YLA 22: Ahora!, Guest Curated by Alana Coates
Capricho, Project by Mark Menjivar

Opening Reception
Date: Friday, July 14, 2017
Time: 6 – 9PM
Admission: $10 General Admission, Free for Museum Members
Refreshments: Antojitos & Specialty Cocktails
Live Music: Tiarra Girls 8 – 9PM
Parking: $10 at Frost Bank Tower Parking Garage on Brazos & 4th St. (enter on 4th St.)

YLA 22: Ahora!
Guest Curated by Alana Coates
July 14 – August 27, 2017
Main Gallery
 
Mexic-Arte Museum is pleased to announce YLA 22: Ahora!, the twenty-second installment of the museumís annual emerging Latinx artist exhibition. Guest curated by Alana Coates, YLA 22: Ahora! features eight artists from across Texas confronting the prominent issues of the contemporary Latinx experience in the United States. The exhibit will open to the public with a reception, including live music by the Tiarra Girls on Friday, July 14th from 7 – 9PM.
 
Curatorial Statement:
 
YLA 22: Ahora! arrives at a time of a complex socio-political climate in the U.S. This includes an administration with a vehement focus on the Mexican border, widespread economic inequalities, increased racial tensions, and subsequent hate crimes on the rise. Within this context, eight emerging artists from across Texas delve into personal negotiations of being Latinx today. The foci of gender confines, issues along the U.S./Mexico border, and power disparities in the world are at the core of their practices.
 
Featured Artists:

Nansi Guevara (b. 1988 | Laredo, Texas) currently works in Brownsville, Texas and is inspired by the vibrant costurera (seamstress) talent and culture. She uses textiles to confront racist narratives and unjust power structures with a rasquache sensibility and a decolonial theoretical lens.
 
Daniela Cavazos Madrigal (b.1991 | Laredo, Texas) explores struggles with language translations in bicultural communities. Madrigal incorporates fabrics from the pacas (bulk thrift stores) with text-based embroidery and family heirlooms.
 
Andrei RenterÌa (b. 1986 | Chihuahua City, Mexico/ Presidio, Texas) employs drawing and found objects to unmask crimes against humanity. Using a figurative practice and expressive line work, RenterÌa exposes genocides of the past and today, while foretelling a dark future.
 
Mark Anthony Martinez (b.1987 | San Antonio, Texas) delves into representations of power through images and symbols exposing ìwhitenessî as interconnected with systems of domination and privilege.
 
Josè Villalobos (b. 1988 | El Paso, Texas) highlights ideas of gender roles from conservative communities along the border.  Villalobos flips glorified ìmasculineî objects and idols from traditional households and softens the virility contrasting macho-ness with a constructed delicateness.
 
Paloma Mayorga (b. 1989 | Austin, Texas) examines the ways the human body relates to its natural and constructed environments. By dissecting the relationship between her body and the earth, she aims to deconstruct the rhetoric used to censor, consume and criticize the femme body, and in this process find healing. 
 
Michael Martinez (b. 1991| San Antonio, Texas) works in both textiles and new media, Martinez articulates the pressures endured by LGBTQ members of Latin American diaspora, aiming to make space for a queer presence in a Chicano narrative.
 
Ashley Mireles (b.1986 | San Antonio, Texas) explores the feminine role through a religious context, juxtaposing classic Hollywood actresses with canonized Catholic saints in a unique presentation of cultural syncretism inspired by Spanish Colonial art. Together these artists represent a survey of remarkable emerging artists in the State of Texas, and the new generation confronting the issues of today: Ahora! (Now)!

YLA 22 Featured Artists
Nansi Guevara (Laredo, Texas), Daniela Cavazos Madrigal (Laredo, Texas), Mark Anthony Martinez (San Antonio, Texas), Michael Martinez (San Antonio, Texas), Paloma Mayorga (Austin, Texas), Andrei RenterÌa (Chihuahua City, Mexico/ Presidio, Texas), Ashley Mireles (San Antonio, Texas), and Josè Villalobos (El Paso, Texas).
 
Image Credit: Paloma Mayorga. Poderosa II, 2016. Ranunculus, Digital C-type print, 45î x 30î

About the Curator
Alana Coates is the Associate Director of Ruiz-Healy Art in San Antonio, Texas. She also teaches Art History and Art Appreciation at the college level. Coates earned a bachelor’s degree in both Studio Art and Art History from the University of Rhode Island, as well as successfully completing graduate course work in Museum Studies at the Harvard Extension School and in 2012.
She obtained a master’s degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in Art History along with a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Administration and Leadership.  For over 15 years, Coates has been working in the creative sector holding positions at a number of reputable organizations such as Gallery Night Providence, Gallery Z, San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. 

Capricho
Project by Mark Menjivar
July 14 – August 27, 2017
Annex Gallery
 
Capricho is a project by artist Mark Menjivar that activates the archives of his late grandfather, Joe Font. Originally from Puerto Rico, Font extensively photographed various places in Latin America for a period of over 30 years. A main component of the project is a book of photographs taken by Font, which has contextual information added by family and friends at his funeral. Menjivar complied, scanned, and laid out these archives into a new book with some hand written text. Additionally, Menjivar will work with families in the community to tend to their own family archives and create meaningful projects that reveal a shared human experience.

About the Artist

Mark Menjivar (b. 1980) is an artist and photographer based in San Antonio, TX. He earned his MFA in Art & Social Practice from Portland State University and his BA in Social Work from Baylor University. His work explores diverse subjects through photography, stories and found objects while emphasizing dialogue and collaboration. Mark is also a member of Borderland Collective. His work has been shown at venues across the country including The Houston Center for Photography, The San Antonio Museum of Art, The Wignall Museum of Art, The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Baylor University, The Southwest School of Art and Central Michigan University.

Mark’s work has been featured in numerous publications including National Geographic, Artforum, TED, NPR, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Gastronomica, Orion Magazine, GUP Magazine, and dozens more.