Tandem Press is pleased to host Pathways, a Master of Fine Arts Qualifier Exhibition by Alexandra Riesco, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA Candidate and 2025-2026 Tandem Press Studio Curatorial Project Assistant. Inspired by her experiences living in several disparate environments, Alexandra Riesco creates records of place and movement through printed and handmade paper pieces. In images that oscillate between abstract and representational, microscopic and macroscopic, she studies the ground closely through a scientific lens, exploring the idea of home in a time of uncertainty and the integral connection between humans and the environment.
Exhibition Statement
Centering the ground as subject, Pathways chronicles my movement within and among distinct environments through collected images, impressions, and samples. This body of work considers ideas of home and displacement, connection and disconnection, the traces left on us by place, and humanity’s impact on the environment.
The ground is the physical point of connection between the body and the environment; it is the source of food and resources, and the foundation for the idea of home. We speak of roots as origins and of earth as a final resting place. Yet, despite humanity’s integral connection to the land, the ground is often overlooked, seen as a backdrop rather than a subject worthy of attention. In Pathways, the ground confronts the viewer in various forms: through images and corresponding soil samples, through objects evoking the materiality of the ground and impressions of its varied surfaces. Referencing the visual language of the sciences, these works reorient the viewer to the ground, asking them to look closely and contemplate their own relationship with their surroundings.
This exhibition is a record of how I strive to physically connect to my own surroundings. I echo the processes that sculpt the landscape through etching, while my monoprints document ephemeral accumulations of material on the ground. Grappling with the tension between scientific objectivity and the emotional implications of home and exile, my meditative acts of close observation, collection, and recording serve both as acts of intimacy and attempts to understand place. The material qualities of handmade paper provide the organic feel of a natural object while the moment of contact between surfaces in printmaking parallels the contact between our bodies and the ground. Throughout these ruminations on my homes, past and present, the growing threat of environmental degradation lingers below the surface.
Artist Biography
Alexandra Riesco is an artist and printmaker from Miami, Florida. Her work is heavily influenced by the natural world and the dynamic processes that drive it. After completing a semester-long geology field program, she discovered the parallels between the forces that shape the planet and the slow, physical processes of printmaking. Her interest in the sciences and deep love for the outdoors feeds her practice, which incorporates drawing, printmaking, and papermaking to explore the bodily experience of the landscape, mapping and the geologic record, and the possibilities of a reciprocal rather than controlling relationship with the environment.
Riesco received her B.A. in Studio Art and Biology modified with Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College in 2017, where she won the Robert Read Prize and the Artist’s Book Prize. After spending a few years working in outdoor education, Riesco returned to printmaking and has worked as an assistant printer, workshop instructor, and manager of a fine art print publisher. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she received the Graduate Research Scholars Fellowship from the School of Education.
This exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund.
