Printmaker  |  Art Book Maker  |  Teacher
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THE ARTIST

     Maritza Dávila is Professor Emeritus at the Memphis College of Art where she was professor of fine arts and the head of printmaking. She began teaching there in 1982 and received the prestigious Klyce Family Fund Benjamin Goodman Faculty Award in 2018 for her long service to MCA. She conducts workshops and teaches at the University of Memphis in addition to exhibiting her work worldwide.
​     Professor Dávila has exhibited around the world and has works in collections in the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. She has received awards in the United States, Puerto Rico and France. Her work is included in collections at the National Library in Madrid, Spain; the National Library of Paris France; Taller ACE of Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museum of Art and History at the University of Puerto Rico; and the National Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., among others.
     She is owner of the Atabeira Press studio and has collaborated with poet Kay Lindsey and visual artist Indrani Nayar Gall from India on various art projects. She was also a visiting artist at University of Bilbao, Spain in 2011 and the School of Fine Arts of 
the Institute of Culture of Puerto Rico among others. Residencies include Taller ACE in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2011 and Illinois State University’s Normal Editions in 2016.
     As part of her research, exhibitions and in the making of her work, Professor Dávila has also travelled to Spain, France, Poland, England and Japan.

THE FIRE

Before and after: Maritza's studio after the devastating fire in April, 2024, and the rebuilt space in January, 2025.
Maritza's printmaking studio burned down in April, 2024, destroying the building behind her home, her press, furniture, art tools, a substantial amount of her 1,000-volume library, and many of her artworks dating from the 1970s to the present. But there was only one thing to do: rise from the ashes. From the day after the blaze, she kept making new work, tended to the old work to repurpose it, kept a record of the event, and found fresh ways of presenting her art that has always been about the connections made during life’s journey. The studio was rebuilt in 2025 and an exhibition at Crosstown Arts in Memphis — titled "From the Ashes" — opened on February 7th and runs through May 11th. Read more here.

THE AWARD

The courage, determination and heroism of women — no matter the barriers or circumstances — will be celebrated March 30th at the 39th Women of Achievement awards. Maritza is one of seven remarkable women being honored at Memphis’s premier celebration of National Women’s History month. “This year’s honorees celebrate women who stand up, speak out and open doors for other women,” said Women of Achievement co-founder Deborah Clubb, executive director of the Memphis Area Women’s Council. “Our 2025 honorees blazed pathways to judicial, corporate and visual art careers and push daily for full access to healthcare, housing, safety and healthy neighborhoods. Each one exhibits the tenacity, creativity and passion that make change and make history.” Left to right: (standing) Kayla Gore, Dr. Nikia Grayson, Lauren Williams-Baptiste, (seated) Maritza Dávila-Irizarry, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, Gwendolyn Turner. Joyce Blackmon is being honored posthumously. Read more here.

ARTIST STATEMENT

     The thread that runs through all my work is ancestry — the collection of inseparable qualities that, through blood and culture and beyond our ability to control, make us who we are.
     And while we may not be able to consent to the qualities of the past that have shaped us, we do exercise choice in how we regard our essential selves.
     In my work, the view to ancestry is represented by memories that are woven or contemplated through symbols of passage: windows, arches, doorways, gates. What we see, remember or pass through includes elements of family, culture and religion as well as social, racial and gender facets of life. In a word: Identity.
     Each of us connects at all these levels through experience that unfolds with increasing complexity as we grow older. Even as those moments differ from family to family or from person to person, the experiences become a part of our essential selves.
     My artwork reflects these experiences framed within frames. Exteriors blend with interiors and geometric shapes contrast with the organic to reveal shadings of womanhood, home relationships, environment and roots. Color and texture create an atmosphere of emotional and spiritual evolution.
     Some of my work deconstructs and redefines my past and present. Images I've used are cut and reassembled by weaving or collaging, sometimes arbitrarily, sometimes deliberately.
      My work engages the diverse elements of printmaking as well as collage and painting. Whether in two-dimensional mixed media works or dynamic three-dimensional books, there are endless ways of expressing the mysteries and power of ancestry.
"Making art is not about knowing how to make something. It's about figuring out what to say with the tools you have."
​Maritza was invited to attend the acclaimed Studios ACE in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in June and July, 2018. She had previously done a residency there in 2011 and the works were part of her sabbatical exhibition later that year. The 2018 production residency allowed her to further explore elements of ancestry and heritage, a recurring theme in her work. The triptych above was created during that residency. From left: "España," "Taino," "Africa." All are collagraph silk aquatint.