#Sexypink/Luis Vasquez La Roche

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                                        Luis Vasquez La Roche

Happy to finally see this work realized. @maripari9 and I have been talking about it since 2019.

 Through pandemics / zoom meetings / really short visits to @maripari9 studio in VA. Glad to see it in New York (@cueart )and Kassel at the same time. (@documentafifteen )  

Repost @maripari9 “En Función del Interes Nacional” (In Function of National Interest) made in collaboration with @vasquezlaroche is a series of six screen printed light boxes. 

These two are currently up on view at @cueart until September 2nd! The screen-printed surfaces depict iconic logos from Venezuelan companies that were expropriated during the regime of the former president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and current President Nicolas Maduro. 

Through the works, we consider the way that products and their branding are an integral part of national identity as it has been built over the past few decades. Through the use of cardboard, we make reference to the distribution of products, particularly to the way many of these Venezuelan goods are no longer made in Venezuela and many Venezuelans travel to other countries to find traditionally Venezuelan products. On top of the screen printed logos are laser cutouts of images of Simon Bolivar, known as the liberator. 

The images are taken from Venezuelan currency called the Bolívar which has reached record-breaking high levels of inflation. Seen as a series, racialized differences in the representations of Simon Bolivar become apparent. His image and association with liberty are used as a political tool for garnering support. 

Multimedia components including LED taxi/rideshare lights reading “libre” (free), can be seen through the cutouts in the cardboard. Through their various layers, the works draw connections between the use of the notion of liberty as a political tool from the colonial times of Simon Bolivar all the way to contemporary times of globalized neoliberal markets and economies. They ask audiences to consider the meaning of and access to liberty and authoritarianism across political spectrums.

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It is always a wonderful moment when Artists share their good news. It becomes a celebration of all things Caribbean ~ sexypink

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I am happy to share that I will be joining the School of Art at George Mason University in Virginia as a Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Studio Arts. I will be moving from Trinidad to VA next year.Excited and looking forward to join the team @gmusoa 

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                                       Luis Vasquez La Roche

Subversive Media: Materiality and Power, on view in @secondstreetgallery Main Gallery.  Curated by @hccurates 

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                 Luis Vasquez La Roche featured at Documenta 15

read more here-:https://documenta-fifteen.de/en/lumbung-members-artists/alice-yard/

andhere -: https://documenta-fifteen.de/en/calendar/how-to-jump-the-rope-the-right-way/

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Luis Vasquez La Roche on his experimental Performance....I cover myself in gunpowder, palm oil and lemon juice and I brush and wipe my skin until my “epidermis glistened like a newly-blacked boot”. 

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~Sexypink~  Happy Emancipation Day! Read another conversation in the Q&A series. In his exchange with Marsha Pearce, artist Luis Vasquez La Roche reflects on capitalism, labour, racism and exploitation. Learn about the role of performance art in his evolving practice and his use of palm oil – a material tied to the history of slavery. Vasquez La Roche also adds his thoughts to ongoing conversations about monuments. Read the conversation here: https://bit.ly/2D00t2X

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~Sexypink~ The Performance work of Luis Vasquez La Roche. Richmond Slave Trail.  I see this piece on several levels. The 'alien' in ones own country....the explorer and now, the covid-19 future. I have always loved the Astronaut.

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From Luis’s Facebook page on the Performance

I have this long document where that I edit very often. I usually write in it moments I have experienced prejudice or racism. Yesterday, walking down the street on my way home on Jackson Ward, which is a historically Black district, I saw something that made me feel uneasy. I was standing in the corner waiting for the light to change. I was looking at the cars pass by, and inside one of the cars there was a white woman driving while making a finger gun. Windows down, she was pointing at the houses on the opposite side of the street from where I was and shooting at anything on her path. Along her path of finger shooting, there was  Black couple walking down the street.—I woke up with this image on repeat.—My bed is right next to a window. To feel the sun hit my face in the morning makes me smile

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Sexypink 2013 review - Paul Anthony Smith (JAMAICA) Ken Doorson (SURINAME) Kelly Sinnapah (GUADELOUPE) Ebony Patterson (JAMAICA) Marvin Bartley (JAMAICA) Camille King (T&T) Christopher Cozier (T&T) Luis Vasquez La Roche (VENEZUALA) Marcio Diaz (NICARAGUA)