#carolyn castano

[cmonstah]

"I remember talking to [curator] Rita Gonzalez around the time of 'Phantom Sightings' and describing it as 'Mango Modernism.' I’m, like, give me something with color and a mango print and it makes me happy. But it was also a political move against the hegemony of black and white."

A detail of Carolyn Castaño's "Mantel," 2022. On view in the solo exhibition, "Future Ruana," at Walter Maciel Gallery through Oct. 29, 2022.

Photo by me. My Q&A with Carolyn in the L.A. Times can be found here.

[chicanoartmovement]

CHICANO ART MOVEMENT visits: OCMA Expand Season 4 (Pandemic 2020)

CAM:

Since March 2020, California passed COVID mandates, protocols, and regulations to provide health safety to its residents which at times closed art institutions for long periods and then later, gave permission to those institutions to reopen with strict guidelines for establishments and guests, alike. Taking advantage of the modified rules and following our own safety procedures, a trip was taken in November 2020 to Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) Expansion Santa Ana site.

The timing of this opportunity was ideal since I felt safe to venture out of my home for an art activity at OCMA as part of my self-care routine since seeing works in person was my preferred method compared to the virtual & digital programming provided during the mandated stay-at-home orders. Plus visiting the location would allow the experience to be filled with nostalgia of the cultural visits before the time of the pandemic.

In the case of OCMA, their social media campaigns communicated about their exhibitions at the Expansion Site while the permanent location is being constructed a few blocks east. From the OCMA Expand Season 4 roster, we were interested in being active art patrons and providing support during, what would be, our final museum visit under pandemic conditions in the year of 2020.

During the time of our visit, OCMA’s website stated their response to COVID-19 included mask requirements, reduced capacity measures, and a limited number of staff to manage the establishment. For CAM, our prevention measures were updated to include research about said institution and the local health patterns with the goal of minimizing the time spent on the premises.

(OCMA advisory & rules at entrance.)

On a Sunday afternoon in November, the OCMA doors opened to a staff member in a mask behind the front desk plexiglass partition, welcoming visitors on this day. The compliance by staff and the clearly visible list of rules provided me with the reassurance to continue forward. And after waving hello, I was pulled to the lobby for a moment of window shopping by the brightly colored merchandise by the Grant Love Project pop-up shop.

To the right, OCMA proudly displayed in large set typography the list of participating artists and beckoned patrons to walk to the works by Mayrose Cobarrubias Mendoza. This Filipino-American artist used different examples of ceramics, sculptures, and scales to bring Navigating Techniques to represent the relationships between colonization, power, and education. In the piece titled “Territorial Pissing” created in 2019, the museum information card states: “Mendoza reproduces in 1/7 scale the chairs in the Roosevelt Room at the White House and places them around a stack of books acting as the conference table. Though she miniaturizes the seats of authority into toy-like objects, even at this scale the chairs exudes power. The title Territorial Pissings is borrowed from a Nirvana song in which the repetitious refrain ‘gotta find a way, a better way’ reflects the Mendoza’s feeling of frustrated determination to retell Filipino history.”

In the time that I dedicated to analyze the miniature work of chairs conferenced around the book embossed with History: Limited Edition, it connected me the traditional thought of people in power are those who write history to control the present as well as the countless examples of artistic resistance by communities of color, like Cobarrubias Mendoza, who testify about the harsh realities of erasure, discrimination, racism, and the people’s determination towards equality & equity.

As I walked through this first floor that housed Cobarrubias Mendoza’s Navigating Techniques, I focused on two works, “Raft” & “Study II,” that complimented each other and could easily be located in a school classroom helping students find methods to express their creativity. “Raft” built in 2018 out of paper, gouache, cardboard, and spray paint was an enlarged paper boat made with lined sheets with “Study II” on the back wall was an exquisite example of Cobarrubias Mendoza’s chalk usage that was fill with intricacies giving an impasto appearance of ocean waves captivated and transported me to the beautiful Southern California Pacific coastline, riding the tides on “Raft” crafted by the artist.

(“Study II” 2018; chalk, acrylic, wood - Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza.)

Leaving the first floor to the upper level, I paused for a moment on the second floor landing to adjust my facemask and glasses to wipe down the condensation to prevent further spectacle fog up before entering the next space. I ventured directly across and stepped into the artwork of Noé Martínez. Guest curator Ruth Estevez wrote that Martínez’s The Homeland of Images exhibition is an examination of “the power relationships that began with human trafficking during the era of the Spanish Viceory in Mexico in the sixteenth century” which includes depictions of “the physical and psychololigical traumas of enslavement and brings to light the unexpected encounters enslaved people from the Carribbean had with Spanish and indigenous Mexican culture.”

Some pieces within this collection were large sheets of paper with Noé Martínez’s rendering of the horrific realities of colonialism and conquest that occurred in Mexico’s Huastec region as well as recognizing the dehumanization of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. While analyzing the piece entitled “El Intruso” (the Intruder) and how the sculpture was of branding iron reproductions to expose the audience of brutality used on enslaved people and the generational impacts it created.

(Detailed view of “El intruso” by Noé Martínez.)

During my last look of all the work by Noé Martínez, particularly with his text in Huasteca Nahuatl, I could not escape from connecting his work to the current social political climate and the need of creating critical consciousness amongst all for the betterment of humankind.

The next point of interaction at OCMA was the exhibition to the right by Carolyn Castaño titled “Cali es Cali” that was very appealing due to its concepts of family, memory, and culture with small touches of mid-century modernism. Of Colombian heritage, Castaño’s pieces welcomed the audience to see her familia’s journey of immigrating to Los Angeles, California and feel the cultural traditions. Her textile piece “Ruana” made of wool in 2020 encapsulated the orgullo & history of Colombia through heritage and fashion reflected in this mixed marigold hue poncho. Overall, Castaño’s assemblage of paintings, ephemera, contemporary art, and heirlooms provided many points for the audience to connect to the various components of the family structure.

(“Ruana” by Carolyn Castaño for “Cali es Cali” exhibition.)

Across from Castaño’s exhibition and to close the visit, I looked through the glass windows on the second floor to see up on an exterior wall of OCMA was the pink and blue neon light art installation by Alexandra Grant. With her handcrafted piece titled “I was born to love,” Grant encouraged one to consider oneself equal to others which invoked me to think about self love and respect to fellow humans, sentiments that are extremely valuable. 

(View of Alexandra Grant & her “I was born to love” pieces.)

After taking a mental inventory of what I saw, it was time to depart OCMA and it was good timing since more people were being allowed into the establishment in small batches. Before leaving the doors of OCMA, I recalled positive memories from today’s visual stimulation in a physical area before re-entering the real world and continuing to practice social distancing while waiting for things to get better.

Unfortunately a few days after our visit, cases in California rose dramatically, triggering OCMA and other establishments to temporarily close “to support the effort[s] to contain the spread of COVID-19” and at the present, this museum remains inaccessible to the public.

[polkadotmotmot]

Carolyn Castano - Valley of the Sun, 2019

[dupaulart]

Pretty Big Things

Curated by Brenda G. Williams

Artist Opening Reception:

Date: Saturday, November 10th

Time: 4-8pm

Participating artists:

Duane Paul

Lavialle Campbell

Martin Durazo

Carolyn Castano

Lisa Soloman

Lava Thomas

Walter Maciel Gallery

www.waltermacielgallery.com

2642 s. la cienega blvd.

los angeles, ca 90034

310 839 1840

https://www.facebook.com/events/548332635607780/

Artist Opening Reception:

Date: Saturday, November 10th ,

Time: 4-6pm

Pretty is defined as being attractive in a delicate way. Big connotes a considerable size or intensity. Thing is an object that often has no specific identity but for this exhibition the thing is art.

Pretty Big Things represents the energy of optimism and possibility while embracing beauty, meditation and positive anticipation. After a couple of tumultuous and emotional years in our political spectrum, the desire to experience the simple joy and satisfaction of engaging art work becomes the focus of this exhibition putting aside our thoughts of despair, revolt, anger and fear.

The selection of artworks by six California-based artists generates a conversation of personal intent and working styles that will hopefully result in a movement of high optimism, reflection, action and mobilization for change as a way to empower our community.

[femmesfollesnebraska]

#whyilovewomenartists: Association of Hysteric Curators

Just writing a post to honor/appreciate the Association of Hysteric Curators <3.  Below a selection of art by their current members. All text from  https://www.hystericcurators.com/.

The Association of Hysteric Curators (AHC) envelops a fluid, evolving, trans-generational group of feminist who gather to discuss contemporary feminism and the historicity of the term. 

Lili Bernard.  Detail of Ain’t Funny Crucifix, 2014. 96″x72″x36″, Purple Sugar Cane, Conga Drum, Nails, Rope, Acrylic Paint, Watermelon Seeds, Digital Photograph, 96″x72″x36″ We seek to explore notions of female protest and the presence of gendered articulations through a non-hierarchical structure based in dialogue and exchange. As we honor the lineage of feminist models, we dare to envision a future of human equality, knowing we must interrogate the customs of today in order to enable conditions for change. As a working model, we understand that democratic consensus is slow and laborious in comparison to the type of fast paced and often decentralized systems found today. The reduced pace of our methodology allows for ideas to ebb and flow through on-going conversations aimed at process over product.

Carolyn Castaño: Narco Venus, painting We are invitational and open, focused on explorations of female power through vistas of holes, blanks, ruptures, and catastrophes. As an agent of chaos and change, we posit our curatorial agenda as a figurative fault line; our research a body of water formed in a valley between two plates; our legacy the large-scale lateral movement along hundreds of miles of the fault: watch us as we spread and break down barriers, expanding and amplifying our space in society.​​

Cindy Rehm: She Divines Water, drawing

(Cindy was featured on LFF in 2014!)

...So much fabulous work by this collective I may have to do another post later this week with more of their work...stay tuned.

~

Les Femmes Folles is a volunteer organization founded in 2011 with the mission to support and promote women in all forms, styles and levels of art from around the world with the online journal, print annuals, exhibitions and events; originally inspired by artist Wanda Ewing and her curated exhibit by the name Les Femmes Folles (Wild Women). LFF was created and is curated by Sally Deskins.  LFF Booksis a micro-feminist press that publishes 1-2 books per year by the creators of Les Femmes Folles including the award-winning Intimates & Fools (Laura Madeline Wiseman, 2014) , The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales (Laura Madeline Wiseman/Lauren Rinaldi, 2015 and Mes Predices (catalog of art/writing by Marie Peter Toltz, 2017).Other titles include Les Femmes Folles: The Women 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 available on blurb.com, including art, poetry and interview excerpts from women artists. A portion of the proceeds from LFF books and products benefit the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Wanda Ewing Scholarship Fund.https://www.facebook.com/femmesfolles/ instagram: @lesfemmesfollesart femmesfollesnebraska.tumblr.com lesfemmesfollesbooks.tumblr.com

[artpadsf]

Carolyn Castaño

Narco Venus (Angie), 2011     

acrylic, glitter and mixed media on canvas 69" x 141 1/2"

Courtesy of the artist and Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles

Work by this artist will be available at ArtPadSF 2013