“Serigrafia, the fine-art subsidiary of New York screen printing firm Ambassador Arts Inc., produces and publishes its serigraphs, or silk screens.  It was born of a desire to branch away from commercial work, and to give designers their head.

“Serigrafia exists to give graphic artists the opportunity to extend their creativity through the fine-printing medium of serigraphy.  It is a painstaking, non-mechanized process requiring enormous patience and technical printmaking ability itself.” 

Our Story

“Silent Night,” a sold-out screen print by Paula Scher, launched Serigrafia in December 1988.  Serigrafia’s founders themselves admit that they are standing out there on a limb alongside their artists who include:  designers Ivan Chermayeff, Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser and Massimo Vignelli, and illustrators Guy Billout, Barry Moser and Maruice Sendak.  

“This is a very high-risk venture because we’re taking the works of someone who is best known for commercial, applied art and we’re doing fine-art prints,” says one of the founders.  And the artists appreciate the fiscal risk Serigrafia is taking.  “Graphic design is an unsung profession,” says Scher, who is best known for her posters, corporate design, and record jackets.  “These kinds of prints always have been done by fine artists. But I love the idea that Serigrafia has asked graphic designers to do this.  It’s an obvious notion, but it hasn’t been done before. 

(from "Art Without Argument" by Dana Jennings, GRAPHIS Magazine, Issue 271, Jan/Feb 1991) View or download a reprint of the full Graphis Magazine article here. 

Dénouement

Ambassador Arts Inc., a leading commercial silk-screen business in New York, was sold in 2008. Serigrafia Limited, the “fine-art” division of Ambassador Arts, is still a functioning enterprise, however, it is currently inactive.