Tia Blassingame

Proprietor of Primrose Press, Tia Blassingame is a book artist and printmaker exploring the intersection of race, history, and perception. Utilizing printmaking and book arts techniques, she renders racially-charged images and histories for a nuanced discussion on issues of race and racism. Blassingame holds a B.A. in Architecture from Princeton University, M.A. in Book Arts from Corcoran College of Art + Design, and M.F.A. in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design. She has been a teaching artist at the National Building Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Glen Echo, Pyramid Atlantic, and University of Maryland at College Park. Blassingame was a curatorial intern at Smithsonian Museum of American History, and served as the Image Coordinator for the Race & Ethnicity in Advertising–America: 1890-Today, an Advertising Education Foundation-Smithsonian Institution project. She has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo, Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI), the Andy Warhol Preserve, the International Print Center New York (IPCNY), and MacDowell Colony. Her artist’s books and prints can be found in library and museum collections around the world including Library of Congress, Yale University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Britain, and State Library of Queensland. In 2019, she founded the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective, which has over thirty member. Blassingame is an Assistant Professor of Art at Scripps College, where she teaches Book Arts and serves as the Director of Scripps College Press.

Blassingame is represented by Vamp & Tramp Booksellers.