Women Artists on Immigration:
Crossing Borders, Confronting Barriers, Bridging Identities
Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles
Curated by Alma Lopez, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
Los Angeles, CA
February 20—March 7, 2009
Artists included: Mariana Barnes, Yvonne Beatty, Alejandra Chaverri, Ching-Ching Cheng, Gilda Davidian, Cosette Dudley, Dwora Fried, Shelley Gazin, Elizabeth Gomez, Becky Guttin, Jennifer Maria Harris, Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Judy Johnson-Williams, Niku Kashef, Arzu Arda Kosar, Gul Cagin, Patricia Krebs, Alexia Kutzner, Li’n Lee, Lynn E Letterman, Viviana Lombrozo, Poli Marichal, Michelle Montjoy, Carol Nye, Amparo J. Ochoa, Priscilla Otani, Larisa K. Pilinsky, Sinan Leong Revell, Patricia Rodriguez, Sandy Rodriguez, Ann Storc, Yuriko Takata, Luz Tapia, Tate Sisters, Linda Vallejo, Alicia Villegas, Sama Wareh, Sarah Wilkinson, and Holly Wong.
Artist Statement:
Immigration USA, a recycled newspaper collage, unites images of the 2005 immigrant and worker walk-out and march as portrayed in the Los Angeles Times. The collage includes images of American civil rights abuses, victims, heroes, and triumphs. Heroes include Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Martin Luther King, Rodney King, Joan Baez in free speech movement, Chicano civil rights marchers, the students that lost their lives in the Kent State uprising, as well as slaves and farmworkers. These images create a montage of the history of the civil rights movement in our country and draw attention to our common rights and needs.
Alma Lopez, Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) stated, “The struggle for legalization is vividly expressed in Linda Vallejo’s Immigration USA (2008): immigrants march, united by a common cause, accompanied by words such as “Hope and Desperation” and “One March, Many Journeys.” This work captures the aspirations of millions who want to live in this country without fear of the authorities.”
William Moreno essay:
What makes Linda Vallejo’s art so compelling and relevant to contemporary life? For one, her broad command of a variety of mediums: painting, sculpture and site-specific installations are all within her prolific oeuvre. There is nearly something for everyone. Ms. Vallejo’s interests and subject-matter spans are considerable. Themes of beauty, consumption, war, excess, world pollution, iconic references to international indigenous peoples and earth-based installations all reside in her works.
Ms. Vallejo, a resident of Topanga Canyon, California, has a natural affinity and bond with the natural world and that connection is reflected in her ethereal works. Her paintings of surreal, electrified and transformed landscapes suggest a more vibrant and alluring reality. Color and energy swirl throughout the canvasses and transport you into her alternative world. Her work is not held hostage by fashion or trend – rather she is a singular voice with apparitions all her own. Such visualizations and the tactile nature of the work resonate in a contemporary and abstracted world – we crave the “here, now and hope” of a less complicated life. No commitments are implied in her work, but rather veiled assurances and alternatives. Such well-composed and thoughtful gestures seem hard to come by in our image and information-saturated lives. Ms. Vallejo’s posture is one of deep concern and commitment.
Work included:
Immigration USA, 2008
Newspaper, Mylar, Wite-Out, pigment prints of images from the internet
and of original paintings
23 x 60 in.
from the collection of Brenda Chavez
Censored Press release Juror’s statement Exhibition invitation