Language and Resistance: A Review of “eagle, serpiente, nopalli” by Salvador Jiménez-Flores at National Museum of Mexican Art

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BY EMMA RIVA | JANUARY 17, 2024

Salvador Jiménez-Flores, installation view of “eagle, serpiente, nopalli.” Courtesy of NMMA/Photo: Michael Tropea.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores’ “eagle, serpiente, nopalli” rolls three languages into one cohesive and thought-provoking show in Pilsen’s National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). The eagle portion of the title is in English, serpiente in Spanish, and nopalli in Nahuatl. The multilingual title serves as the guiding principle for the show and is one of the most incisive and effective uses of language I’ve encountered in the arts. A good title goes a long way, and Jiménez-Flores’ is no conceptual word salad but a perfect summation of the complexity within his exhibition.

The eagle “refers to the bird native to the Americas that has been appropriated as a symbol of nationalism by the United States”; the serpiente refers to “aspects of the Mexican gods Coatlicue and Quetzalcoatl recast as the symbols of biblical evil by colonizers who sought to remake the Aztec Empire into a Christian extension of Spain”; and the nopal cactus “holds its root language—Nahuatl—close as it resists translation.”

“eagle, serpiente, nopalli”‘s placement in the museum’s Xicágo Gallery—where NMMA highlights local artists—is part of what makes it so effective. A larger space might have swallowed the works, but the intimacy of the lower ceiling makes Jiménez-Flores’ sculpture and clay come even more alive. Jiménez-Flores and curator Risa Puleo centered the physical layout of the room around the metal sculpture “Space Cactus,” the artist says, and then grew the rest of the installation around it. That choice gives “Space Cactus,” which features a human-like face on a multi-limbed metal cactus, a presence that radiates throughout the room. It’s more broadly part of a ceramic installation titled “The Cosmic Life of a New World That Is Yet to Come” that sits atop an altar-like structure and has text that says “We survived” and “Our existence is our resistance” around it. Miniature cacti surround the large sculpture and flank the room’s corners.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores, installation view of “eagle, serpiente, nopalli.” Courtesy of NMMA/Photo: Michael Tropea.

It was Puleo who came up with one of the key spatial elements of “eagle, serpiente, nopalli” that makes it an engaging viewing experience, Jiménez says. Rather than using labels to delineate the artwork, Puleo intersperses parts of the curatorial statement around the room so viewers can engage with the show more as a narrative whole rather than divided up into parts. With choices like this, the show manages to walk a line of presenting symbols of hierarchy and power in a non-hierarchical manner. The eagle is an overt symbol of nationalism, the snake of power, and the nopal of survival, and all of these thematic inquiries lead back to the question of migration and its effects on personal autonomy.

Due to the relatively small amount of space in the Xicágo Gallery, the museum limits the number of visitors that could be in Jiménez-Flores’ exhibition at a time. This gives the installation work a sense of sacredness and intimacy. I found a quiet came over me when I shut the door to enter the room, and as I do with much ceramic or metalwork, I felt a closeness to the objects. They take up space just as we do. Jiménez-Flores wants to create an environment that people can feel a part of. Handprints painted in an earthy red above the doorway are a way for Jiménez-Flores to “leave a mark” and connect to pre-Columbian mural traditions. “eagle, serpiente, nopalli” uses the walls as part of the exhibition experience. Stripes and circles surround the hanging works. The stripes add to the closeness with the objects, a feeling that the walls are not just meant to constrain you but to expand. In a concept that draws so much from migration, it’s powerful to see walls not just as walls.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores, installation view of “eagle, serpiente, nopalli.” Courtesy of NMMA/Photo: Michael Tropea.

“eagle, serpiente, nopalli” is on view concurrently with Felipe Baeza’s Unruly Forms, a Public Art Fund-sponsored series of images of pre-Columbian objects on bus shelters across the city, including at 18th and Damen in Baeza’s home neighborhood of Pilsen. (Baeza’s installation closed in November 2023 and was a product of Public Art Fund’s partnership with JCDecaux, which manages bus shelters in multiple cities). Baeza and Jiménez-Flores attended high school together and though the timing of their projects was coincidental, both projects raise questions about migration and identity through kitsch. Both try to merge the fetishized “ancient” with a future that stretches beyond what a colonial society can imagine, using in Jiménez-Flores’ case science fiction and in Baeza’s case the fantastical or macabre.

“eagle, serpiente, nopalli” crystallizes some of the most profound questions about art as a whole and what it can do. How do objects change based on their context? How does memory change an object, and when does an object become a work of art? When does a room become a gallery, when does a gallery become a museum? Museum shows themselves have a kind of migratory property to them—the artwork arrives at the museum space, is on view for a moment, then is de-installed and leaves, often hastily. “eagle, serpiente, nopalli” is not just any of the single pieces within it, but the whole room, the walls, the lights, Puleo’s writing. It’s an example of how a museum setting with a thoughtful curatorial strategy uses all of the space and resources available. A guiding principle for Jiménez-Flores is “resourcefulness,” and that comes through not just in the content of the show but in its execution. With its presence in the central sculpture and placement across the space, the nopal is arguably the most prominent part of “eagle, serpiente, nopalli”—fitting that the element that resists translation is the one that comes through the most strongly.

“eagle, serpiente, nopalli” is on view at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 852 West 19th, through February 4.

New Little Village sculpture celebrates arriving immigrants: ‘We underestimate how courageous people are’

The work by Chicago-based artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores was made after Flores won the Chicago Sculpture Exhibit’s Richard Hunt Award. It’s one of 42 the exhibit is installing this month.

By  Michael Loria

  May 20, 2023, 12:33pm CDT

Salvador Jiménez-Flores, who created “Caminantes,” a 9-foot sculpture that commemorates migrants and their migration journey through the symbolism of feet and cacti, stands beside his sculpture at Manuel Perez Jr. Plaza in the Little Village neighborhood, Friday, May 19, 2023.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

A wayfaring sculpture, 9-feet tall with shining bronze feet that give way to a nopal-green, cactus-shaped body, landed in Little Village on Friday.

The piece, named “Caminantes” (Spanish for “wayfarers”), is by Chicago-based artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores and was unveiled Friday in Manuel Pérez Jr. Memorial Plaza on the 4300 block of West 26th Street.

Flores, a native of Mexico who now teaches ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, made the clay and cast-metal sculpture to honor Chicago’s immigrant community.

“It’s a celebration of the courage of the immigrant people that have made it to Chicago and decided to set up roots,” said Flores, 37.

“Caminantes,” a 9-foot sculpture by Salvador Jiménez-Flores, who commemorates migrants and their migration journey through the symbolism of feet and cacti, is displayed at Manuel Perez Jr. Plaza in the Little Village neighborhood, Friday, May 19, 2023.

Flores made the piece with funds from the Chicago Sculpture Exhibit as the winner of their Richard Hunt Award, which grants emerging and mid-career level Chicago artists with $10,000 to create large-scale public art installations across the city.

The Chicago Sculpture Exhibit established the Richard Hunt Award in 2021 with the namesake Chicago artist to foster diversity to Chicago’s large-scale public art scene. Flores is the second winner of the award. 

Flores’ sculpture is one of 42 that the Chicago Sculpture Exhibit is installing in May. The pieces were chosen from among 105 submissions and will be on view for a year.

The Exhibit was founded in 2001 by former Ald. Vi Daley (43rd) to bring public sculptures to the Lincoln Park neighborhood, but its reach has extended across the city with works from local and international artists.

“Caminantes,” a nine-foot sculpture by Salvador Jiménez-Flores, who commemorates migrants and their migration journey through the symbolism of feet and cacti, is displayed at Manuel Perez Jr. Plaza in the Little Village neighborhood, Friday, May 19, 2023.

Flores’ sculpture was unveiled at a small ceremony attended by Daley, Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd) and Jennifer Aguilar, executive director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, which facilitated bringing the sculpture to the park, as well as other artists and bystanders. 

The sculpture has a personal resonance for Flores, whose father was in the bracero migrant worker program, but the artist hopes it also inspires new arrivals.

“We underestimate how courageous people are to leave behind everything they know for an uncertain dream,” Flores said.

Little Village has long been a port of entry for immigrants, and Rodriguez welcomed the arrival of the Flores’ sculpture.

“A good, strong community is also about art. It’s about inspiration. It’s about young people who see themselves in the art,” he said, adding that he saw the community’s strength in the worn feet and beauty in the cactus.

The sculpture’s unveiling comes amid the city’s own migrant crisis after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s began sending immigrants to the city from the Texas border.

Already, more than 8,000 immigrants have sought refuge in Chicago, prompting former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to declare a state of emergency.

“Go four blocks that way [and] we’ve got 200 immigrants seeking refuge at Piotrowski Park,” said Rodriguez, pointing south past the sculpture to where the city has converted the fieldhouse into a temporary shelter for the new arrivals. “And now you have a piece here that speaks to their journey.”

Immigrants sheltering temporarily in Chicago neighborhoods have faced pushback in some parts of the city, with some residents suing the city to stop the move, but Rodriguez his largely immigrant and Spanish-speaking ward has welcomed them.

“I hope they stay and become a fabric of our community, as Mexican immigrants did decades ago, and eastern European and Polish immigrants did a generation before them,” the alderperson said.

None of the newer arrivals was on hand Friday, but Wetcho Coco, a native of Mexico and a longtime paleta vendor, happened upon the unveiling as it was happening. 

Coco, 70, immigrated “many, many years” ago, he said, and now relies on hot days to drive up demand for the cool, tasty treats he sells. He stopped jangling the cart bells to admire the sculpture. 

“A lot of people will come to take photos,” Coco imagined, “and they’ll remember our culture, the things of Mexico.”

Wetcho Coco, a native of Mexico and longtime Little Village paleta vendor, observes the unveiling of a sculpture that celebrates Chicago’s immigrant community.

Michael Loria/Sun-Times

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.

Bridges to Other Realities: Salvador Jiménez-Flores’ Provocative Sculptures Joe Molinaro Appears in the September 2022 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

By Joe Molinaro

Appears in the September 2022 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

“It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.”—John Cage

For Mexican-born ceramic sculptor Salvador Jiménez-Flores, being where one is, whether in his past or present, has continually influenced him as an artist and person. Living with a foot in the two cultures of Mexico and the US, Jiménez-Flores continues his search for identity through art by using clay, metal, printmaking, and other mixed media to further define his thoughts toward life and a sense of place. As he states, “The challenge of being bicultural and bilingual is that I live in two different worlds. Everywhere I live, I am a foreigner.” And to paraphrase the renowned author Gloria E. Anzaldúa,1 who once wrote that those living as a “Nepantlera,”2 or “in the middle,” are people existing on the edge who move within multiple worlds and refuse to identify with one particular group or belief structure.

Seeking a New Path Forward

Salvador Jiménez-Flores, born and raised in Jalisco, Mexico, was educated in both the US and Italy, and has been a member of the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in Illinois since 2018. He has received numerous scholarships, grants, and awards, including the prestigious United States Artist Fellow Award in 2021, with each recognizing and supporting his work as an artist, educator, and community activist. Working as an interdisciplinary artist, his pieces examine the politics of identity, the state of double consciousness (e.g., being aware of both yourself and how you are viewed by the dominant culture), “the other” (a concept that describes how immigrants or minorities are positioned as inferior to dominant culture because they are seen as different), and futurism by producing a mixture of socially mindful installations, as well as public and studio-based art. Exploring topics of colonization and migration, Jiménez-Flores hopes his art can function as a window into the lives of marginalized people seeking a new path forward in a foreign land.

2 Nopal espacial (Space Cactus), 6 ft. (1.8 m) in height, brass, cast iron, rose-gold plating, brass hose, 2019. Photo: Kohler Co., courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

For Jiménez-Flores, art is a tool for both showing respect for his own history while also serving to help him navigate the terrain of his new culture. Working primarily in an earthenware clay with low-temperature stains and glazes, he acknowledges being inspired by terra-cotta Pre-Columbian and Mexican folk art that allow him to reflect the direct connection to his ancestors and cultural history. Using the different colors achieved with red clay fired at various temperatures, each offering assorted shades of browns, oranges, and reds, helps serve to reference the color of both his skin and his people. Furthermore, by exploring the idea of mestizaje, which is the practice of fusing aspects of being both interracial and intercultural, his use of different temperatures, glazes, and clays reflects his own mestizo background and all the personal and aesthetic influences he has experienced living in two disparate countries. Through this work, he creates complex forms that help him understand and explain the angst of trying to “fit in,” something common among members of the Latinx communities in the United States. Facing the realities of chaos at the US/Mexican border, Jiménez-Flores reacts using his art to help others understand the plight of refugees and the struggles that immigrant families face each day. His story is shared with many who do not have a voice to express themselves clearly, making his own artwork an important visual language that speaks for others. And with the influence of the Mexican Muralism3 project of the 1920s, along with the Taller de Grafica4 in the 1930s, both serving as inspiration for how one might combine art and politics to bring people together and affect both social and political change, Jiménez-Flores continues producing artworks in this tradition as a way of using his own production to forge a path forward in a multiethnic society.

3 Fantasmas de las Américas, porcelain, 2016.

Identity and Migration

The artwork Salvador Jiménez-Flores creates, often using a variety of historic references, techniques, and materials, reflects a sense of rascuache,5 a common term referring to a Chicano sensibility. Rascuache, or rasquachismo, which means making do with what is available,5 or the equivalent reference to “making a silk purse out of the sow’s ear,” is something he reflects on when describing his own art. As he explains, “The way I think of rasquachismo in my art practice is the same way I combine design, craft, high art, low art, and more.” With an eclectic approach to art making, together with an influence from his Mexican culture, Jiménez-Flores’ art serves as a personal record of an immigrant’s life and dreams. Through time, he has worked to develop a rascuache-futuristic art style for an imaginary world where he can better express pre-Columbian, colonial, and post-colonial histories and aesthetics in his clay work. Pieces like the totemic Nopales Hibridos: An Imaginary World of Rascuache, take advantage of disparate parts coming together through stacked forms, colors, textures, and contemporary and historic references, each contributing to an overall look into identity and migration. 

4 l árbol del medio ambiente en la villita (The environmental tree of little village), 10 ft. (3 m) in height, terra cotta, black stain, glaze, wax, gold luster, 2020. Photo: Michael Tropea. Courtesy of the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Another sculpture in the same series, La Resistancia de los Nopales Hibridos (The Resistance of the Hybrid Cacti), Jiménez-Flores again combines dissimilar elements from the religious world, Mexican culture, and art to encompass issues of colonization, migration (voluntary or involuntary), history, and cultural appropriation. Additionally, referencing the cactus, which he knows to be a resilient plant that survives the harshest of conditions, symbolizes strength and hope for people seeking a better future in a new land. Along with essentials from the Funk Art movement and references to images of both Aztec beliefs and Catholic traditions, the La Resistancia de los Nopales Hibridos explores a personal identity of both time and place. With this irreverent, Funk Art–inspired self-portrait with his tongue sticking out combined with a portrait of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of sun, war, and sacrifice,6 Jiménez-Flores has masterfully created a work that enshrines his respect for people of color everywhere using both humor and his own cultural history. Similarly, a Brown Power fist supporting the overall structure serves to represent the resistance needed for those in the minority to continue fighting for their individual rights and freedoms.

5 A Hand Gesture to Systemic Racism: Al que le quede el saco que se lo ponga, 8 ft. (2.4 m) in height, earthenware, stoneware, black stain, underglaze, glaze, wood, steel, graphite, latex paint, 2022.

6 Dos cabezas cibernéticas (Two cyber heads) from the series Kitschy Americana, 22 in. (56 cm) in width, terra cotta, black stain, underglazes, gold luster, 2021.

Connections and Injustices

Other works, such as a piece from 2020 titled El árbol del medio ambiente en la Villita (The environmental tree of Little Village), Jiménez-Flores has created a work with a connection to his community, his neighbors, and the environment, stating, “I wanted to make visible the unseen injustices that have happened in the Little Village neighborhood and its residents through decades of institutionalized and systemic racism.” His goal to highlight these injustices seen in the surrounding area of the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, including issues of poor air quality and the physical neglect from the city that contributes to the ongoing respiratory problems for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx residents, motivates him to continually pursue art that speaks of the human condition.

7 La resistencia de los nopales híbridos (The resistance of hybrid cacti) series, 8 ft. (2.4 m) in height, terra cotta, porcelain, underglazes, gold luster, terra-cotta slip, 2016. Photo: Jenna Bascom, courtesy the Museum of Arts and Design.

8 La resistencia de los nopales híbridos (The resistance of hybrid cacti) series (detail), 8 ft. (2.4 m) in height, terra cotta, porcelain, underglazes, gold luster, terra-cotta slip, 2016. Photo: Jenna Bascom, courtesy the Museum of Arts and Design.

While addressing the topic of individual rights and identity, Salvador Jiménez-Flores strongly believes people of color have been underrepresented and marginalized for far too long. Using his art to shine a light on the issues surrounding minority concerns remains a central theme for him both professionally and personally. As an educator at SAIC, as well as throughout his entire career, Jiménez-Flores has worked to serve as a leader and role model for younger artists of color seeking their place in the larger art world. For him, diversity is about respecting, acknowledging, and finding beauty and empathy in our differences, struggles, abilities, and privilege. As a result of these issues and his own personal concerns, Jiménez-Flores has been a front runner in working collaboratively with other artists to reestablish The Color Network,7 launched in December 2018 with a mission of aiding in the advancement for people of color. While the original Color Network (1991–2008) paved the way for this later incarnation of the group, this new version of the network, one with a broader range of inclusion, was proud to carry on the name of its origins with the blessing of its creators. 

9 La resistencia de los nopales híbridos (The Resistance of Hybrid Cacti), 8 ft. (2.4 m) in height, terra cotta, porcelain, underglazes, gold luster, terra-cotta slip, 2016.

10 Soy quien soy (I Am Who I Am), red earthenware, oil, graphite, black stain, gold luster, 2014. Permanent collection: Grand Rapids Art Museum. Photo: Matt Gubancsik.

For Jiménez-Flores, it is personal, as he easily identifies the obstacles he encountered upon his arrival in the US, with the first being a lack of financial stability, cultural understanding, and English-language skills; and the second being a lack of knowledge about the educational system as a first-generation college student. Through the recollection of his early beginnings in a new land, Jiménez-Flores uses these memories to create poignant art while equally encouraging and promoting young immigrant artists hoping to forge a new path forward. As he reflects on his long journey from Mexico to the US, the words of the distinguished Latin American scholar Dr. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto hold significant meaning when he speaks of the Chicano way by asking the questions, “Who am I, where am I going, and where do I come from?” Through both his art and his teaching, Salvador Jiménez-Flores continues to seek his own answers to those questions while living a life between here and there. 

the author Joe Molinaro, professor emeritus at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky, lives and maintains a studio practice in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. To learn more, visit http://joemolinaro.com.

1 Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942–2004) was an American scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. Author of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, a book based on her life growing up on the Mexico–Texas border, which incorporated her lifelong experiences of social and cultural marginalization into her work. She also developed theories about the marginal, in-between, and mixed cultures that develop along borders, including the concepts of Nepantla.

2 Nepantla, or Nepantlera, is a Nahuatl word (from a language spoken by most inhabitants of central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest) that means “in the middle.”

3 Mexican Muralism refers to an art project funded by the Mexican government in the 1930s to allow artists to promote political ideas regarding the social revolution that had just recently ended so that viewers may reflect on how pivotal the revolution was in Mexican history.

4 The most influential and progressive printmaking collective of its time, the Mexican Taller de Gráfica Popular (the Popular Graphic Art Workshop or TGP) created some of the most memorable images in mid-century printmaking. Founded in 1937, the TGP emerged and evolved during antifascist and leftist politics in Mexico in the period surrounding World War II. 

5 Rascuache, or Rasquachismo is a theory developed by scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, a former professor at Stanford University in the department of Spanish and Portuguese, to describe an underdog perspective in working-class Chicano communities using elements of “hybridization, juxtaposition, and integration” as a means of empowerment and resistance.

6 In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli is the deity of war, sun, human sacrifice, and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the tribal god of the Mexicas (Nahuatl-speaking Indigenous people), also known as the Aztecs.

7 More information on the The Color Network can be found at www.thecolornetwork.org. The current version, created through group discussions at the 2018 NCECA conference, continues the tradition of the original Color Network by initiating a mission to aid in the advancement of all people of color in the ceramic arts, and by highlighting opportunities in the field and provide an artist database for teachers and curators to reference, helping them integrate a more diverse roster into their programming.

Source: https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/ceramics-monthly-article/bridges-to-other-realities-salvador-jim%C3%A9nez-flores-provocative-sculptures#

United States Artists Announces 2021 USA Fellows

In largest fellowship to date, sixty artists working across ten disciplines receive unrestricted $50,000 fellowships.

CHICAGO —February 3, 2021—

United States Artists (USA) is pleased to announce its 2021 USA Fellows. This year, sixty artists across ten creative disciplines will receive unrestricted $50,000 cash awards. The award honors their creative accomplishments and supports their ongoing artistic and professional development. The 2021 USA Fellows class is the largest in the organization’s 15-year history. USA Fellowships are awarded to artists at all stages of their careers and from all areas of the country through a rigorous nomination and panel selection process. Fellowships are given in the following disciplines: Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing. Past awardees include painter and visual artist Howardena Pindell (2020), documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (2010), writer Teju Cole (2015), potter Roberto Lugo (2016), multimedia artist Paul Chan (2007), dancer and choreographer Alice Sheppard (2019), fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte (2009), filmmaker Barry Jenkins (2012), master Mardi Gras suitmaker Darryl Montana (2014), poet Claudia Rankine (2016), and multidisciplinary artist Martha Rosler (2008). "We are grateful for every artist whose artmaking, music, writing, and more is helping us to navigate and cope through this harrowing time in our country," said USA President & CEO Deana Haggag. “The 2021 USA Fellows are a testament to the power of art in shaping the world around us and navigating its complexities. Artists do so much for our communities, and we are grateful to be able to support these sixty incredible practitioners and welcome them into the United States Artists Fellowship.” The USA Fellowship is the organization’s flagship program and is central to its mission of believing in artists and their essential role in society. In many ways, 2020 has shown the resilience and necessity of that mission, and the organization. As a founding partner of Artist Relief, United States Artists helped to distribute over $20 million in direct funding to nearly 4,000 artists in need. United States Artists also administered the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Disability Futures initiative and is working on similar funds that are planned to be announced this year, as the organization works to deepen and diversify its cultural impact. “Artists are at the core of their communities, and as the difficulties of the past year have demonstrated, it is more important than ever that we continue to support individual artists,” said Ed Henry, USA Board Chair. “And as we continue to meet the challenges 2021 will bring, it is also clear that USA must remain nimble and responsive to the needs of the field, which is why we are honored to be able to support the largest cohort in our history with sixty artists this year.” Edwidge Danticat, a 2020 Writing Fellow, said, “From the beginning of my career, I have always benefited from the generous support of others, be it the use of a family member’s house, or advice from older and more experienced writers, or grants and prizes that have gifted me the time to concentrate on my work. Now more than ever, artists need the kind of support offered by United States Artists, not just for continuity and growth, but also for safety and survival.” 

Since 2006, the USA Fellowship has provided direct support to artists across the country. With this unrestricted award, Fellows decide for themselves how to best use the money—whether it is creating new work, paying rent, reducing debt, getting healthcare, or supporting their families. To make its work possible, United States Artists actively fundraises each year and is supported by a broad range of philanthropic foundations, companies, and individuals committed to cultivating contemporary culture across the country.

The 2021 USA Fellows are: unitedstatesartists.org of 2 3

Architecture & Design Jennifer Bonner / MALL Portland, OR Walter Hood Oakland, CA Olalekan Jeyifous Brooklyn, NY

Craft Diedrick Brackens Los Angeles, CA Bisa Butler West Orange, NJ Amber Cowan Philadelphia, PA Salvador Jiménez-Flores Chicago, IL Cannupa Hanska Luger Glorieta, NM Tiff Massey Detroit, MI Erin M. Riley Brooklyn, NY

Dance Ishmael Houston-Jones New York, NY JanpiStar Oakland, CA Emily Johnson New York, NY Cynthia Oliver Urbana, IL Ni’Ja Whitson Los Angeles, CA Film Faren Humes Miami, FL Macha Colón San Juan, Puerto Rico Stephen Maing New York, NY Darius Clark Monroe Brooklyn, NY Naima Ramos-Chapman Brooklyn, NY Jennifer Reeder Chicago, IL and Hammond, IN

Media Morehshin Allahyari Brooklyn, NY Stephanie Dinkins Brooklyn, NY Lauren Lee McCarthy Los Angeles, CA Mother Cyborg Detroit, MI Music Martha Gonzalez Los Angeles, CA Edward “Kidd” Jordan New Orleans, LA Tomeka Reid Chicago, IL Wadada Leo Smith New Haven, CT Mazz Swift Brooklyn, NY

Theater & Performance Jibz Cameron Los Angeles, CA Carmelita Tropicana New York, NY Christopher Chen San Francisco, CA Sandra Delgado Chicago, IL Idris Goodwin Colorado Springs, CO Mia Katigbak New York, NY Karen Zacarías Washington, DC

Traditional Arts Ofelia Esparza East Los Angeles, CA Nathan P Jackson Ketchikan, AK Basil Kincaid St. Louis, MO Kawika Lum-Nelmida Honolulu, HI Carolyn L. Mazloomi West Chester, OH Geo Soctomah Neptune Motahkomikuk, ME Delina White Walker, MN

Visual Art Njideka Akunyili Crosby Los Angeles, CA Lex Brown Philadelphia, PA rafa esparza Los Angeles, CA Maria Gaspar Chicago, IL Sharon Hayes Philadelphia, PA Carolyn Lazard Philadelphia, PA Daniel Lind-Ramos Loíza, Puerto Rico Aki Sasamoto New York, NY

Writing Alexander Chee Bradford, VT Eve L. Ewing Chicago, IL Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Norman, OK Dunya Mikhail Sterling Heights, MI Elizabeth McCracken Austin, TX Natalie Y. Moore Chicago, IL Danez Smith Minneapolis, MN Ocean Vuong Northampton, MA 

700 individuals with over $33 million of direct support.

PRESS CONTACTS

Hunter Braithwaite Director, Cultural Counsel hunter@culturalcounsel.com

Robert Grand Account Coordinator, Cultural Counsel robert@culturalcounsel.com

Lynnette Miranda Program Director, United States Artists lynnette@unitedstatesartists.org

Kate Blair Communications Coordinator, United States Artists kab@unitedstatesartists.org 

unitedstatesartists.org 

Announcing the Harvard Ceramics Spring 2021 visiting artist series

The Artist's Studio.⁠ ⁠ 
What leads an artist to work in clay? How does an artist develop their artistic voice and practice in clay? In this series, we’ll learn through conversation with eight multicultural contemporary artists and educators who use clay in ways that are functional, sculptural or performative. Each artist will present their work through images or a brief demo and host Fabio J. Fernández @drawingstraws will guide the discussion through a range of topics including access, mentorship, and community.⁠

Artists in this series include:⁠

Roberto Lugo @robertolugowithoutwax, Saturday, March 6⁠

Linda Lopez @linda__lopez, Saturday, March 27⁠

Paul Andrew Wandless @studio3artcompany, Saturday, April 3⁠

Syd Carpenter @sydcrpntr, Saturday, April 10⁠

Shawanda Corbett @cyborg_artis, Saturday, April 17

Sanam Emami, @sanamemami, Saturday, April 24⁠

Salvador Jiménez Flores @salvadorjimenezart, Saturday, May 1 

Donté K. Hayes @dontekhayes, Saturday, May 8

  #HarvardCeramics #MakeArt #Ceramics #Clay

LATINXAMERICAN

LatinXAmerican is an intergenerational group exhibition featuring nearly 40 Latinx artists from Chicago and beyond. The exhibition assesses the presence and absence of Latinx artists in DePaul Art Museum’s collection, and reflects efforts to build in this area as part of a multi-year initiative to increase the visibility of Latinx artists and voices in museums, working towards equity and lasting transformation. Occupying all of the museum’s galleries, LatinXAmerican includes photographs, paintings, works on paper, sculptures, textiles, videos, and installations primarily drawn from DPAM’s collection, including several recent acquisitions, as well as new works from artists living throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

LatinXAmerican es una exposición grupal que se expande por varias generaciones e incluye a casi 40 artistas latinxs de Chicago y otras regiones. Esta exposición evalúa la presencia y la ausencia de lxs artistas latinxs en la colección del DePaul Art Museum, y refleja los esfuerzos de mejorarla como parte de una iniciativa de varios años que tiene por fin incrementar la visibilidades de lxs artistas y las voces latinxs en los museos, con el fin de acercarse a la equidad y a una transformación verdadera. LatinXAmerican ocupa todas las galerías de nuestro museo e incluye fotografías, pinturas, obras en papel, esculturas, textiles, videos e instalaciones tomados principalmente de la colección del dpam, esto incluye varias adquisiciones recientes, así como obras nuevas de artistas que viven en diversas partes de Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico.

Featured artists include Alberto Aguilar, Tanya Aguiñiga, Candida Alvarez, Susy Bielak, Enrique Chagoya, Carlos Cortez, Karen Dana, Nicolás de Jesús, Claudio Dicochea, Salvador Dominguez, Dianna Frid, Maria Gaspar, Ester Hernández, Benito Huerta, Graciela Iturbide, Marisa Morán Jahn, Las Nietas de Nonó, Gala Porras-Kim, Luis Jiménez, Alejandro Jiménez-Flores, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, Caroline Kent, Sam Kirk, Rodrigo Lara, Melissa Leandro, José Lerma, Nicole Marroquin, Alfredo Martinez, Yvette Mayorga, Harold Mendez, Vik Muniz, Ramón Miranda Beltrán, Errol Ortiz, Diana Solis, Edra Soto, Vincent Valdez, Derek Webster, and Mario Ybarra, Jr.

LatinXAmerican was organized by current and former museum staff and student interns:

Ionit Behar, Assistant Curator; Elyse Bluestone, Collection and Exhibition Intern; Mia Lopez, Assistant Curator; David Maruzzella, Curatorial Intern; Jade Ryerson, Arthur James Museum Studies Fellow, of DePaul Art Museum; and, Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Director, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. 

Generous support for this exhibition and its related programming is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Ask the Curator!

Ask the Curator is a virtual Q&A moderated by 2020 Center for Craft Curatorial Fellow, Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy. Vizcarrondo-Laboy will explore themes of her exhibition, Sleight of Hand, in conversation with Garth Johnson, Paul Phillips & Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics at Everson Museum of Art, and exhibition artists Salvador Jiménez-Flores, and Natalia Arbelaez.

Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Johnson, Jiménez-Flores, and Arbelaez will join us live on Friday, January 15 from 4-5pm EDT.

Event is hosted through Zoom. New to Zoom? Visit their Help Center to get set up.

About the exhibition

Sleight of Hand brings together eleven works by six contemporary artists in the United States (US) who create humorous, quirky, or anthropomorphized objects in clay, centered around complex issues of race, gender, and immigration status, among other pressing social and political realities of our day. For these artists, humor is not merely an aesthetic choice; it is also a tool of resistance, resilience, and healing. The deliberate use of humor in ceramics traces back to the 1950s and 1960s Bay Area Funk art. However, in recent years, a younger and far more diverse generation of artists has revitalized this artistic strategy. This exhibition highlights this critical shift in the field of ceramics through the lens of artists of color. While the exhibition focuses on clay, the objects on display point to an expanded field that moves beyond sculpture to include video and paintings featuring ceramics.

As the exhibition title suggests, the exhibiting artists use their hands to produce visual illusions out of clay that, while cheery on the surface, can carry serious undertones. Humor is inherently deceptive, often the result of an exaggerated truth or a cunning trick that lends levity and clarity to subjects that are taboo or otherwise difficult to discuss. Strategies of irreverence, irony, absurdity, and cuteness are employed in Sleight of Hand to subversively establish accessible platforms for dialogue and engagement with profound and complicated narratives.

About the curator

Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy is a New York and Los Angeles-based curator, writer, and arts administrator of contemporary art and craft, specializing in ceramics. Her current research focuses on how humor, leisure, and cuteness in art are used as tools of resistance and protest. Championing artists of color is central to her practice. She currently serves as Assistant Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York. Since 2016 she has helped organize more than twenty exhibitions and installations at MAD including Surface/Depth:The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro, Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft & Care, and La Frontera: Encounters Along the Border. She also oversees MAD’s Burke Prize, a prestigious contemporary craft award, and curates its accompanying exhibition.

In 2020, Vizcarrondo-Laboy curated Clay Is Just Thick Paint, an exhibition of Jennifer Rochlin’s ceramics for Greenwhich House Pottery’s Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York. She recently contributed an essay on jewelry responding to US-Mexico Border politics for MAD’s anthology Jewelry Stories: Highlights from the Collection 1947–2019 (forthcoming), a review of the Whitney Museum’s Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950-2019 for The Journal of Modern Craft, and was an interviewer for the Bemis Art Center’s exhibition catalogue Claudia Weiser: Generations (forthcoming). Vizcarrondo-Laboy was also a Visiting Critic for the Ceramics Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Visiting Lecturer for the Ceramics Department at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Fall of 2020. She is also one of the inaugural recipients of Cultured Magazine x Parker Pen Writer’s Grant.

She holds an MA from the Bard Graduate Center, New York in Decorative Arts, Design History & Material Culture and a BA in Art History from the University of Florida with minors in Anthropology and Ceramics. Vizcarrondo-Laboy was born and raised in Puerto Rico.

A special thanks to our virtual program sponsors, Joel Adams & Associates of Raymond James Financial Services.

Background photo by Black Box Photography.

VOICES FOR CHANGE

VOICES FOR CHANGE: The Color Network

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

– James Baldwin ”

Enraged by the senseless death of George Floyd, another Black person murdered unjustly at the hands of the police, a call to action has been ignited. This momentum has quickly grown into global outcry that Black Lives Matter. Concern over the lack of diversity in corporations, institutions, and organizations have prompted examination of hiring practices and charges of institutional racism. While people have finally addressed their solidarity with and support of racial equality, they have also watched as many in the corporate and academic worlds have stayed silent; their actions speaking volumes.

The Color Network is an organization of artists of color, whose mission is to aid in the advancement of people of color in the ceramics arts through development, networking, and mentorship. While maintaining current resources, including an artist database, the collective decided to produce a video to address what change looks like from the perspective of a BIPOC voice. The group wanted to help give actionable steps to institutions that are listening so they can have an idea where to start.

The exhibition is comprised of nine voices: Natalia Arbelaez (Interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator), Paul Briggs (Artist and Associate Professor at MassArt), Adam Chau (Artist and Museum Manager at Hudson Valley MoCA), Jennifer Ling Datchuk (Artist and Assistant Professor at Ceramics at Texas State University), April D. Felipe (Artist and community arts educator), Salvador Jiménez-Flores (Artist and Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Roberto Lugo (Artist, social activist, poet, and Professor at Temple University), Paul Andrew Wandless (Artist and social activist), and Yinka Orafidiya (Potter and socially-engaged artist).

The work presented in this exhibition speaks of racial identity in both overt and subversive ways; this coding of culture plays to many levels, including a window for the group it represents as well as to those who have no experience in marginalization. Addressing critical societal issues through art-making is a challenging task, as the artist must balance aesthetics, formal theory, historic precedent, and an independent voice. Intersectional theory asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression: their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and other markers. The artist in this exhibition come from various backgrounds, ages, and ethnicities. All artists of color, they are active voices in their communities, eager to share their message. While their plights are different and they have faced their own obstacles while navigating the art world, they believe that when people speak up for each other their collective voices are stronger.

-The Color Network, Fall 2020

Source link: http://www.fnargallery.com/pastexhibitions#/voices-for-change

Sleight of Hand

Sleight of hand

a: a cleverly executed trick or deception

b: a conjuring trick requiring manual dexterity

Sleight of Hand brings together eleven works by six contemporary artists in the United States (US) who create humorous, quirky, or anthropomorphized objects in clay, centered around complex issues of race, gender, and immigration status, among other pressing social and political realities of our day. For these artists, humor is not merely an aesthetic choice; it is also a tool of resistance, resilience, and healing. The deliberate use of humor in ceramics traces back to the 1950s and 1960s Bay Area Funk art. However, in recent years, a younger and far more diverse generation of artists has revitalized this artistic strategy. This exhibition highlights this critical shift in the field of ceramics through the lens of artists of color. While the exhibition focuses on clay, the objects on display point to an expanded field that moves beyond sculpture to include video and paintings featuring ceramics.

As the exhibition title suggests, the exhibiting artists use their hands to produce visual illusions out of clay that, while cheery on the surface, can carry serious undertones. Humor is inherently deceptive, often the result of an exaggerated truth or a cunning trick that lends levity and clarity to subjects that are taboo or otherwise difficult to discuss. Strategies of irreverence, irony, absurdity, and cuteness are employed in Sleight of Hand to subversively establish accessible platforms for dialogue and engagement with profound and complicated narratives.

WHERE
Center for Craft, Bresler Family Gallery

ARTISTS
Diana Yesenia Alvarado
Natalia Arbelaez
Salvador Jiménez-Flores
Yvette Mayorga
Woody De Othello
Maryam Yousif

CURATED BY
Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy

EXHIBITION MANAGEMENT
Lauren Roquemore

GRAPHIC DESIGN BY
Kristi Pfeffer

Source link: https://www.centerforcraft.org/exhibition/sleight-of-hand

Introducing Arcilla. Arte. Cultura. | Clay. Craft. Culture.

For English scroll down

Hola a todos,

Estás recibiendo este correo electrónico porque estás en mis contactos o porque te suscribiste para recibir un boletín trimestral con actualizaciones sobre mi arte, enseñanza o trabajo comunitario. Si no desea recibir estas actualizaciones, no dude en darse de baja.
 

Me siento muy honrado de haber sido seleccionado como becario de RaD Lab + Outside the Walls a través de Threewalls. Esta beca brindará apoyo financiero y comunitario para usar la arcilla como conducto para reunir y sanar a la comunidad a través de conversaciones, conocimiento compartido y talleres participativos centrados en el vecindario de La Villita. Espero capturar y archivar las historias de residentes de toda la vida; abogando y destacando la experiencia del inmigrante, todo moldeado a través de la versatilidad de la arcilla.

Este artista Latinx trabaja para el desarrollo de La Villita através del arte.

¡Busco colaboradores, voluntarios y, lo que es más que nada, participantes! Este es un regalo para los residentes de La Villita y todos los materiales y talleres serán gratuitos y podrás quedarte con las obras de arte que realices. Si esto es algo que le interesa o conoce a alguien que pueda estar interesado, únase a nosotros en la siguiente participación pública virtual para obtener más información sobre el proyecto.

Estás invitado al lanzamiento del sitio web arcilla. arte. cultura. | clay. craft. culture. El artista dirigente, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, presentará un proyecto comunitario centrado en La Villita. Arcilla es un conducto para la construcción de comunidades y demostrará cómo las personas y las organizaciones pueden participar en este proyecto de arcilla gratuito y participativo. Además, Jiménez-Flores también pedirá comentarios y sugerencias de los miembros de la comunidad sobre lo que La Villita prevé para Arcilla. Arte. Cultura.

ID de reunión de Zoom: 596 692 6179 o únase a la reunión de Zoom haciendo clic en este enlace: https://saic-edu.zoom.us/j/5966926179

Interpretación en español por Renata Cassiano.

Involúcrate

Instagram

Salvador Jiménez-Flores es un artista interdisciplinario nacido y criado en Jalisco, México. Explora la política de la identidad y el estado de doble conciencia. Jiménez-Flores aborda temas de colonización, migración, “el otro” y futurismo. Su trabajo abarca desde el dibujo, cerámica, grabados y escultura de técnica mixta. Su trabajo también existe fuera de su estudio y se extiende a sus comunidades. Jiménez-Flores ha creado una serie de murales y trabajos comunitarios, como el mural La Declaración de Inmigración en Pilsen creado con estudiantes de Yollocali Arts Reach, Nomadic Sculptures y Tortilla Social con estudiantes de Urbano Project en Jamaica Plain, Boston, por mencionar algunos. Es profesor asistente de cerámica en la Escuela del Instituto de Arte de Chicago.

Hello Everyone,

You are receiving this email because you are in my contacts or because you signed up to receive a quarterly newsletter with updates about my art, teaching, or community based work. If you do not wish to receive these updates feel free to unsubscribe.

I am very honored to have been selected as a RaD Lab + Outside the Walls Fellow through Threewalls. This grant will provide financial and community support to use clay as the conduit for gathering and healing the community through conversations, shared knowledge, and participatory workshops centering La Villita neighborhood. I hope to capture and archive the stories of longtime residents; advocating and highlighting the immigrant experience all shaped through the versatility of clay.

This Latinx artist works for the development of La Villita, through art.

I am looking for collaborators, volunteers, and more importantly participants! This is a gift to the residents of Little Village and all the materials and workshops will be free of cost and you will get to keep the artwork you make. If this is something you are interested in or know someone who might be interested please join us in the following virtual public engagement to learn more about the project.

You are invited to the soft launch of the website clay. craft. culture. | arcilla. arte. cultura. Lead artist, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, will present a community based project centered around Little Village. Clay is a conduit to community building and will demonstrate how people and organizations can get involved in this free, participatory, clay project. Additionally, Jiménez-Flores will also ask for feedback and suggestions from the community members on what Little Village envisions for Clay. Craft. Culture.

Zoom Meeting ID: 596 692 6179 or Join Zoom Meeting by clicking this link: https://saic-edu.zoom.us/j/5966926179

Spanish translation for this event by Renata Cassianno

Get Involved

Instagram

Salvador Jiménez-Flores is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Jalisco, México. He explores the politics of identity and the state of double consciousness. Jiménez-Flores addresses issues of colonization, migration, “the other,” and futurism. His work spans from drawing, ceramics, prints, and mixed media sculpture. His work also extends outside of his studio and spread throughout communities. Jimenez-Flores has created a series of murals and community-based works, such as The Declaration of Immigration mural in Pilsen created with Yollocali Arts Reach students, Nomadic Sculptures and Tortilla Social with students from Urbano Project in Jamaica Plain, Boston to mentioned a few. He is an Assistant Professor in ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

A través del arte, este Latino trabaja por el desarrollo de La Villita

El mexicano Salvador Jiménez-Flores es artista plástico y, gracias a una beca, tendrá la oportunidad de dar una nueva cara a este vecindario hispano mediante su trabajo de dibujos y esculturas.

POR:UNIVISION

8 OCT 2020 – 11:36 PM EDT

https://www.univision.com/local/chicago-wgbo/a-traves-del-arte-este-hispano-trabaja-por-el-desarrollo-de-la-villita-video

¡Gracias a Threewalls por la beca RaD! Aquí hay un breve video sobre cómo esta beca apoyará mi proyecto. La arcilla como conducto para construir una comunidad en La Villita. Estén atentos. Pronto habrá más. Sobre el proyecto: Barrio: Little Village Problema de justicia racial: racismo ambiental Me enfocaré en el racismo ambiental, como una forma de hacer visibles las injusticias invisibles que continúan ocurriendo en el vecindario de La Villita y sus residentes a través de décadas de racismo institucionalizado y sistémico. Estas injusticias ocurren con más frecuencia en las comunidades negras, indígenas, latinas e inmigrantes. Usaré la arcilla como conducto para reunir y sanar a la comunidad a través de conversaciones, conocimientos compartidos y talleres participativos centrados en el barrio de La Villita. Espero capturar y archivar las historias de residentes; abogando y destacando la experiencia del inmigrante, todo en un recipiente de cerámica que almacena y protege estas narrativas. Si está interesado en participar, comuníquese con salvadorjimenezart@gmail.com

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Thanks to Threewalls for the RaD Fellowship! Here’s a short video on how this fellowship will support my project. Clay as a Conduit to Building community in Little Village. Stay tune. More to come soon. About the Project: Neighborhood: Little Village Racial Justice Issue: Environmental Racism I will focus on environmental racism, as a way to make visible the unseen injustices that continue to happen in the Little Village neighborhood and its residents through decades of institutionalized and systemic racism. These injustices happen more often in Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Immigrant communities. I will use clay as the conduit for gathering and healing the community through conversations, shared knowledge, and participatory workshops centering La Villita neighborhood. I hope to capture and archive the stories of longtime residents; advocating and highlighting the immigrant experience all shaped in a vessel that stores and protects these narratives. If you are interested in participating please reach out at salvadorjimenezart@gmail.com

El árbol del medio ambiente en la villita / The Environmental Tree of Little Village

The Tree of Life is a metaphor that inspires many interpretations by history’s most dominant religions to create a connection among humans. In my tree of life, I wanted to create a connection among my community, my neighbors, and our environment. I wanted to make visible the unseen injustices that have happened in the Little Village neighborhood and its residents through decades of institutionalized and systemic racism. These injustices happen more often in Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Immigrant communities. In Particular, I want to bring attention to the environmental racism that has affected the Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods for decades. Poor air quality, pollution, and the neglect from the city has made these communities more vulnerable and prone to experiencing respiratory problems. And just when we thought this was too much to deal with, we are fighting a global pandemic that is rapidly spreading and affecting in bigger numbers Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Immigrant communities. 

About Sólo un poco aquí: Day of the Dead

This year’s exhibition pays tribute to and remembers the numerous individuals from our community, Mexico, the U.S. and the entire world that have died from COVID-19. Join us to see new installations, paintings, and prints created by local artists for this, the 34th annual Day of the Dead exhibition. In addition there will be works of art in various media from the growing National Museum of Mexican Art Permanent Collection. These works created by Mexican artists from both sides of the border reveal their interest in preserving and participating in one of the most influential living celebrations from Mexico, which over time has transcended borders.

Este año la exposición rinde homenaje y recuerda a todas las personas de nuestra comunidad, de México, los Estados Unidos y del mundo entero que han muerto por el COVID-19. Acompáñenos a ver instalaciones, grabados y pinturas creadas por artistas locales para ésta, la 34ª exposición de Día de muertos. Así mismo, obras en diferentes técnicas de la creciente colección permanente del Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicano serán también parte de esta exposición. Este conjunto de obras creadas por artistas mexicanos de los dos lados de la frontera manifiesta el interés de ellos por preservar y participar en una de las celebraciones vivas más importantes de México, la cual, a través del tiempo, ha trascendido fronteras.

Curated by Dolores Mercado
Curatorial Assistant, Marilyn Lara Corral

https://nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/events/s%C3%B3lo-un-poco-aqu%C3%AD-virtual-day-dead-kick

PRESS

NBC 5 Chicago
DAY OF THE DEAD
SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 11:44 PM
National Museum of Mexican Art Reimagines Day of Dead Exhibit During Pandemic
Instead of canceling its annual Day of the Dead exhibit, the National Museum of Mexican Art reimagined it during the coronavirus pandemic even as the museum remains closed. NBC 5’s LeeAnn Trotter reports.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/top-videos-home/national-museum-of-mexican-art-reimagines-day-of-dead-exhibit-during-pandemic/2342471/?fbclid=IwAR1sTf_klT5E88UIIXJWr0ho7axghWQKB_n8V6CmCSOPDIkCDD8qPtijnlE

ABC 7 Chicago
National Museum of Mexican Art opens exhibit honoring Latino dead from COVID-19
By Mark Rivera
Friday, September 18, 2020

https://abc7chicago.com/community-events/new-exhibit-honors-latino-dead-from-covid-19/6441417/?fbclid=IwAR0cT9XsGS-fMnefLKy7FRst7TNjn9TlPyP3PyPg7QExwZ3bXlsOTjOlt48

Kohler Arts/Industry

I am very grateful for the opportunity to spend three months in Sheybogan, WI working at the Kohler factory. I was lucky and fortunate to have served as Artist-In-Resident through the John Michael Kohler. I came knowing nothing about foundry but thanks to the generosity of the Kohler associates and art/technician I was able to make these works that I know share with you here.

About the residency:
Hundreds of artists have benefited from the celebrated Arts/Industry residency program since its beginning in 1974. The program, undoubtedly one of the most unusual ongoing collaborations between art and industry in the United States, was conceived and is administered by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and hosted by Kohler Co.

Arts/Industry offers artists the time and space to focus on the creation of new work and a unique location for their studios. Artists-in-residence work at the Kohler Co. factory in the Pottery and/or Foundry. Artists need not have experience with clay or metal, just an interest in materials and the potential for the industrial environment and processes to influence their creative practice. Participants are exposed to a body of technical knowledge that enables and encourages them to explore new ways of thinking and working.

View the work in progress here.

Burke Prize Finalist!

I am humbled and honored to have been selected as a finalist for Burke Prize 2019. Additionally, I will have the opportunity to exhibit my artwork at the Museum of Art and Design in New York. This will be my first group exhibition in New York City. The opening will be on October 3, 2019 and the exhibit will run through April 12, 2020 if you are in NYC check it out! Thank you to the jurors for the opportunity to be one of the finalist among an amazing group of artists. And special thanks to my mom and tía Pina y tía Chuy, en paz descance.

“Growing up in a rural small town in México I witness my aunts and mother cross-stitch designs on textiles, following patterns and symbols by the color to complete a flower bouquet, a landscape, or a portrait of a religious figure. I never understood what they were doing, why they were doing it, and what their motivations were. My aunt and mother introduced me to art, craft, design, and love for labor. They showed me the meaning of having a passion for creating and leaving artifacts behind. These artifacts captured my family’s stories, knowledge, and genetic memories.”

About the Exhibition
An exhibition of works from the 2019 finalists for the Museum's Burke Prize, awarded to a contemporary artist under the age of forty-five working in glass, fiber, clay, metal, and/or wood. Selected by a jury of professionals in the fields of art, craft, and design, the finalists represent emerging voices expanding the disciplines at the core of American studio craft movement whose highly accomplished work demonstrates a strong use of materials, innovative processes, and conceptual rigor and relevance. 

Named for Marian and Russell Burke, two passionate collectors of craft and longtime supporters of MAD, the Burke Prize is an unrestricted award of $50,000. The winner will be announced November 4 at MAD Ball, the Museum's annual benefit gala and dinner. 

The exhibition is curated by MAD Assistant Curator Samantha De Tillio and Assistant Manager of Curatorial Affairs Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy with support from Curatorial Assistant Alida Jekabson.

The Museum of Arts and Design is grateful for the generosity of Marian and Russell Burke for making possible the 2019 Burke Prize.

FINALIST
Elizabeth Alexander, Winston-Salem, NC
Indira Allegra, Oakland, CA
Bisa Butler, West Orange, NJ
Amber Cowan, Philadelphia, PA
Tanda Francis, Brooklyn, NY
Bojana Ginn, Decatur, GA
Raven Halfmoon, Norman, OK
Salvador Jiménez-Flores, Chicago, IL
Lauren Kalman, Detroit, MI
Helen Lee, Madison, WI
Linda Lopez, Fayetteville, AR
Jaydan Moore, Richmond, VA
Sophia Narrett, Brooklyn, NY
Sara Rahbar, New York, NY
Julie Schenkelberg, Hamtramck, MI
Sarah Zapata, Brooklyn, NY

BURKE PRIZE 2019 JURY
Julia Bryan-Wilson
Doris and Clarence Malo Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, UC Berkeley
Valerie Cassel Oliver
Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art
Cannupa Hanska Luger
2018 Burke Prize Winner

Resource: https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/burke-prize-2019

Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly Lecture

7-8 p.m. - Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly Lecture
Hudson Auditorium, NMOCA

Featuring artists Cannupa Hanska Luger and Salvador Jiménez-Flores

Explore the works of 42 artists throughout the first-floor galleries and the second floor New Media Gallery. Their artistic media ranges from traditional craft (beads, porcupine quills, hammered copper) to contemporary art processes (painting, photography, ceramics, new media) to unconventional elements (crayons, drywall, adobe, plaster). Like the butterfly, which takes four generations to make the complete migratory path navigating its way through the center of the United States by drawing from inherited knowledge, these international artists also pull from ancestral and cultural memory to reveal the deep conceptual legacies underpinning abstraction, reorient historical and art historical narratives, and explore centuries-old trade routes that moved people and aesthetics in addition to goods.

Featured artist Cannupa Hanska Luger (b. 1979) was raised on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota and is of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Austrian and Norwegian descent. He stated, “My practice is rooted in the traditions of generations before me and augmented by the requirements of survival. The tradition of making things work is what influences my practice most. I work with what I’ve got to make the object or moment that needs to exist. Given the legacies of cultural appropriation and annihilation brought on by colonization, the endurance of these traditions - both craftwork and the practice of making things work - is characterized by resilience, adaptability and survivance.” Now based in New Mexico, Hanska Luger graduated in 2011 with a BFA in studio ceramics from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Mexican artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores was born in 1985 in Jalisco. Jiménez-Flores has produced a mixture of socially conscious installations, including public art and studio-based art. He said, “The move from a rural town in México to a major metropolis in the United States had a tremendous impact on my life. At first, art was merely a way of coping with the transition, but later, due to my limited English, art became my tool for self-expression. In my work I document this journey of adapting to living in the United States, all while looking back at what I left behind in México.” He currently lives in Chicago, where he is Assistant Professor in ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2014 he graduated with an MFA in Drawing from Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, Michigan; in 2012 he studied at the School of Art Centers International in Florence, Italy; and in 2006 he earned a BAS in graphic design and digital media from Robert Morris University, Chicago.

Additionally, exhibiting artists Holly Wilson and Fidencio Fifield Perez are presenting at the Nerman’s Thursday Visiting Artist program on March 28 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Hudson Auditorium.

This exhibition is curated by Risa Puleo and organized by Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska, where it was first presented December 7, 2017 to February 24, 2018. The accompanying catalogue is supported in part by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Sandra Fossum, and Watie White.

For more information about the exhibition, refer to the Monarchs exhibition. Monarchs is open from March 7 to June 2, 2019.

Source: http://www.nermanmuseum.org/calendar/events/2019-03-07-monarchs-opening.html

American Craft Council

Thanks to @craftcouncil for the write up about my work Nopales Híbridos: An Imaginary World of Rascuache-Futurism.

Grabadolandia 2018

Very excited to have completed one more Grabadolandia with Tortilla Social once again, the first and only legendary free printmaking festival in Chicago.  I am also honor to be part of the Instituto Gráfico de Chicago (IGC) since its beginnings and see how this group has grown. We believe in creating more equitable access to cultural resources and events. Our audience is overlapping communities of artists, students, youth, Latinx families, working-class families and communities of color. Thanks to everyone who make this happens! 

SAIC Welcomes 13 New Full-Time Faculty Members

Please join me in welcoming 13 new full-time faculty members to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) this fall. The new faculty members represent a diverse range of practices, media, and methodologies and exemplify SAIC’s focus on interdisciplinary studies.

In the last two years, six of the new full-time faculty members joining SAIC were former part-time faculty. The new faculty members, who will teach in six departments across the School, include Danielle Andress (Fiber and Material Studies), Jeremy Biles (Liberal Arts), Julietta Cheung (MFA 2012, Contemporary Practices), Mike Cloud (Painting and Drawing), Ryan Edwards (Liberal Arts), Maura Frana (Visual Communication Design), Marie Herwald Hermann (Ceramics), Suma Ikeuchi (Liberal Arts), Salvador Jiménez-Flores (Ceramics), Piotr Michura (Visual Communication Design), Hương Ngô (MFA 2004, Contemporary Practices), Kirin Wachter-Grene (Liberal Arts), and Jade Yumang (Fiber and Material Studies).

With the addition of these new faculty members, SAIC continues its legacy of excellence in art and design education. Information about each faculty member can be found below.

Martin Berger
Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Salvador Jiménez-Flores

Assistant Professor

Ceramics

Salvador Jiménez-Flores is an interdisciplinary artist born in Mexico and an assistant professor in the Department of Ceramics. In his work he explores the themes of colonization, migration, “the other,” stereotypes, and futurism. Most recently he completed a two-year artist residency at the Harvard Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard University. He also served as the artist-in-residence for the city of Boston. Jiménez-Flores is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant and was awarded the Kohler Arts Industry Residency for 2019.

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Marie Herwald Hermann

Assistant Professor

Ceramics

Marie Herwald Hermann is an assistant professor in the Ceramics department. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art in London in 2009 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Westminster. Hermann’s work is informed by the objects of the everyday. She draws meaning from the way individuals unconsciously create relationships with the domestic objects present in daily life. Solo exhibitions include Shields and the Parergon at Reyes Projects; And dusk turned dawn, Blackthorn at NADA, Miami; Northern Light, Pontiac Rise at Galerie Nec, Paris. Her work is represented in the collections of the Danish Arts Foundation; the Denver Art Museum; Sèvres Ceramics Museum, France; Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway; and Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

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Julietta Cheung

Assistant Professor

Contemporary Practices

Julietta Cheung (MFA 2012) is an assistant professor in the Department of Contemporary Practices. Her work examines the contemporary American narrative of the future as it is interpreted by a diverse public. She mines and unmakes her source material—popular writing, buzz terms, and utility objects—and remakes them in her typographic prints, sculptures, installations, and reading performances. Cheung joins SAIC from Florida State University where she was an assistant professor in the Department of Art. She received her Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University and Master of Fine Arts from SAIC.

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Hương Ngô

Assistant Professor

Contemporary Practices

Hương Ngô (MFA 2004) is an assistant professor in the Department of Contemporary Practices. Ngô’s research-based practice connects personal and political histories using a conceptual, interdisciplinary, and often collaborative approach. She has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Fine Arts from SAIC in Art and Technology Studies, and was a studio fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program.

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Jade Yumang

Assistant Professor

Fiber and Material Studies

Jade Yumang is an assistant professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies. His primary focus is on the concept of queer form through sculptural abstraction, installation, and performance. He joins SAIC from the University of British Columbia and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Fine Arts with departmental honors from Parsons School of Design.

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Danielle Andress

Assistant Professor

Fiber and Material Studies

Danielle Andress is an assistant professor in the Fiber and Material Studies department. Her work focuses on contemporary identity politics as mediated through popular culture and gendered craft and primarily takes the form of woven cloth. She previously taught at the California College of the Arts. Andress earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008 and her Master of Fine Arts from the California College of the Arts in 2017.

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Jeremy Biles

Assistant Professor

Liberal Arts

Jeremy Biles is an assistant professor in the Department of Liberal Arts. Since 2008, Biles has taught courses at SAIC on religion, philosophy, writing, and photography. His research ranges across religious studies, psychoanalysis, and art theory, with special attention to eroticism, surrealism, and the category of the sacred. He is the author of Ecce Monstrum: Georges Bataille and the Sacrifice of Form. Biles holds a PhD from the University of Chicago.

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Ryan Edwards

Assistant Professor

Liberal Arts

Ryan C. Edwards is an assistant professor in the Department of Liberal Arts after having worked for two years at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. Edwards received a Bachelor of Arts in geography from the University of California Berkeley in 2009 and a PhD in history from Cornell University in 2016. His research and teaching focus on Latin America, environmental history and geography, and prison studies. During 2018–19, Edwards will be on leave as a visiting associate research scholar at Princeton University.

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Suma Ikeuchi

Assistant Professor

Liberal Arts

Suma Ikeuchi is an assistant professor in the Department of Liberal Arts. Her research interests include diaspora, citizenship, and religion in global Asia, specifically among the diverse migrant groups in Japan. She has published articles in Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, and Contemporary Japan; her first book is also forthcoming from Stanford University Press in 2019. Ikeuchi joins SAIC from the University of Alabama. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Hokkaido University, a Master of Arts from Brandeis University, and PhD from Emory University.

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Kirin Wachter-Grene

Assistant Professor

Liberal Arts

Kirin Wachter-Grene is an assistant professor of English in the Department of Liberal Arts and coordinator of the First-Year Seminar program. Wachter-Grene’s work focuses on African American literature and culture from the late 19th century to the present, with an emphasis on gender and sexuality. She joins SAIC from New York University and received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona, Master of Arts from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and PhD from the University of Washington.

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Mike Cloud

Assistant Professor

Painting and Drawing

Mike Cloud is an assistant professor in the Painting and Drawing department. He is a painter whose work examines the conditions of painting in its contemporary life among countless reproductions, symbols, and descriptions. Cloud earned his Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Art and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Cloud has lectured extensively on his work and issues of contemporary art theory at Cooper Union, Yale University, and Bard College among others.

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Piotr Michura

Associate Professor

Visual Communication Design

Piotr Michura is an associate professor in the Visual Communication Design department. His research interests are in areas of information design, interaction design, and typography/text visualization. His PhD research was on experimental visualizations for interaction with electronic documents for humanities researchers. In 2015 he received the Fulbright Senior Advanced Research Award. Michura is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, where he received his MFA in 2001 and PhD in 2012, and the University of Alberta, Canada, where he received his MDes in 2008.

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Maura M Frana

Assistant Professor

Visual Communication

Maura Frana is a designer and educator who examines the parallels between verbal and visual. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Communications Design from Pratt Institute and has taught graphic design full time at the undergraduate and graduate levels since 2013. She was previously a visiting artist at SAIC. Frana is coauthor of the book Five Conversations on Graphic Design and Creative Writing, which examines the value of cross-disciplinary methods in graphic design.

GRABADOLANDIA

FREE EVENT!

Instituto Gráfico de Chicago (IGC), a grassroots printing collective from the Pilsen neighborhood, is excited to announce its 6th annual FREE, educational printmaking festival, Grabadolandia, scheduled to take place November 16, 17, and 18, 2018.

Grabadolandia is a three-day printmaking festival that spans multiple venues throughout the city of Chicago. The main event, which is a print fair, will once again be housed at the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). During this event, the public is invited to learn about printmaking and its rich history by participating in free demonstrations and hands-on activities. On the occasion of our 6th anniversary, we will also to be joined by four printmakers representing two of Oaxaca City’s most dynamic collectives, Burro Press and Cooperativa Grafica, who will lead several live demonstrations and conversations about contemporary printmaking in Mexico.

*Please join us for these special FREE events, highlighting the presence of an active and engaged printmaking community in the city of Chicago and beyond.

Details:
Friday, November 16, 2018. 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
- IGC Exhibition and Artist Talk + Printing Demo by Daniel Amora from Baja California at 7:30PM
Pilsen Outpost, 1637 W. 18th St. Chicago, IL 60608

Saturday, November 17, 2018
- Wood Burning and Relief Printing Demonstration with Edith Chavez from Oaxaca City, Mexico at Pilsen Outpost
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Pilsen Outpost, 1637 W. 18th St. Chicago, IL 60608

-Lithography Demonstration with Ivan Bautista from Oaxaca City, Mexico at Hoofprint
12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Hoofprint 1965 W. Pershing Road, Chicago, IL 60609

- Book Release by Federico Valdez from Oaxaca City, Mexico at the National Museum of Mexican Art
*This event includes an artist panel on the topic of the formation of print collectives past and present.
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W. 19th St. Chicago, IL 60608

Sunday, November 18, 2018
GRABADOLANDIA, 6th annual free, educational printmaking festival.
Please join us for our family friendly event to learn more about printmaking through a series of fun and immersive hands-on activities presented by print shops around the city and beyond! A great way to meet the artists behind these print shops and support the art of printmaking.
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W. 19th St. Chicago, IL 60608

For up-to-date information please visit our website institutograficodechicago.org and follow us on facebook.com/InstitutoGraficodeChicago and Instagram@instituto_grafico_chicago

Tortilla Social mini documentary

Tortilla Social was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' Creative City Program, with funding from The Barr Foundation and with additional support from the Boston Foundation. Tortilla Social has also partnered with the Urbano Project and Hyde Square Task Force as a community partners on this project.

Tortilla Social fue posible gracias al financiamiento del Programa de “Creative City” de “New England Foundation for the Arts,” con fondos de la Fundación The Barr y con el apoyo adicional de la Fundación de Boston. Tortilla Social también se ha asociado con “Urbano Project” y “Hyde Square Task Force” como socios comunitario en este proyecto.

Credits
Video Produced by Salvador Jiménez-Flores
Camera by Darren Cole & Faizal Westcott
Edited by Darren Cole & Faizal Westcott
Additional footage by Martha P. Osornio- Ruiz

Featuring Music
Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquestra - Chicago - www.dossantoschi.com

Interviewees
Maria Christina Blanco
Patricia Garcia
Massiel Torres
Jonah Muniz
Sebastian Zapata 

Special Thanks
Stella Aguirre-McGregor
Sarah Brugge
Isabel Catalina Hibbard
Amanda Cortes
Denise Delgado
April Franklin
Eric J. Garcia
Jim Grace
Matt Jeff
Eucaris Jiménez
Jose Alfredo Jiménez
Safiyyah Johnson
Deidra Montgomery
Quyen Nguyen
Martha P. Osornio- Ruiz
Anthony Peña
Waldewar Rivera
Gleidymar Rivera
Susan Richards Hallstein    
Eva Rosenberg
José Sanchez
Katerin Sarai Rodriguez
Ricardo Serment
Kim Szeto
Amber Stout
Kenneth Tangvik

New England Foundation for the Arts Staff
Urbano Project Staff
Hyde Square Task Force Staff
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
Instituto Gráfico de Chicago
Hands House Project
The Free School of Writing
Speedball Art Products