received a Fulbright fellowship to go to Barcelona, Spain, to make prints. It was there that he “realized that I could make a life out of printmaking.”
Nutini then moved to Philadelphia to study at Temple’s Tyler School of Art, where he earned an MFA in Printmaking in 2005 and eventually worked as a former adjunct professor.
Love at first sight
Nutini was first introduced to the woodcut technique while an undergraduate studying fine arts at St. Mary’s College of Maryland “and BOOM!, I loved it,” he said.
Woodcut is one of the oldest printing techniques in history. It is a relief process in which knives and other tools are used to carve a design into the surface of a block of wood. According to Nutini, printmaking was not recognized as art in ancient times — rather, it was seen as a practical way to spread scientific and religious information and knowledge.
In his November 2023 exhibition, ‘Close Reading’ at Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Nutini presented a bright and colorful collection of unique woodcut carvings and prints, with works mounted on panels, framed prints, and painted woodblocks. The artist incorporated elements such as laser cutting, CNC milling, moiré patterns, and found object collage, as well as VHS cassette tapes to give dimension to his work.
The exhibition featured adaptations of Nutini’s work from more than a decade ago, adding nostalgic touches about his lived experiences, such as the memory of teaching his son how to draw on a computer.
“With this printmaking process, I can take a work from 10 years ago, put a new layer on it, a new idea, and it’s updated,” he explained. “I remember where all those objects were found. In a way, they are my personal annotation.”
Now, Nutini wants to strengthen the creation of collaborative print-based projects at Dos Tres Press and continue to expand its possibilities of relief print-making through hand-carved, reduction woodblock printing and digital technology.
He hopes to take his art out of the city soon and continue to develop community projects on the art of printmaking. In the near future, Nutini will collaborate with the Free Library of Philadelphia to offer printmaking classes to children and adults.
To learn more about the artist, access his Instagram here. For those interested in his work, you can find his Close Reading collection on the Paradigm Gallery + Studio website.
