Untitled

New works featured in “Finos Detalles” @ Ruths...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:18:23 -0400

New works featured in “Finos Detalles” @ Ruths Table. See info below:

Finos Detalles, featuring nine Bay Area artists whose practices and work emphasize the concept of the handmade. The title, which translates to “fine details” in Spanish, is taken from a hand-painted sign of a Mexican furniture store. Through a wide range of techniques, the artists explore personal and social issues that cross cultural boundaries.

Curated by Juan Luna-Avin, featuring the works by:

Facundo Argañaraz

Sofía Córdova

Pablo Guardiola

Julio César Morales

Hector Dio Mendoza

Angelica Muro

Mitsy Ávila Ovalles

Shalo P

Veronica Rojas

Opening reception: Thursday, September 20, 2012, from 6 to 9 pm

Location: Ruth’s Table, 580 Capp Street, San Francisco

www.ruthstable.org

Chico & Chang through September 16, 2012 @ SJICA “Chico & Chang is part of the 2012...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:12:17 -0400

Chico & Chang through September 16, 2012 @ SJICA

“Chico & Chang is part of the 2012 Zero1 Biennial, an international showcase of work at the nexus of art and technology. This year’s theme is “Seeking Silicon Valley,” Chico & Chang unexpectedly (and delightfully) stretches the biennial’s territory in complicated directions: through cultural and subcultural terrains, political activism, and silenced histories.”

excerpt from Art Practical review:

http://www.artpractical.com/review/chico_chang/

Visiting Information:

Gallery Hours
Wed. Sept 12: 10am – 5pm
Thurs, Sept 13: 10am – 5pm
Fri, Sept 14: 10am – 10pm
Sat, Sept 15: 12pm – 10pm
Sun, Sept 16: 10am – 4pm

http://www.zero1biennial.org/san-jose-institute-contemporary-art

http://www.zero1biennial.org/

ZERO1: The Art & Technology Network’s photostream

Chico & Chang, originally curated in 2011 by Kevin B. Chen...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:08:00 -0400

Chico & Chang, originally curated in 2011 by Kevin B. Chen for Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, explores the interwoven and sometimes incongruous cultures of two of California’s largest populations, the Latino and Asian communities, through irreverent humor and inspiring candor. Posing complex questions about the assumption and construction of culture, the work in this exhibition provides opportunity to see where the boundaries of these two cultures begin, intersect and sometimes collide.

Photo credit: Carlos Luna, Intersection for the Arts, SF, June 2011

http://theintersection.org/2011/08/chico-chang-a-look-at-the-impact-of-latino-and-asian-cultures-on-californias-visual-landscape/

angelicamuroinfo: Images from the opening of Chico&Chang @...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:04:51 -0400

L to R: Juan Luna-Avin, Nora Nguyen, Binh Danh & Boreth Ly

Boreth Ly and Angelica Muro

Angelica Muro and Fan Ho

angelicamuroinfo:

Images from the opening of Chico&Chang @ the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, June 2012.

From a low-rider rickshaw to work made by “Dreamers,” undocumented youth who are fighting to gain legal status, Chico and Chang examines the impact of Asian and Latino cultures on the changing face of California through sculpture, video, illustration and painting.

In our ever-changing society, the word “diversity” is more than a cliché. It is a call to action that is necessary for growth and adaptability. Results of the 2010 census show a continuing shift of California’s ethnic composition. Latinos and Asians have accounted for the majority of California’s population growth since 2000, a statistic that is accurately represented in San Jose. Immigrant communities directly impact the look and feel of our community, from our diverse residential neighborhoods to downtown businesses and restaurants.

Chico & Chang, originally curated in 2011 by Kevin B. Chen for Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, explores the interwoven and sometimes incongruous cultures of two of California’s largest populations, the Latino and Asian communities, through irreverent humor and inspiring candor. Posing complex questions about the assumption and construction of culture, the work in this exhibition provides opportunity to see where the boundaries of these two cultures begin, intersect and sometimes collide.

Participating artists include Pablo Cristi, Sergio De La Torre, Takehito Etani, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Mike Lai, Angelica Muro and Juan Luna-Avin, Favianna Rodriguez, Lordy Rodriguez, Tracey Snelling and Charlene Tan.

Photo

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:06:39 -0400

Chico & Chang @ SJICA as part of the 2012 ZERO1...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:01:35 -0400

Chico & Chang @ SJICA as part of the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial

The San Jose ICA is pleased to be among the cultural partners participating in the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial taking place in San Jose and throughout the broader San Francisco Bay Area from September to December 2012. The ICA’s response to the Biennial theme “Seeking Silicon Valley” is realized in our two summer exhibitions on view through September 16, 2012.

Inviting more than 150 artists from over 13 countries, the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial, presents works at the forefront of media art – collaborating with international cultural institutions and iconic Silicon Valley companies to showcase three months of Bay Area exhibitions, events, and performances – in museums and galleries, in skywriting above San Francisco, in the streets and storefronts of Silicon Valley, on iPads and smartphones, and across the internet. Find out more at zero1biennial.org.

Chico & Chang features work by Pablo Cristi, Sergio De La Torre, Takehito Etani, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Clement Hanami, Mike Lai, Angelica Muro & Juan Luna-Avin, Favianna Rodriguez, Lordy Rodriguez, Tracey Snelling and Charlene Tan

SAN JOSE EXHIBIT LOOKS AT IMPACT OF ASIAN CULTURE Before there was Silicon Valley, there was the...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:00:21 -0400

SAN JOSE EXHIBIT LOOKS AT IMPACT OF ASIAN CULTURE

Before there was Silicon Valley, there was the valley. As a western territory and wild frontier, the Bay Area has promised opportunity throughout its history, whether in gold, agriculture or technology. Along with these successes, however, are stories of class struggle and racial bias which are often excluded from the mainstream narrative.

Two new exhibits at The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) the topic of Asian Culture and California’s Visual Landscape.

In response to the ZERO1 art and technology biennial thematic Seeking Silicon Valley, City Beneath The City exposes a history of the valley before it was dubbed Silicon Valley. Whereas Silicon Valley is obsessed with the next technology that will revolutionize our lives, this project looks to the past in order to understand the significance of Silicon Valley today. At the height of its existence, the Market Street Chinatown, located at the intersections of Market and San Fernando Streets in downtown San José (a ten minute walk from the ICA), was the largest Chinese community anywhere in the U.S. outside of San Francisco. It flourished both economically and culturally from the 1860s until it was destroyed in an arson fire in 1887.

The installation will include a collection of artifacts including ceramic bowls, glassware and vessel fragments that will be presented to render a physical and tactile field. This visual experience seeks to elicit an emotional response, drawing on the viewers’ memories and assumptions about what these domestic, fractured and historic objects may represent in the context of a contemporary art space.

Archival photograph showing arson fire destroying San Jose’s Market Street Chinatown (History San Jose )

A second exhibit, Chico & Chang: A Look at the Impact of Latino and Asian Cultures on California’s Visual Landscape explores the interwoven and sometimes incongruous cultures of two of California’s largest populations, the Latino and Asian communities. From a low-rider rickshaw to work made by “Dreamers,” undocumented youth who are fighting to gain legal status, Chico and Chang examines the impact of Asian and Latino cultures on the changing face of California through sculpture, video, illustration and painting.

Chico & Chang features work by Pablo Cristi, Sergio De La Torre, Takehito Etani, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Clement Hanami, Mike Lai, Angelica Muro & Juan Luna-Avin, Favianna Rodriguez, Lordy Rodriguez, Tracey Snelling and Charlene Tan

http://www.asiaweekguide.com/2012/05/23/san-jose-exhibit-looks-at-impact-of-asian-culture/

CHICO & CHANG Exhibition Gallery Guide (PDF)

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 01:54:00 -0400

CHICO & CHANG Exhibition Gallery Guide (PDF):

Chico and Chang @ SJICA was originally curated by Kevin B. Chen for Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco

Supported in part by a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation Donor Circle for the Arts

angelicamuroinfo: You’re Breathing in It! Alternative Art...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 01:53:21 -0400

angelicamuroinfo:

You’re Breathing in It! Alternative Art Practices

opening reception @ Riverside Museum of Art, July 14, 2012

angelicamuroinfo: You’re Breathing in It! Alternative Art...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 01:53:05 -0400

Juan Luna-Avin, Lawence Alexander Sanchez, Mario Ybarra Jr, and You’re Breathing in It! curator Karla Diaz

You’re Breathing in It! artists (Juan Luna-Avin and Angelica Muro)

angelicamuroinfo:

You’re Breathing in It! Alternative Art Practices

opening reception @ Riverside Museum of Art

Exhibition: July 14 - September 22, 2012
Reception: July 14, from 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

chico & chang @ SJICA Jun. 16 - Sep. 16, 2012Main Gallery...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 01:53:00 -0400

chico & chang @ SJICA

Jun. 16 - Sep. 16, 2012
Main Gallery & Cardinale Project Room

San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art

560 South First Street San Jose, CA 95113

408.283.8155

you are breathing in it @ RAM

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 06:54:00 -0400

you are breathing in it @ RAM

You Are Breathing In It! Alternative Art Practices @...

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:33:00 -0400

You Are Breathing In It! Alternative Art Practices @ RAM

Exhibition: July 14 - September 22, 2012

video: Robert Crawford, Video Dope productions

limited edition books can be purchased @ RAM...

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:40:00 -0400

limited edition books can be purchased @ RAM store:

http://www.riversideartmuseum.org/

Photo

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:57:00 -0400

Photo

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:51:00 -0400

Chico & Chang GROUP SHOW JUN 16 - SEP 16 SAN JOSE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART by Ellen...

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:01:55 -0400

Chico & Chang

GROUP SHOW

JUN 16 - SEP 16

SAN JOSE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART

by Ellen Tani

The phrase El mundo es un buñuelo (translation: “The world is a handkerchief” or “It’s a small world”) appears to have been scrawled by a miniature graffitist on Tracy Snelling’s architectural diorama, Mexicalichina (2011), on view at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). Perched like an island in the main gallery, the work has a diminutive scale that belies its panoply of cultural references: a wall of Spanish-language advertisements flanks two debating Chinese-scholar figurines while photographs and videos of hotel rooms, dance halls, stores, and restaurants are visible throughMexicalichina’s windows. The work presents a kind of postmodern barrio that bears the signifiers of ethnic services and goods, like cuisine. If this mini city postures archetypally as multicultural California, it does so with irony, referencing today’s culture-as-cuisine attitude and echoing the ’90s rhetoric of salad-bowl multiculturalism. Many of the works take this wry approach in this exhibition, Chico & Chang,whose eleven artists examine the impact of Asian and Latino influences on California’s visual culture.

The notion of culture as cuisine surfaces in the exhibition’s title, a reference to the name of a Chinese-style Mexican takeout restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, whose menu features a comical illustration of two national stereotypes, one pulling the other in a rickshaw. The graphic was an inspiration for the Los Angeles–based artist Clement Hanami’s tricked-out lowrider rickshaw, Goon Squad Garage (2009), complete with sound system and hydraulics, topped by the painted phrase No soy chino. Hanami, whose upbringing in the predominantly Latino community of East Los Angeles was marked by his consistently and mistakenly being identified as Chinese (he is Japanese American), asserts this negative identity as a way of addressing his position as a minority within a minority. His negation mirrors Sergio De La Torre’s installation, This is not in Spanish (2011)—the title phrase sculpted in neon Chinese characters—which was inspired by the artist’s research on Chinese immigrants in northern Mexico. De La Torre’s nod at surrealism is a foil for Pablo Cristi’s sculptural installation, which gestures satirically at the nose-to-tail movement recently embraced by San Francisco foodies, grounding its fetishization of animal parts such as heart, feet, and tripe in the traditional cuisines of Latino and Asian cultures that have long considered these parts indispensable. Hipster Pig (2011), a patchwork-denim pig head, is mounted above Do Not Cast Your Pearls Before Swine (2012), a silver tray of shiny, white pig feet pointing hoof-up, like appetizers.

Clement Hanami. Goon Squad Garage, 2009; mixed media; 48 x 96 x 50 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

Sergio De La Torre. This is not in Spanish, 2011; neon; 1 x 14 ft. Collection of the Kadist Art Foundation.

Chico & Chang is part of the 2012 Zero1 Biennial, an international showcase of work at the nexus of art and technology.¹ This year’s theme is “Seeking Silicon Valley,” butChico & Chang unexpectedly (and delightfully) stretches the biennial’s territory in complicated directions: through cultural and subcultural terrains, political activism, and silenced histories. The installation Untitled (Club Lido)(2011) by Angelica Muro and Juan Luna-Avin presents a fictional narrative staged at the Lido Night Club, a hub for the local transgendered population and located only blocks from the ICA. The Lido’s split-level structure houses a Mexican cantina and Vietnamese ballroom-dancing club and is one of the only spaces where these two communities interact.

Paradoxically, a major undercurrent of the exhibition seems to be the impossibility of representing mixed cultural influences in any given form. This is the task of bottling essence, taken up by Takehito Etaniin his installation of book pages featuring partially erased images of luchadores and Harajuku Girls above small sealed bottles containing eraser shavings labeled sol (sun), sangre (blood), luz (light), andespiritu (spirit). Such material and declarative contradictions enact representations of subcultures and frustrate the search for authenticity that the theme “Seeking Silicon Valley” seems to pursue.

While several artists take on the bemused detachment typical of 1960s Pop art, with social content operating only as an undercurrent, others, like Favianna Rodriguez, put it at the forefront. They make the case for Silicon Valley as a site of political activism whose identity is inextricably tied to the thousands of undocumented individuals who contribute to its economy but are prohibited from the benefits of citizenship. In two mixed-media prints and one video work, collectively entitled DREAMers (2011), Rodriguez amplifies the voices of undocumented youths in relation to the DREAM Act. Through the video, viewers witness a series of incredibly moving monologues by students at a public rally, who seem both shaken and strengthened at the prospect of rejecting the term illegal in favor of announcing and coming to terms with their status as undocumented. The prints, a product of Rodriguez’s collaboration with Julio Salgado, an undocumented, queer artist-activist, render in a comic-like style the dark reality of immigrants who seek the American dream. DREAMers utilizes the format of the news—print and television—to present these untold stories with immediacy.

Showing us that there is more to Silicon Valley than the Internet, and that undocumented immigration is not restricted to one ethnicity and border, Chico & Chang is timely, given the relevance of immigration debates to both national politics and the region’s two largest minority groups. The exhibitionexudes hyperbole, the stereotypical nomenclature in the title an underhanded reference to the impossibility of representing something as fluid as multiculturalism. Despite the pervasive impact of Latino and Asian cultures on California’s visual landscape, they remain elusive: seen, tasted, and heard simultaneously yet illuminated through mistaken or appropriated identities.

CHICO & CHANG IS NOW ON VIEW AT THE SAN JOSE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART THROUGH SEPTEMBER 16, 2012.

_______
NOTES:

1. Chico & Chang was originally curated by Kevin B. Chen at Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, in 2011.

http://www.artpractical.com/review/chico_chang/

Through September 16, 2012 A look at the impact of Latino and Asian cultures on...

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:12:00 -0400

Through September 16, 2012

A look at the impact of Latino and Asian cultures on California’s visual landscape

Pablo Cristi, Sergio De La Torre, Takehito Etani, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Clement Hanami, Mike Lai, Angelica Muro & Juan Luna-Avin, Favianna Rodriguez, Lordy Rodriguez, Tracey Snelling and Charlene Tan

Chico and Chang was originally curated by Kevin B. Chen for Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco

Supported in part by a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation Donor Circle for the Arts

Chico & Chang Exhibition Gallery Guide (PDF)

How are place and location defined? Whose stories of immigration are being told? Where are sites of cultural connection and discord located? How does popular culture intersect with larger issues of cultural representation?

Chico & Chang examines the impact of Asian and Latino cultures on the changing face of California through sculpture, video, illustration, and painting. In our rapidly shifting world, diversity is more than a buzzword; it is a perspective necessary for growth and adaptability. The 2010 census confirms the continuing shift of California’s ethnic composition, as Asians and Latinos comprise the majority of California’s population growth since 2000. Immigrant communities have always shaped how places look and feel, from domestic interiors to business signage. This cultural influence goes hand in hand with the changing demographics of the people who live and work in our state.

The artists in Chico & Chang explore the meshing and sometimes incongruous cultures from two of California’s largest populations, the Asian and Latino communities, often times through irreverent humor and sublime candor. Posing complex questions about the assumption and construction of culture, the work in this exhibition provides ample opportunity to see where the boundaries of culture start to fracture, and where they continue to overlap.

-Kevin B. Chen, Curator

ARTISTS:
In this body of work, Pablo Cristi examines the “Nose to Tail” movement, a culinary practice where the entire animal is utilized in making dishes. Evident
in growing trends in the culinary arts is the continued Western narrative of “discovery and exploration” which has been in play since ancient times. Pioneering chefs borrow ideas, ingredients, and processes from traditional cultural culinary practices, thus rendering them as hip and sophisicated. Fetishized animal parts that once were disposable in the US, but common in Latino and Asian cultures, such as heart, feet, and tripe, are now exoticized and revered for their usage. In Hipster Pig, Cristi uses denim and gold to reference the long history of exploitation of these materials in Asia and Latin America.

Pablo Cristi (www.pablocristi.com) was born in Los Angeles to Chilean parents escaping the Pinochet regime. His work is influenced by his critical inquiry
of power, representation, and history. His investigations of the colonial past, present, and future often take the form of paintings and sculptural objects that deconstruct and comingle urban visual vernaculars. He is also an educator and community organizer, teaching and leading youth in art and mural projects throughout the West Coast. Cristi is a graduate of the MFA program at California College of the Arts, where he was awarded the Barclay Simpson Award. His work has recently been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Oakland.

The Chinese characters of Sergio De La Torre’s neon sign translate to the title of the work: This is not in Spanish. While the work references the famous Rene Magritte painting Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe), it also speaks to the hidden experience of Chinese immigrants living in Northern Mexico, where the collision of language, culture and identity are subtly evident in places like shop window signage. De La Torre has been researching Chinese immigrants in Mexico since he came across a newspaper article reporting hundreds of Chinese immigrants living and working in a factory there.

Sergio De La Torre’s (www.maquilapolis.com) work focuses on issues of diaspora, tourism, labor and surveillance technologies. His work has been exhibited at the 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Turkey; the Bienal Barro de America, Museo de Bellas Artes Caracas, Venezuela; Atelier Frankfurt, Germany; Centro Cultural Tijuana; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. He has received grants from Creative Capital, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Sundance Documentary Fund. His video project MAQUILAPOLIS |city of factories|, an hour-long documentary created in collaboration with filmmaker Vicky Funari and the Tijuana based NGO Grupo Factor X, has been screened in over 75 international film festivals and received the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006. He is an assistant professor in the Art and Architecture Department at the University of San Francisco.

In his Harajuku Nope-Ople vs. Luchadores series, Takehito Etani explores spirituality in two seemingly secular cultural communities: young fashionistas in the Harajuku district of Tokyo and lucha libre wrestlers of Mexico. By meticulously erasing people out of the printed photographs, Etani searches for the true nature hidden underneath the layers of costume and fashion. This process of inquiry references Buddhist philosophies of the self as well as the history of lucha libre mask design, which evokes animals, gods, and other spiritual archetypes. The work also alludes to suminuri kyokasho, a self-sensoring exercise practiced during the American occupation of Japan after WWII. Japanese students and teachers would black out sections of textbooks referring to imperial, nationalistic, and militaristic ideologies. With this series of work, however, Etani manipulates printed magazines and books not as a mechanism for suppression, but as a means for liberation.

Takehito Etani (www.takehitoetani.com) works with various media including electronics, wearable technology, installations, sculpture, performance, and video. He is interested in creating new rituals that acknowledge and transform everyday life. His work has been exhibited internationally at the 2006 International Symposium of Electronic Art; VIPER Basel Festival for Film, Video and New Media, Switzerland; the Stuttgarter Filmwinter Festival for Expanded Media, Germany; as well as at Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, Kawasaki, Japan. Born in Aichi, Japan, Etani currently lives and works in Oakland, California. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute, New York and his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York.

Ana Teresa Fernandez’ installation Carry On examines how immigrant communities resourcefully utilize ubiquitous plaid nylon shopping bags as multifunctional material – not just for grocery shopping and taking the wash to the laundromat, but also for sectional home decoration and placemats. She creates both a fictional and representational interior of a household, where every surface is covered in this material. Objects blend into the tapestry of this unique, recognizable pattern, obfuscating both their identity and function. Through this installation, Fernandez hints at a metaphor of immigrants within our society, who inconspicuously carry the heavy workload of service and cleaning industries.

Ana Teresa Fernandez (www.anateresafernandez.com) received her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. She has received several awards for her artwork including the Tournasol Award from Headlands Center for the Arts; the National Association of Latino Art and Cultures Award; San Francisco Arts Community Individual Artists Commission; Creative Work Fund and the Murphy Cadogan Award. She has completed residencies at the Fondation d’Art Jacmel, Haiti, and in Juarez, Mexico through the LEF Foundation. Her work has been exhibited locally at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Electric Works, Galeria de la Raza, Luggage Store Gallery, Queen’s Nails Annex, and Headlands Center for the Arts, and internationally at Centro Cultural Tijuana, Mexico; Fondation d’Art Jacmel, Haiti; Sun Valley Arts Center, Idaho; and Galeria Nacional Museo San Jose, Costa Rica.

Clement Hanami’s Goon Squad Garage is a rickshaw tricked-out with low-rider hydrolics. Speakers attached below the seat play the tunes of War and The Stylistics. As a Japanese American growing up in the predominantly Latino suburb of East Los Angeles, Hanami’s work is infused with the personal. The artist remarks, “I look at what it is about this experience that is unique and how it impacts being Japanese American or being a minority within a minority.”

Clement Hanami’s mother is a hibakusha, a Japanese atomic bomb survivor and his father was a World War II evacuee. He received his MFA from the University of California Los Angeles in Studio Art with a specialization in New Genres. His work has been exhibited at The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art/LA, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Armory Center for the Arts, John Ansen Ford Theater, California Museum of Photography, Long Beach Museum of Art, AFI National Video Festival, Santa Monica Museum of Art, KCET Independent Eye, Westwind Magazine, and Show-Mag Gallery. In addition to his art practice, Hanami is the Art Director at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Mike Lai’s Untitled (Operation Swiftwater) depicts the immigrant’s treacherous journey across bodies of water to arrive to the US. The work draws inspiration from a tragic event in 1988 when a group of immigrants were smuggled across the Niagara River from Ontario to New York in a blow-up raft purchased at Walmart. All of the passengers died en route, including a six-year-old girl. Referencing the tragic drama of the 17th century painting The Raft of Medusa, by French Romanic painter Théodore Géricault, Lai’s video captures the dramatic tension between life and death and triumph and failure, and distills the collective stories of people risking their lives to enter this country.

Mike Lai (www.laidynasty.com) was born in Hong Kong in 1980, and came to the US as a student in 1993. As a Chinese immigrant living in the US, he is interested in the representation of Asian identity in the media. He received his BA from Davidson College, NC and his MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. His work has been exhibited at Center for Outdoor Contemporary Art, GenArt San Francisco, Queen’s Nails Annex, and Southern Exposure. He has performed at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and at Washington Square Park in San Francisco, for which he received an Individual Artist Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission in 2007.

In Untitled (Club Lido) collaborators Angelica Muro and Juan Luna-Avin depict the downtown San Jose subcultures at Lido Night Club. While San Jose has large Vietnamese and Mexican populations, these two groups rarely interact. At Lido Night Club, however, Vietnamese performers entertain weekend crowds upstairs, while club-goers dance to Mexican banda music downstairs. The club has also become the epicenter of a growing Latin transgender community in San Jose. In their drawings and installation, Muro & Luna-Avin explore and celebrate the unexpected subcultures present in San Jose.

Angelica Muro (www.angelicamuro.net) received her MFA from Mills College in 2005, and a BA in Photography from San Jose State University in 1998. Recent exhibitions include Packing Heat, Slanguage, Wilmington, CA; Better to Die on My Feet, Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA; and INTERSTICE, CAS gallery, Miami, FL. She has been commissioned to create artworks for San Jose’s MACLA, which included digital murals for O’Donnell Park Gardens, and the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Muro’s curatorial projects have been awarded grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation, James Irvine Foundation, and Adobe Youth Voices. She is co-founder, principle, and curator of Space 47 projects, which ran from 2007-2009 in downtown San Jose. Muro teaches Integrated Media and Photography at CSU Monterey Bay in the Visual & Public Art Department.

Juan Luna-Avin is a multi-disciplinary artist inspired by music, youth cultures, subcultures, and his upbringing in Mexico City. He received his MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University and a BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he was an Osher Scholar. Recent awards include a Suzanne Baruch Lewis MFA Grant (2010) and a McNamara Family Creative Arts Grant from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (2009). He has participated in exhibitions locally at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Queen’s Nails Projects, Southern Exposure, and Baer Ridgway Exhibitions. He is a Lecturer at CSU Monterey Bay in the Visual & Public Art Department.

Favianna Rodriguez’ DREAMers, which includes two linoleum block prints and a video, exposes the stories of undocumented youth and their complicated relationship to the DREAM Act, legislation that would allow undocumented youth the opportunity to earn legal status if they met certain conditions, including attending college or joining the military. The word “DREAMers” evolved from the ongoing fight to pass this legislation.

In the 11 years since the introduction of the DREAM Act, a powerful youth immigrant social movement has emerged, led by undocumented students who often declare that they are “Undocumented and Unafraid,” shocking even their allies in the pro-migrant field. This courageous rejection of the term “illegal” has created a force of undocumented youth organizers, who lead coordinated campaigns around the country to secure rights for all immigrants.

In the process of making this work, Rodriguez met Julio Salgado, an undocumented, queer, artist activist. Inspired by his story as well as his comic- book style of drawing, Rodriguez and Salgado collaborated. The cartoon figures that comprise the background of the linoleum prints are Julio’s drawings of undocumented youth and the careers they would want to pursue if they had the ability to become legalized citizens.

To learn more about how you can urge President Obama to halt the deportations of immigrant youth, visit the following websites: UnitedWeDream.org; DreamActivist.org; Presente.org; DreamersAdrift.com.

Favianna Rodriguez (www.favianna.com) was named as one of 50 Visionaries who are changing the world by the UTNE Reader in 2008. She has lectured widely on the use of art in civic engagement and the work of artists who, like herself, bridge the community and the museum, and connect the local to the international. Her work has been exhibited locally at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, de Young Museum, Oakland Museum, Intersection for the Arts and nationally at Museo del Barrio, New York; Mexican Fine Arts Center, Chicago; Huntington Museum and Galería Sin Fronteras, Austin, TX; and internationally in Japan, Italy, England, Belgium, and Mexico. Her works appear in collections at Bellas Artes in Mexico City, The Glasgow Print Studio in Scotland, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2003, she co-founded the Taller Tupac Amaru printing studio to foster resurgence in screenprinting. She is co-founder of the EastSide Arts Alliance and Visual Element, both programs dedicated to training young artists in the tradition of muralism. She is also co-founder/president of Tumis Inc., a bilingual design studio helping to integrate art with emerging technologies.

Lordy Rodriguez writes, “There is something inherently American or Western with the terms Chico and Chang. They’re like cultural equivalents to a Taco Bell or Panda Express, where the cultural origination is obvious but seen as American when placed in their ‘homeland.’” To play with the tension between location, culture and language, the arist created fictional maps of Chico’s America and Chang’s America, with the “locations” referencing the top 10 Asian and Latino neighborhoods in America. Even though these neighborhoods are predominantly Asian or Latino, their names, like Rockdale Estates in Miami (38.5% Latino) or Mission Hills-Vineyards North in Fremont (74.6% Asian) lack any cultural connection to their populations. The opposite is true in well-known immigrant neighborhoods like the Mission District in San Francisco and the multitude of Chinatowns across the US, where the cultural representations remain strong but the neighborhood populations do not. The color patterns in Rodriguez’s maps relate back to those cultural connotations. For example, in Chang’s America, the red and yellow reference the Chinese flag, the gray is from the color of the Mao suit, and the purple represents death in many east Asian countries. In Chico’s America, the red, green, and white are from the Mexican flag, the orange relates to migrant workers, and beige is often used as a gang color.

Lordy Rodriguez (www.hosfeltgallery.com) was born in the Philippines, raised in Louisiana and Texas, and currently lives in Hayward, CA. He obtained his BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York and his MFA at Stanford University. Recent exhibitions include The Map is Not the Territory at Hosfelt Gallery, New York (2011), Surface Depths at Nevada Art Museum (2009), States of America at Austin Museum of Art (2009), 10th Annual Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2007), The California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art (2006), and 25: A Quarter Century of New Art in Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2004).

Through manipulation of scale, Tracey Snelling creates worlds that simultaneously reference real places while invoking archetypal ideas of place. Drawing upon recent trips and residencies in China and Mexico, Mexicalichina is a hybridized world that combines public street elements that characterize both countries, including billboards, signs, architecture, and props. As immigration continues to change the face of the United States, Snelling’s work documents how communities throughout California look and feel, from East Los Angeles to East Oakland, Monterey Park to the Mission District.

Tracey Snelling (www.traceysnelling.com) received her BFA from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and currently lives and works in the Bay Area. Her work has been exhibited at numerous museums including Gemeentemuseum Helmond, the Netherlands; PS1 MOMA, NY; Frist Museum, Nashville, TN; Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; The Museum of Arts and Design, NY. She has had solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. as well as in China, Belgium, the Netherlands, and England. Travelling extensively for exhibitions and research, Snelling’s exploration of China began with a three- month residency and solo exhibition at Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing in 2009. She returned to China a year later when selected for a residency with the Shanghai Zendai MOMA at their museum in Zhujiajiao. Her latest research trip to Mexico explored Tijuana and its Chinese community.

When artist Charlene Tan was 14 years old, her family recieved a traditional Chinese-style table as a gift from a friend. She writes, “We swooned because my family had just bought a new home and we needed furniture. As we unpacked the table piece-by-piece my younger brother and I noticed handprints in dust on the finished surfaces…Then, we saw small handprints in wood stain and shellac. Our hearts sank when we realized the hands smaller than ours built our table. Silent anger laced with guilt took over; we could be these unknown workers.”

Silent Labor recreates this poignant chilhood discovery into a sculptural artwork. In using a mirror to reveal the otherwise hidden powdery handmarks underneath the table, Chan implicates our own relationship to the objects we buy and the hidden labor involved in creating everyday things. The artists writes, “It is much harder to sell anything if people know that laborers are treated unfairly, and are unwilling to recognize the consequences of injustice. Yet we live in a time that chooses to ignore a growing population of unjustly treated laborers…We are surrounded by the labor of silenced individuals who live in our world, our communities, and our neighborhoods; can we live in environments saturated in injustice, in which we are passive oppressors of a silent population?”

Charlene Tan was born in Houston, Texas and spent her childhood in Manila, Philippines and San Francisco. She received her BA in Contemporary Art History from San Francisco Art Institute in 2010 and has been consistently active in the local arts community for many years - volunteering, interning, and working at local museums and galleries. She has exhibited locally at Ampersand International Arts, Intersection for the Arts, Southern Exposure, Root Division, and others.

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San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art 560 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
tel 408 283 8155 www.sjica.org

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The group exhibition, You Are Breathing In It! Alternative Art Practices, is an...

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:00:00 -0400

The group exhibition, You Are Breathing In It! Alternative Art Practices, is an investigation of alternative artistic processes in contemporary art, highlighting artists from: Riverside; Los Angeles; San Jose; Chicago; Tijuana, Mexico; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The exhibition features photographs, installations, films, music, drawings, and sculptures. This groundbreaking exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum examines and redefines the concept and space of the ‘artist’s studio’ as a unique platform for developing dialogues, relationships, and greater community involvement through questions relating to: public space, education, civic engagement, violence, identity, and community. While many situate the site of artistic production in a traditional studio art space, these artists redefine the concept and use the streets, apartments/homes, nightclubs, or vehicles. Other artists in the exhibition appropriate spaces such as restaurants, storefronts, and other public spaces of gathering to make art, intervene, and lead discussions.

An expansive two-gallery exhibition with ongoing activities and companion events, You Are Breathing In it! presents a selection of varied and interactive media that travel far beyond the realm of formal aesthetics. The underlying objective of the works in the exhibit is to serve as a vehicle for engaging discussion, diversification, and cultivating meaningful relationships and experiences in an art context that is at once playful and commanding. Accompanying events and activities during the exhibition’s run will include: student-led discussions with Puerto Rican artist Christopher Rivera and his co-curatorial-based project, “Cave In,” that showcased artists inside a cave; a student-based curatorial internship project; art, writing, and performance workshops, such as Evelyn Serranos’ collective, NOMAD Lab, a community-based art project which designs and implements free art workshops that address the rise in criminal activity; a film screening and panel discussion by Tijuana-based media art collective Bulbo and their appropriation of a space and the twelve-step program format of the Alcoholics Anonymous group to lead discussions; an interactive mural hosted by Mobile Mural Lab; We Woke The World Festival, a living monument to the many faces of liberty, initiated by Ari Kletzky and centered on a participatory sing-along of a historic Suffragist-era song; an interactive listening workshop by Elana Mann based on her project in collaboration with musician Juliana Snapper, The People’s Microphony Camerata (PMC), an experimental choir exploring ideas of listening through sound, voice, and body.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Bulbo

Juan Angel Chavez

Radames “Juni” Figueroa 

Cynthia Herrera

Ari Kletzky 

Juan Luna-Avin

Elana Mann

Mobile Mural Lab 

Angelica Muro 

Evelyn Serrano & NOMAD Lab 

Martin Sanchez *

*Site-specific outdoor installation by Martin Sanchez, Riverside based artist and founder of Tio’s Tacos

Curated by: Karla Diaz

Karla Diaz is a celebrated curator, artist, writer, and co-director of Slanguage Studio, an artist space and art collective based out of Wilmington, California. Diaz has presented work and coordinated exhibits at renowned local venues, including: The Getty Museum, MOCA, and LACMA, as well as internationally, throughout Spain, Egypt, and Mexico.

You Are Breathing In It! Opening Reception:

July 14, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Free and Open to the Public
No-host bar provided by Hangar 24, Free Art Activities, and Live Music on the Rooftop from 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., featuring:

8pm - Basque
https://www.facebook.com/basquebandla

9pm - Cochinas
https://www.facebook.com/cochinas

The opening reception for the You Are Breathing In It! exhibition will be complemented with a collaborative mural workshop led by Mobile Mural Lab. Artists Roberto Del Hoyo and David Russell will lead youth through an all-day collaborative mural painted on their van, as well as an interactive digital projection onto the front of the museum.

http://www.riversideartmuseum.org/

Photo

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 02:23:07 -0400