A Hands-on Relief Printmaking Workshop Led by Daniel Minter
On November 28, 2025, G.A.S. Lagos hosted Our Key Images, a printmaking workshop led by artist and educator Daniel Minter. The session introduced participants to Daniel’s approach to relief block carving and the use of personal symbols as foundational elements within his assemblage practice.
The evening opened with a presentation in which Daniel introduced his artistic practice through a slideshow of selected works. He reflected on a practice that explores themes of displacement and diaspora, spirituality, and the reimagining of home, as well as his richly textured bas-relief and mixed-media assemblages, which incorporate materials such as metal, wood, twine, and clay to construct an iconography of the Afro-Atlantic experience.
Following the introduction, Daniel offered a step-by-step demonstration of his printmaking process. Using a handmade printing block created during his time at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikise, he showed how personal imagery can be translated into relief prints. The block, constructed from wood, glue, and rubber, featured a carved cashew fruit, a form that resonated with both the participants and the artist, who had not yet seen one in person. It became a point of discussion as everyone explored the shape and its translation into the relief print. Using linoleum carving tools, he demonstrated how to cut into the rubber surface to form a printable image. Participants were guided through each stage of the process: tracing the block shape onto paper, developing a drawing within that form, transferring the image using tracing paper, and carefully carving either positive or negative space. Daniel emphasised balance, cutting neither too deeply nor too shallowly before applying a water-based block printing ink with a roller and transferring the image onto paper.
Each participant was then invited to sketch, carve, and print a simple image that held personal meaning to them, it could either be one connected to a memory, person, or moment. Working closely with the group, Daniel offered hands-on guidance, recognising that for many participants, this was their first experience with relief printing and that learning through doing was central to the workshop.
The session concluded with the creation of a collaborative print, composed of all the individual reliefs produced during the workshop, an assemblage of intersecting narratives and shared visual language.
Event Details
Date: 28th November, 2025
Time: 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: 9b, Hakeem Dickson Drive, off T.F. Kuboye Road, Oniru, Lagos
About the Facilitator
About Daniel Minter
Daniel Minter is a painter, illustrator, and educator whose work explores themes of displacement and diaspora, spirituality, and the recreation of meanings of home. In his richly textured bas-relief and mixed media assemblages, Minter employs diverse materials including metal, wood, twine, and clay to construct an iconography of the Afro-Atlantic experience rooted in resilience, resistance, and healing. Of his motivating force, he explains, "I want to channel my ancestors, I want them to know that they have projected out into the future." Minter's visual artwork is informed by extensive travel across the African Diaspora. These experiences have deepened his understanding and expanded his spiritual consciousness in ways that continue to nurture his life and work. Minter co-founded Indigo Arts Alliance, a nonprofit artist residency and incubator for creative scholarship dedicated to cultivating the artistic development of Black and Brown people globally.
Photo of Daniel Minter. Image courtesy of the artist and Marcia Minter.
About Indigo Arts Alliance
Addressing the underrepresentation of Black and Brown artists–Maine-based and worldwide–IAA is an arts incubator in Portland, Maine that provides space for dialogue and exchange between artists of African descent and other communities of color through a multidisciplinary artist-in-residency program that embodies a Black-led approach to creativity, community-building, and mentoring. Artists represent a rich diversity of cultural heritages from countries including African American/US, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Peru, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, and Trinidad.
The organization is rooted in two principles: that art is a key resource for healthy human communities that should be cultivated and celebrated, and that artists play a unique role in strengthening our multiracial democracy. Actively contributing to the Global Black Arts Movement, Indigo Arts Alliance brings its principles to life through collaborations with national and international galleries, museums, and other venues, featuring exhibitions and performances by its AiRs, while also curating symposia and other community engagement activities.
Daniel Minter's residency is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
