Deep Cuts: Block Printing Across Cultures examines the history and global reach of block printing, one of the oldest and most adaptable methods of creating images. Featuring more than 150 works from Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the exhibition brings together a wide range of objects—including textiles, books, and prints—to explore how this technique has shaped visual culture across different times and places.

Rather than separating traditions by region or material, Deep Cuts presents block printing as a shared practice that has influenced the circulation of images and ideas. The exhibition traces how printed patterns and images traveled across borders, how techniques evolved over time, and how artists used it both for mass production and creative expression.

Works on view come from across LACMA’s departments—including Chinese Art, Japanese Art, Costume and Textiles, Prints and Drawings, and the Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies—alongside key loans from Southern California collections. A section developed with Los Angeles–based workshop Block Shop highlights how contemporary makers continue to use and reinterpret block printing today.

For anyone interested in design, printmaking, and global exchange, Deep Cuts offers a compelling look at this influential and enduring art form.