Make ‘Em All Mexican
University Art Gallery
New Mexico State University
Las Cruzes, New Mexico
October 25-December 21, 2013
Curator Statement
Gordon Fuglie, Central California Museum of Art
“Amidst the roiling national debate about American identity, veteran California Latina artist Linda Vallejo creates a realm in which US popular culture is overlain with a Mexican-American sensibility. Gleefully raiding the world of classic commercial images of middle class WASP life, Vallejo gives common American icons a new ‘sabor’ or flavor. The result is the satirical series: Make ‘Em All Mexican.”
Armando Durón, Collector
“Vallejo’s art causes one to wonder at its effectiveness in calling us to question the premises upon which we have built our lives as middle-class professionals. In Make ‘Em All Mexican we find albums of recovered memory revised to make us realize just how ephemeral our lifestyle is—and just how deep runs our fear that we might not ever fully arrive into the dominant narrative of American success, a fear that was seared into us through the onslaught of popular images that never truly reflected our culture; that never allowed us to fully see ourselves in those happy portraits of success and beauty represented by those smart clothes, those ceramic cherubs, those beautiful movie stars.”
Make ‘Em All Mexican: Repurposed Art, KRWG Radio Interview with Linda Vallejo, by Emily Guerra, Las Cruces, New Mexico, December 14, 2013
NMSU Hosts Art Exhibition That Sparks Discussion on Race, The Roundup, by Tara Melton, New Mexico State University, New Mexico, November 15, 2013
Exhibition invitation