2025-2026 Jerome Early Career Printmakers
Left to right: Dalton Carlson, Edson Rosas, Gabi Estrada
In September Highpoint welcomed the 2025-2026 Jerome Early Career Printmaking Residents Gabi Estrada, Dalton Carlson, and Edson Rosas and the artists are progressing handsomely. Just before the Holidays, Emily Marsolek (Assistant Director, Bockley Gallery) joined the residents for their first in-progress critique session.
Dalton Carlson is continuing his research into a body of work about workers and the relationship they have with their employer. The body of work revolves around Carlson’s experience working within the meat and seafood industry and engaging with his corporate employer. He has been focusing on honing his technical skills but has plans to delve more into the content of his work in the coming months.
He said “My focus has been on layering intaglio prints and I’m now beginning to work on the process of multi-layered stone lithographs while also experimenting with other processes, including plexiglas drypoints, tetrapak drypoints, and viscosity printing. Some of these were more successful than others, but all were invaluable in the experience I received from creating them. While my plans have subtly changed, my overall direction remains the same.”
Gabi offered this about their progress: “For the duration of my Jerome residency at Highpoint, I’m thinking about food. I’m thinking about how beyond being solely sustenance for our physical survival, food sustains our histories, communities, and spirits. How food is a binder that brings people together, an avenue for cultural endurance, or a portal that transports us back to another time and place, blurring timelines together and reconnecting us with loved ones. I have been thinking of ways to explore this concept through reduction prints, papel picado, and installation work that will invite participants to reflect on their own relationships to food. Through this work, I wish to draw parallels between the acts of preparing food and preparing prints, demonstrating their connection as labors of love. The dedication of time and energy into either preparation results in offerings that can be shared in multiples. However, as food exists ephemerally, how can I hone in on print’s ability to preserve? How can I evoke a similar feeling of togetherness when engaging with a body of work that can be felt when sitting down for a meal with loved ones? I look forward to investigating these concepts and responding to these prompts through my experience making work in the coming year of our residency.
For his part, Edson said “This winter, I’ve been happily buried in ink, trying new things like mezzotint and continuing to work with screenprint, letting curiosity steer the ship. Mezzotint has taught me patience and to listen to my body, especially on those long days of rocking the plate. The process is rewarding and slow, with deliberate labor that produces rich velvety darkness. Screenprint has offered a more immediate, playful counterpoint through layering and experimentation with CMYK. Somewhere between pulling proofs, I’ve found myself thinking more seriously about monoprint and how it can be combined with other printmaking processes. When I make monoprints, I see a balance of control and spontaneity, and the way they invite a little chaos into the process always makes me giggle.
I started the residency with a somewhat solid plan; as I’ve sat more with the work, it has gradually shifted toward a more competitive space. I’ve become increasingly interested in the moments between, the states of pause, limbo, and quiet uncertainty that feels both tender and unresolved. I’ve begun exploring the subtle transitions, where repetition, variation, and restraint carry emotional weight. There’s a bittersweet quality emerging in the work, shaped as much by what’s withheld and what’s printed, and I’ve been allowing the process to linger in that in-between space rather than rush toward resolution. I’m not fully ready to reveal the themes the work is speaking to, but I know it will be a shift in how my work feels.
This winter and spring the artists will have two additional critiques and a lot more studio time before installing their exhibition in Highpoint’s galleries. That exhibition will open on Friday, July 31, 2026.
About the artists:
Edson Rosas (he/they) is a queer Mexican-American artist and educator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a printmaker, installation artist, soft sculpture maker, and casual writer. His autobiographical work is focused on exploring his Mexican roots through memory and how they play a role in his everyday life emotionally, physically, and politically. The work is often honest and open, making the personal become universal.
Edson received his MFA in 2021 from Pacific Northwest College of Art and his BFA in 2019 from Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Dalton Carlson (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Carlson received his Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2024 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Colorado Mesa University in 2020. His work analyzes his role and how he interacts within larger societal systems. His work flows between 2D and 3D practices, often finding refuge in painting and printmaking. Carlson has recently shown in group shows in Buffalo, NY with shows at El Museo Gallery and CEPA Gallery and in Colorado at Mesa County Libraries and 437CO. He has presented solo exhibitions at the Triangle Gallery in Colorado, Western New York Book Arts Center in New York, and Fried Fruit Art Space in North Carolina.
Gabi Estrada (they/them) is a Mexican-American printmaker and arts educator based in Minneapolis. Their practice is rooted in identity and storytelling, honoring their ancestors and elders. They believe in the power that art has to facilitate healing and community building, which they prioritize in their art and pedagogy.
Stay tuned for updates on the artists progress as they move through the Residency!
Special thanks to our esteemed panelists Emily Marsolek and Isa Gagarin for their careful review of the outstanding applicants.
About the review panelists:
Isa Gagarin is an artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work draws from experiences of relating to her birthplace of Guåhan (Guam) through visual art, storytelling and Chamoru language revitalisation. Educated in painting and drawing, Gagarin’s practice has expanded to include writing and performance. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis, MN), the Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati, OH), the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO) and Grimm Gallery (Amsterdam). Her solo exhibition I Hagan Sirena (The Daughter of Sirena) is currently on view at Pilele Projects (Los Angeles). In 2026, her work will be included in the group exhibition Imagining an Archipelago, curated by Jessamine Batario, which will take place at the Colby Museum of Art (Waterville, ME). Gagarin was born in Guam and was raised throughout the US including Hawai’i. Gagarin received an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University (2018), and earned her BFA in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2008).
Emily Marsolek is the Assistant Director at Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis. She holds a BFA in Studio Arts and Psychology from Concordia College in Moorhead MN, and first encountered Highpoint Center for Printmaking as a studio intern and printer’s assistant in 2017-2018.
