Jessica Lagunas

Last updated

Jessica Lagunas
Born1971
Nicaragua
EducationUniversidad Rafael Landívar (1992), Hunter College, City University of New York (2008), Art Students League, New York (2006–2011)
SpouseRoni Mocán
Website artist's website

Jessica Lagunas (born 1971) is an artist and graphic designer whose work focuses on "the condition of woman in contemporary society, questioning her obsessions with body image, beauty, sexuality and aging." [1] Lagunas was born in Nicaragua in 1971, but grew up in Guatemala, where she studied graphic design at the Universidad Rafael Landívar. In 2001, she moved to New York City with her husband, artist Roni Mocán, where they live and work.

Contents

Lagunas works in a variety of formats and media, with particular interest in video performances and installation. Some of her pieces also make use of alternative media, such as hair. [2] Lagunas' work has been exhibited at a number of international biennials, including the Pontevedra Biennial (Spain, 2010), El Museo del Barrio's Biennial (New York, 2007), Tirana Biennial (Albania, 2005), Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador, 2001), Caribbean Biennial (Dominican Republic, 2001) and the Paiz Biennial (Guatemala, 2012, 2010, 2008). She has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Art Museum of the Americas (Washington, D.C., 2012), Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York, 2006), Jersey City Museum (New Jersey, 2010, 2007), [3] and the International Festival of Contemporary Arts–City of Women (Slovenia, 2010).

Work

Lagunas' work is concerned with the societal obsession with women's body image and physical appearance. In her video works, Lagunas applies makeup or performs beauty rituals repeatedly in an exaggerated manner. [4] In Para Verte Mejor (2005), for instance, she applies mascara to her eyelashes for the duration of the 57-minute video. [5] [6] In another, similar piece, she applies bright red lipstick in an hour-long video titled “Para besarte mejor” or “The Better to Kiss You With” inspired by the well-known tale of Little Red Riding Hood. [7] For the series "Forever Young" (ongoing), Lagunas weaves strands of human hair – provided by visitors and staff at the Museo del Barrio in New York, as well as by the artist herself – using a technique traditionally used by Mayan women in Guatemala.

Lagunas is also interested in book arts, and was the 2012 Artist in Residence at the Center for Book Arts, NY. For Historias Íntimas (2009–11), the artist collected letters from female family members in which they recount the first time they experienced menstruation. Correlating to her respect for the female body and menstruation, the work "Días especiales (Special Days)" done in New York in 2008, circles are adorned with patterns inspired by vaginal tissue as seen under a microscope and placed on varying surfaces (such as beds, sheets, etc.) [8] Between 2012 and 2015, Lagunas worked on a book project titled Feminicidio en Guatemala (Femicide in Guatemala), in which she embroidered femicide statistics from 2000–2010 in Guatemala.

Violence against women, as well as the violence experienced in Guatemala during the 36-year armed conflict, are of interest to Lagunas. [9] Apart from Femicidio in Guatemala, the artist has created a number of pieces honoring and denouncing the prevalence of violence against women in the country, [10] including In Memoriam (2007), [11] [12] and Para que nos recuerdes mejor. With 120 minutos de silencio (2008), a performance for which Lagunas cut shapes from a 40,00-yard piece of camouflage fabric, as well as with Deshilando el miedo (2010–12), Lagunas condemns the violent acts committed by the Guatemalan state during the civil war.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yucef Merhi</span>

Yucef Merhi is a Venezuelan artist, poet and computer programmer based in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodolfo Abularach</span> Guatemalan painter and printmaker (1933–2020)

Rodolfo Abularach was a Guatemalan painter and printmaker of Palestinian descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rita Ackermann</span> Hungarian-American artist (born 1968)

Rita Ackermann is a Hungarian-American artist. She lives and works in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regina José Galindo</span> Guatemalan performance artist

Regina José Galindo is a Guatemalan performance artist who specializes in body art. She was born in Guatemala City.

Margarita Azurdia, who also worked under the pseudonyms Margot Fanjul, Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, and Anastasia Margarita, was a feminist Guatemalan sculptor, painter, poet, and performance artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minerva Cuevas</span> Mexican conceptual artist

Minerva Cuevas is a Mexican conceptual artist known for site-specific interventions guided by social and political research and social change ideals. Her production includes installation, video works and photographic works as well as contextual interventions in specific locations. She lives and works in the neighborhood of el Centro Histórico in Mexico City, often directing her artistic and social efforts towards questioning the capitalist system. She is a member of Irational.org and the founder of the Mejor Vida Corp. (1998) and International Understanding Foundation (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belkis Ayón</span> Cuban visual artist (1967–1999)

Belkis Ayón was a Cuban printmaker who specialized in the technique of collography. Ayón created large, highly detailed allegorical collagraphs based on Abakuá, a secret, all-male Afro-Cuban society. Her work is often in black and white, consisting of ghost-white figures with oblong heads and empty, almond-shaped eyes, set against dark, patterned backgrounds.

Sofia Maldonado is a Puerto Rican contemporary artist. She lives and works between New York City and Puerto Rico. Maldonado has collaborated with the Nuyorican Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Félix Rodríguez Báez</span> Puerto Rican painter

Félix Rodríguez Báez, was a Puerto Rican painter, artist, graphic designer, set designer, cartoonist and art teacher.

Deborah Cullen is an American art curator with a specialization in Latin American and Caribbean art.

Sandra Monterroso is a Guatemalan visual artist and designer. Art historian Virginia Pérez-Ratton writes about Monterroso's beginnings as a performance artist in Guatemala during 1999 and 2000. Alongside her were other Guatemalan female performers like Regina José Galindo, Maria Adela Díaz, and Jessica Lagunas. Recently Monterroso's work focuses not only in performance art, she works with different media as videoart, installations and mix media. Her work is related to power structures, gender issues and decolonial thinking. Her work is included in the Artist Pension Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alicia Framis</span>

Alicia Framis is a contemporary artist living and working in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She develops platforms for creative social interaction, often through interdisciplinary collaboration with other artists and specialists across various fields. Her work is project based and focuses on different aspects of human existence within contemporary urban society. Framis often starts out from actual social dilemmas to develop novel settings and proposed solutions. Framis studied with the French minimalist artist Daniel Buren and the American conceptual artist Dan Graham and her work can be located within the lineages of relational aesthetics, performance art, and social practice art. She represented the Netherlands in the Dutch Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). She is currently the director of an MA program at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, Netherlands and a lecturer at Nebrija University in Madrid, Spain. In 2019, Alicia Framis was awarded with the Lucas Artists Visual Arts Fellowship 2019-2022 in California.

Beatriz Santiago Muñoz is an artist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her work combines aspects of ethnography and theater to create film and video projects that have touched on subjects including anarchist communities, the relationship between artwork and work, and post-military land. Her work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, the Whitney Biennial 2017, Galería Kurimanzutto, and the Guggenheim Museum. She is co-founder of Beta-Local, an art organization and experimental education program in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Anaida Hernández is a Puerto Rican sculptor, painter, installation artist, muralist, documentary director, and businesswoman. She was an active member of the Association of Women Artists of Puerto Rico and is considered as being a pioneer in addressing violence against women via contemporary Caribbean and Latin American art.

Cecilia Paredes is a Peruvian-born multimedia artist residing in Philadelphia. Her primary themes include the power of nature, femininity, and migration, which have been subjects of many of her shows. She frequently utilizes natural elements, often recycled waste materials and primarily organic ones, in her installations. One of her best-known works is "Paisajes" in which she camouflages herself and uses her own figure as a canvas for body painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscilla Monge</span> Costa Rican installation artist

Priscilla Monge is a Costa Rican artist. She is one of the best-known female artists from Central America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscila De Carvalho</span> Brazilian-American contemporary artist

Priscila De Carvalho is a Brazilian-born American contemporary artist who is known for paintings, sculptures, murals, site-specific art installations, and permanent public art.

Teresa Serrano (1936) is a Mexican painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. She gained recognition through her work in filmmaking in the mid to late 1990s. Her main focus has been "to make forceful commentaries on power relationships, sexism, and violence against women".

Pia Camil is a Mexican contemporary artist. Camil works in painting, sculpture, installation and performance.

Carolina Caycedo is a multimedia artist based in Los Angeles.

References

  1. ↑ "Jessica lagunas". Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  2. ↑ "Kickass Woman of the Day: Artist Jessica Lagunas Embroiders With Her Grey Hair". The Frisky. 9 September 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  3. ↑ "Jessica Lagunas". Show Studio. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Wren, Celia (28 June 2014). "Diaspora: 'Flow' at IDB Cultural Center; Kazakh music at the Kennedy Center". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "Para Verte Mejor / The Better to See You With". Jessica Lagunas Art Portfolio. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Aponte 2011, p. 21.
  7. ↑ "| jessica lagunas |". www.jessicalagunas.com. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  8. ↑ "| jessica lagunas |". www.jessicalagunas.com. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  9. ↑ Aponte 2011, p. 20.
  10. ↑ Quiñones, Emilia (2012). "The Red Veil: Wedding Dresses Against Gender Based Violence in Latin American Art" (PDF). Saitabi: 168. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  11. ↑ "In Memoriam". Jessica Lagunaas Art Portfolio. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  12. ↑ Aponte 2011, p. 21-22.

Sources

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.