FAIRMONT, W.Va. — The Fairmont State University Department of Art is excited to welcome Brooklyn based artist, and West Virginia native, Martin Mazorra to the J.D. Brooks Gallery at Fairmont State University.

The show is on display now and will run through Feb. 15. Gallery hours for viewing the collection are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. 

The J.D.Brooks Gallery at Fairmont State University is fortunate to host an exhibition of Martin Mazorra’s handmade prints entitled “Language of Flowers”. Martin is a native West Virginian who currently resides in Brooklyn, New York and teaches at Pratt Institute and Parson’s School of Design, while also running Cannon Ball Press a printing company he formed in 1999 with Mike Houston.

Martin’s work is a true fusion of the historic techniques and practices of Woodblock printing accompanied by short stanzas of hand set type or Letterpress. This pairing of techniques creates an image saturated in tradition and symbolism, while also implying the deeper meaning that a particular flower or bouquet can have on us.

“I started researching symbolism for flowers. I was interested in that idea of secret codes and people’s associative meaning for different images and stuff like that. The flower by itself without any kind of text didn’t really hold weight until I realized I could imply these deeper meanings to them. They’re vague, but they’re also specific to me,” said artist Martin Mazorra.