las morras on Vimeo.

POSTBORDER at Plaza de la Raza

POSTBORDER PROPOSALS / PROPUESTAS POSTFRONTERIZAS

Opening Reception on May 9, 2009, 4:00pm

Exhibition runs May 1-23, 2009

Plaza de la Raza, Boathouse Gallery, 3540 North Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA 90031

POSTBORDER PROPOSALS / PROPUESTAS POSTFRONTERIZAS is a convening of artists working on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border as well as young artists from as far away as the Middle East. Their work considers the complex dynamics of border areas and liminal spaces, and engages the experience of displacement and immigration. The works in this art exhibition provide a doorway into cultural, sociological, and geographic spaces marked by hybridity and proposal that move away from the simple binaries by immigration and foreign policy and essentialist platforms.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND COLLECTIVES:
AjA Project
Boredom Patrol (C.I.R.C.A./San Diego)
Colectivo La Linea
Ingrid Hernandez
Esteban Martinez
Juana Meneses
Roberto Romero-Molina
Omar Pimienta
Evelyn Serrano

The exhibition will take place at Plaza de la Raza’s iconic Boathouse Gallery. In addition to the gallery hours noted above, the exhibition will be open to the public during and after all performances of the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Youth Theater Program “behind barbed wire” at the Margo Albert Theater in Plaza de la Raza (for information about these performances please contact Plaza de la Raza at 323.223.2475)

This exhibition is hosted by Plaza de la Raza and the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP). All Boathouse Gallery programs are supported in part by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
www.plazadelaraza.org
www.calarts.edu/cap

ABOUT THE ARTISTS AND COLECTIVES:

AjA Project was founded to empower refugee youth to use photography and other media arts to share their stories, gain self esteem, and build leadership skills, thereby helping them to create better opportunities for their futures. Based in San Diego, The AjA Project currently operates three international programs and a traveling exhibition of work from these programs.

Boredom Patrol (Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army/San Diego): “We are Clowns because what else can one be on the edge of the nation state. Because nothing undermines the border like holding it up to ridicule. Because since the conquest tricksters have embraced the contradictions of inclusion and exclusion, creating coherence through confusion. Because in the face of fascism we are fools, both fearsome and innocent, wise and stupid, entertainers and dissenters, healers and laughing stocks, scapegoats and subversives.”

La Lìnea Interdisciplinario is a collective of six women writers and artists traversing the US/Mexico borderlandia. We promote the work of women artists in Tijuana and San Diego through public readings, performances and workshops. As an international group from Mexico and the U.S., we confront the clash of meanings and values between the first and third world. We feel that by considering positions of power adjoining international borders we reveal the interconnectedness of issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. We employ these dynamic questions in our interventions across geography and translation.

Ingrid Hernandez studied sociology at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and obtained a Masters Degree on Environmental Management from the colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana. In addition, Hernandez has participated in classes and workshops on art, social science and research in different cities throughout the world. She has received several grants, awards, and has been selected to participate in artist residency programs. Her work has been exhibited in exhibitions in Germany, the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia.

Esteban Martinez is attracted to concepts of exposure, transparency and the perverse in a surveyed/voyeuristic culture. His most recent project examines and defies the technological surveillance growth at the San Diego/Tijuana border. Martinez received his BA in Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine. He will soon be completing his MFA from the University of California, San Diego.

Juanita Meneses was born was in Caracas, Venezuela and spent her formative years in Bogotá, Colombia. Her work has to do with invasion, destruction and politics and how these forces are shaping our landscapes and lives today. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in May of 2006 and her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. She has exhibited in Lisbon, Madrid, Bogotá, Miami, New York, Chicago, and in Los Angeles where she currently lives.
Robert Romero-Molina was born in National City, CA and has lived, studied and worked in the U.S. and Mexico for the last 37 years. He has studied architecture, art, graphic design and is the co-founder of the Safenet Marketing Agency. He currently works at Estudio Sierra Circular and exhibits and lectures about his work on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.

Omar Pimienta (Tijuana-San Diego) is an interdisciplinary artist who uses the lens of personal-geography while working with media such as photography, video, installations, and text, among others, in order to explore social landscapes, collective and individual histories, and the spaces within/between the imagination and the image. He received his B.A in Latin American Studies from San Diego State University in 2006, and is currently an MFA candidate in the Visual Arts department at the University of California, San Diego. He has published two books of poetry, Primera Persona Ella (Ediciones de La Esquina, 2004) and La Libertad: Ciudad de Paso (CECUT, 2006), which has recently been re-edited by Aullido Libros (Huelva, Spain).

Evelyn Serrano is a Cuban interdisciplinary artist, educator, independent curator, community organizer, and mother currently living in Los Angeles County, California. Serrano obtained her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and her MFA from CalArts. She has exhibited her work in many solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally and has organized and curated exhibitions and events throughout the United States as well as in Montevideo, Tel Aviv, Tijuana, and La Habana. Serrano currently teaches at the CalArts School of Art and the School of Theater, and has lectured and led workshops at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, the CEART in Mexicali, the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, the University of Texas in Dallas, and the Instituto Superior de Diseño Industrial in La Habana. She is also the Assistant Director of Programs at the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP). Her work as artist, educator and arts administrator focuses on context-specific practices that advance the impact of the arts as a tool for social change.

CONTACT
Evelyn Serrano, Organizer and CAP Assistant Director of Program
eserrano@calarts.edu
661.755.6974

Maria Jimenez Torres, Education Director, Plaza de la Raza
maria.jimenez@plazadelaraza.org
323.223.2475

Gallery Hours: 10am-7pm (m-f) and 9am-3pm (sat.)