Carmen Argote

Last updated

Carmen Argote (born 1981) is a Los Angeles-based artist. She hails from Guadalajara. She is known for performance art and sculpture. Her work has been included in exhibitions and museum collections, including the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Orange County Museum of Art and the National Museum of Mexican Art. [1] She was a recipient of the Artadia Award in 2019, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation YoYoYo Grant in 2015, and a California Community Foundation Emerging Artist Grant in 2013. In 2016, the LA Weekly named Argote their "Best Up and Coming Artist". [2]

Contents

Early life

Argote's family moved to Los Angeles, CA from Guadalajara, Mexico when she was five years old. [3] She attended community college near her home where she took her first art class and soon realized that art was what she wanted to pursue. [3] The reason for her exploration of the "notion of home" came about after her father decided to return to Mexico when she was seventeen in order to build a home for his family. This experience led to Argote's ongoing artwork, “If only it were that easy…(2018)”. [4]

Argote attended the University of California, Los Angeles where she received her BA in 2004 and her MFA in 2007. [5] [6] She was an "Artists in Residence" at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine during 2009. [5]

Career

Growing up in two countries created a mixed identity for Argote. Her art allowed her to incorporate her notions of home from Mexico into those of the United States by using reminders of her home in Guadalajara such as paintings, textiles and photographs. Her artwork combines the home and the immigrant experience through the use of personal objects. [5]

Work

Argote's artwork often revolves around Los Angeles. Her art focuses on combining architecture with the personal and using her surroundings her to tell her story. She explains her immigrant experience and how those surroundings create a sense of belonging and a notion of home. [7] She demonstrates her personal stories, and works with others to create a larger vision.

Argote was commissioned to create public art for the Metro Expo Line Station at 17th and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica. [8] She uses materials that range from fiberglass to coffee pots or manta rays to produce photographs, sculptures and exhibits. [9] Argote forms connections among our surroundings to expand beyond the individual to explore how we inhabit these spaces. [10] These distinct landscapes create stories and narratives either from the past or present that can be felt through the body. Her work is featured in the collection of Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida.

Major works

If only it were that easy…, 18th Street Arts Center Artist Lab, Santa Monica, CA

When Carmen Argote's father returned to Mexico he traveled on a California Moto Guzzi V11 EV motorcycle. [4] This memory never left Argote's mind. When she visited her father she saw his motorcycle and realized the connection it had with her. She explains how riding the motorcycle back to where her father left would help her heal the pain from abandonment. She called out to artists who ride or have ridden motorcycles in order to learn how to ride the bike and understand the relationship it has with the rider. They gathered in Griffith Park and set up a system to speak with each other while riding that allowed those nearby to hear the conversation and learn what the riders were thinking about without necessarily riding the bikes themselves. This project helps explain the relationship that riders have with their bikes and how they inhabit each space that they reach. Her project culminates when she is able to bring her father's bike from Mexico to Los Angeles. This will allow her to understand her father's experience and journey and to interpret it through her body.

Filtration System for a Process Based Practice

The materials featured in this exhibition include linen, fiberglass, cotton rope, and unique articles. [11] Her inspiration came from Lincoln Park, near the neighborhood she grew up in. She used to could go there to reflect and consider the inequalities that exist nearby. The work is 5 feet tall. Argote designed it after a mound in Lincoln Park Lake. Argote used the tall piece as an island in her studio, and located a cover underneath where paint drips would fall. She painted the mound with a variety of colors that reminded her of her visits to the park. The cover in the end was used to cover the piece to symbolize the mound at the lake that covered what was underneath.

Exhibitions

Argote has solo and group exhibitions beginning in 2004. Notably:

Solo exhibitions [12]

  1. As Above, So Below, New Museum, New York, NY
  2. Nutrition For A Better Life (Compre Chatarra), Istanbul, Turkey
  3. Manéjese Con Cuidado, PAOS, Guadalajara, Mexico
  1. Deterioro y Poder, Instituto de Vision, Bogota, Colombia
  2. Pyramids, Panel LA, Los Angeles, CA
  1. Alex's Room, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA
  2. Mansion Magnolia, Shulamit Nazarian, Venice, CA
  1. My father's side of Home, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA
  1. 720 Sq.ft. Household Mutations, G727, Los Angeles, CA

Group exhibitions [12]

  1. Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
  2. Pacific Standard Time Performance Festival, REDCAT, Los Angeles,
  3. The House Imaginary, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
  1. Monarchs, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
  2. Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
  1. 5th Chicana/o Biennial, MACLA, San Jose, CA

Recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolanda López</span> Mexican-American painter and activist (1942–2021)

Yolanda Margarita López was an American painter, printmaker, educator, and film producer. She was known for her Chicana feminist works focusing on the experiences of Mexican-American women, often challenging the ethnic stereotypes associated with them. Lopez was recognized for her series of paintings which re-imagined the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Her work is held in several public collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samella Lewis</span> American art historian (1924–2022)

Samella Sanders Lewis was an American visual artist and art historian. She worked primarily as a printmaker and painter. She has been called the "Godmother of African American Art". She received Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association (CAA) in 2021.

“Art is not a luxury as many people think – it is a necessity. It documents history – it helps educate people and stores knowledge for generations to come.” – Dr. Samella Lewis

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Favianna Rodriguez</span> American artist, activist (b. 1978)

Favianna Rodriguez is an American visual artist, and activist, known for her work in political posters, graphic arts, and public art. Her artwork topics include global politics, economic injustice, interdependence, patriarchy, migration, and sexual liberation. She worked as a director of the National Arts Organization CultureStrike, in which writers, visual artists, and performers engage in migrant rights.

Scott Neri is a Mexican painter, illustrator, designer and short fiction writer. He was the founding member and director of the Guadalajara-based online community for artists Tomarte, and art director of EterUltra Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luchita Hurtado</span> Venezuelan-American artist (1920–2020)

Luchita Hurtado was a Venezuelan-born American painter based in Santa Monica, California, and Arroyo Seco, New Mexico. Born in Venezuela, she moved to the United States as a child. Although she became involved with art after concentrating on the subject in high school and created art over eight decades, she only received broad recognition for her art towards the end of her life. Her work has strong environmental and feminist themes that bridges many genres, bearing influence from different art movements and cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Villegas</span> American artist (born 1977)

Jason Villegas is a San Francisco based contemporary artist. He has exhibited across the United States and internationally. Villegas' work includes sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, textile, video and performance, exploring concepts such as globalism, evolution, sexuality, cosmology, and consumerism. Motifs in Villegas' artworks include fashion logos, animal hybrids, weaponry, sales banners, clothing piles, anuses, cosmic debris, taxidermy, bear men, amorphous beasts, religious iconography, and party scenarios.

Eric Wesley is an American artist. Wesley was born in Los Angeles, California, where he continues to live and work. He has held solo exhibitions in galleries internationally as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Foundation Morra Greco, Naples, Italy.

Jesús Reyes Ferreira, (1880-1977) born José de Jesús Benjamín Buenaventura de los Reyes y Ferreira and also known as Chucho Reyes, was a self-taught artist and antiques/art collector and vendor. Reyes Ferreira began painting on crêpe paper, a delicate material not meant to last, as a way of decorating paper meant to wrap sales from his antiques/art store. The decorated paper became popular enough to be sold on its own. Although he began this activity in Guadalajara, he did not produce the bulk of his work until after he moved to Mexico City when he was 58 years old. Here he continued collecting and selling objects such as colonial art and Mexican handcrafts and folk art, being one of the early exponents for the appreciation of these objects. He also spent several hours a day painting. His work was first exhibited in 1950 with his first individual exhibition in 1967 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes after a half century of painting. As a self-taught painter, his works are relatively simple and often are dismissed as folk painting but they were and his aesthetics were praised by famous artists and architects at the time.

Delilah Montoya is a contemporary American artist and educator who was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and was raised in Omaha, Nebraska, by her Anglo-American father and Latina mother. She earned her BA, MA and MFA from the University of New Mexico. Her art is noted for its exploration of Chicana identity and for innovative printmaking and photographic processes. She is also noted for her use of mixed-media installations and often incorporates iconic religious symbols in her pieces. Montoya attributes the politicization of her work to the formative influence of her upbringing, within the environment that afforded her exposure to pivotal social movements including the Brown Berets, the Civil Rights Movement, and the plight of Mexican migrant workers. Montoya divides her time between Albuquerque and Houston. She taught at the University of New Mexico, Institute of American Indian Arts and California State University before accepting her current position at the University of Houston. She was a 2008 Artadia awardee.

Sonia Amalia Romero is an American artist, she is known for her printmaking, mixed media linocut prints, murals, and public art based in Los Angeles. She is known for depicting Los Angeles, Latin American imagery, and Chicano themes in her work.

Jay Lynn Gomez is an American painter based in West Hollywood, California. Her artwork addresses social justice issues, focusing specifically on topics of immigration, race, and labor. Much of her work highlights the efforts of unseen laborers who maintain landscapes and produce luxury products.

Susana Casillas is a Mexican plastic artist internationally recognized for her portraiture artwork that displays influences of impressionism and figurative art. Her work has been displayed at numerous international art venues in Mexico, the United States, China, and France.

Isabel Castro, also known as Isabel Castro-Melendez, is a Mexican American artist born in Mexico City. She was raised and still resides in Los Angeles, California. Aside from being an artist, Castro's career includes curatorial work, education, journalism and photography.

Beatriz Cortez is a Los Angeles–based artist and scholar from El Salvador. In 2017, Cortez was featured in a science fiction-themed exhibit at University of California, Riverside, and in 2018, her work was shown in the Made in L.A. group artist exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She holds a Ph.D in Latin American Literature from Arizona State University. She also earned an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Cortez currently teaches in the Central American Studies department at California State University, Northridge. According to Cortez, her work explores "simultaneity, life in different temporalities and different versions of modernity, particularly in relation to memory and loss in the aftermath of war and the experience of migration". Cortez has received the 2018 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists, the 2017 Artist Community Engagement Grant, and the 2016 California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists. Beatriz Cortez is represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles.

Brenna Youngblood is an American artist based in Los Angeles who is known for creating photographic collages, sculpture, and paintings. Her work explores issues of African-American identity and representation.

Eugenia Vargas-Pereira is an artist. She was born in Chile and moved to the United States to study art. Vargas also traveled to other countries where she would practice and pursue her art career. Her main areas of study for art were performance and photography. She traveled to countries such as the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Clarissa Tossin (born 1973) is a visual artist from Brazil and based in Los Angeles. Her collaborative, research-based practice develops alternative narratives found in the built environment, using elements of installation, sculpture, and moving image to explore intersections of place, history, and aesthetics.

Pearl C. Hsiung is a Taiwan-born American multi-media artist based in Los Angeles.

Margaret Garcia is a Chicana muralist, educator, and arts-advocate based in Los Angeles.

Esteban Ramón Pérez is an American artist who produces multi-media paintings and sculptures. His sociopolitical artwork often emphasizes subjective memory, spirituality, and fragmented history. Pérez earned a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2017 and an MFA in painting and printmaking from the Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, in 2019. Pérez's work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, including shows at Artspace, New Haven, Connecticut; Eastern Connecticut State University Art Gallery, Windham, Connecticut; Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn; James Cohan Gallery, New York; Gamma Galería, Guadalajara, Mexico; Calderón, New York; the Arlington Arts Center, Virginia; Charles Moffett, New York; and Lehmann Maupin, New York. Solo exhibitions include Staniar Gallery, Lexington, Virginia. Pérez was selected for the NXTHVN Fellowship Program and is a 2022 recipient of the Artadia Award. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

References

  1. ↑ "Carmen Argote – Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Best Up-and-Coming Artist: Carmen Argote | Best of L.A. 2016: Your Key to the City". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  3. 1 2 Cheng, Scarlet. "Carmen Argote: Riding It Out.” Artillery Magazine, May 2, 2018, artillerymag.com/carmen-argote-riding-it-out/.
  4. 1 2 “CARMEN ARGOTE.” Carmen Argote Art 17th StreetSMC Expo Line Station Artwork Design Comments, carmenargote.com/series/if-only-it-were-that-easy/.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "CARMEN ARGOTE." Carmen Argote Art 17th StreetSMC Expo Line Station Artwork Design Comments, carmenargote.com/cv/.
  6. ↑ "Carmen Argote January 16 – March 23, 2018". 18th Street Arts Center. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Carmen Argote." CalArts School of Art, art.calarts.edu/events/carmen-argote.
  8. ↑ Chiland, Elijah (May 21, 2016). "Inside the Art at the New Expo Line Stations". Curbed LA. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Carmen Argote – Hammer Museum." The Hammer Museum, June 29, 2018, hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2018/made-in-la-2018/carmen-argote/.
  10. ↑ Bonney, Grace. In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs. Artisan, 2016.
  11. ↑ “CARMEN ARGOTE.” Carmen Argote Art 17th StreetSMC Expo Line Station Artwork Design Comments, carmenargote.com/work/filtration-system-for-a-process-based-practice/.
  12. 1 2 Carmen Argote. Carmen Argote Art 17th StreetSMC Expo Line Station Artwork Design Comments, carmenargote.com/cv/.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.