Printing Black America: Du Bois's Data Portraits in the 21st Century

William Villalongo and Shraddha Ramani, Black Migration to the U.S. (1/2), 2025. 7-run screenprint with archival pigment print collage. 22 x 28 inches. Edition of 20. Printed and published by Graphicstudio, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. © Villalongo Studio, Shraddha Ramani, and Graphicstudio, University of South Florida, Tampa. Image courtesy Print Center New York. Photo: Argenis Apolinario.

William Villalongo and Shraddha Ramani

In 1900, W.E.B. Du Bois organized a series of infographics on the progress of Black peoples after Emancipation, to be displayed as part of the American Negro Exhibit in the 1900 Paris Exposition world's fair. Using the still-developing field of data visualization, the American Negro Exhibit worked to upend the conceit of Western superiority and inevitable "progress" of industrialization by rendering in stark relief the dynamic participation of Black peoples in American social and economic life, and their global participation in science, literature, and art.

In Printing Black America, artist William Villalongo and urbanist Shraddha Ramani update and reimagine Du Bois's infographics. Printing Black America: Du Bois's Data Portraits in the 21st Century is a fine art print portfolio based on the project of Du Bois and his team for the contemporary moment. Villalongo and Ramani create new images or "data portraits" using a range of printmaking techniques, current data and living projects by Black scholars, social scientists and activists. To achieve this, Villalongo and Ramani worked in collaboration with printmaking studios in various regions of the United States and their communities. This project uses the original data portraits created for the American Negro Exhibit as a springboard for the critical possibilities found at the intersection of art and social science to render portraits of Black life in the 21st century.

Printing Black America is organized as six thematic portfolios published in editions of 20. Each portfolio holds 5 images. The complete project collection includes all 6 thematic portfolios for a total of 30 images.

Printmaking partners on the project are USF Graphicstudio; Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn; Island Press, Washington University, St. Louis; Highpoint Editions, Minneapolis; Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley; and Mullowney Printing Company, Portland, OR.

Edition Information

William Villalongo and Shraddha Ramani
Printing Black America: Du Bois's Data Portraits in the 21st Century
The Complete Printing Black America Collection
2025
30 prints in six foil-stamped fabric-covered portfolios plus a screenprinted table of contents, foreword by Nell Irvin Painter, acknowledgements page, poem by Langston Hughes, and title pages for each portfolio.

Edition: 20
$70,000. - Impressions available: 1/20, 2/20, 3/20

Inquire now - gsoffice@usf.edu

William Villalongo and Shraddha Ramani
Printing Black America: Du Bois's Data Portraits in the 21st Century
Portfolio One: First Impressions
2025
One foil-stamped fabric-covered portfolio containing five prints plus a screenprinted foreword by Nell Irvin Painter, acknowledgements page, poem by Langston Hughes, and title page.

Edition: 20
$12,500. - Impressions available: 19/20, 20/20

Inquire now - gsoffice@usf.edu

EXPLORE THE PORTFOLIOS

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Georgia Negro, from The Georgia Negro: A Social Study, 1900.

William Villalongo

William Villalongo was born in 1975. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art, MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University and attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. His figurative paintings, works on paper and sculpture are concerned with representing the Black subject against notions of race and exploring metaphors of mythology and liberation. His curatorial projects – American Beauty at Susan Inglett Gallery in 2013 and Black Pulp! touring nationally between 2016-2018 – explore the intersections of politics, history and art. Villalongo is the recipient of the prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptor's Grant, and was the 2022 Jules Guerin & Harold M. English Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Art. His work is included in several notable collections including the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art and Princeton University Art Museum and El Museo del Barrio. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, The New Yorker and the New York Times. The artist is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery, New York and is an Associate Professor at The Cooper Union School of Art.

Shraddha Ramani

Shraddha Ramani is an urbanist and researcher based in Brooklyn, NY. She uses data visualization and mapmaking as tools to make cities more resilient and equitable. Her work is centered around democratizing data to better equip communities to make informed decisions about their futures. She worked in multiple capacities in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) department at New York City Emergency Management, finishing as the Director of the GIS Data Center. In this role she directed a team to make data-driven decisions for emergency planning, response, recovery, and mitigation. In earlier roles she developed online applications to help the public visualize and understand natural hazard risks in their communities. Previously, she worked on the development of the Future City Lab exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. Shraddha Ramani is from Bangalore, India and her work is heavily informed by her own immigrant experience. She has participated in planning projects in India and Brazil and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. She has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University, and a BA in Environmental Studies from Oberlin College.

Further Resources

William Villalongo's Website: villalongostudio.com

William Villalongo's Graphicstudio Artist's Page

Printmaking + Sculpture Terms

Printmaking Glossary

Sculpture Glossary

Sales

For sales, or more information about an edition, please contact Graphicstudio at (813) 974-3503 or gsoffice@usf.edu.

Copyright + Reproduction

Images of the artwork are jointly owned by the artist and Graphicstudio. Reproduction of any kind including electronic media must be expressly approved by Graphicstudio.