Catharine Clark Gallery at The Armory Show 2023
Focus Section: Booth F24
Works by Arleene Correa Valencia and Stephanie Syjuco
Catharine Clark Gallery returns to The Armory Show with a Focus section booth of works by Arleene Correa Valencia and Stephanie Syjuco. Selected by Candice Hopkins, Director and Chief Curator of Forge Project, galleries in this year’s edition of Focus feature solo and dual artist presentations that tell under-represented stories by tethering material, image, and form in unexpected ways.
Correa Valencia and Syjuco came to the United States as young children, and their projects for The Armory Show reflect on migration and citizenship through an expansive artistic vocabulary – painting, textile, and drawing for Correa Valencia; textile, sculpture, photography, and printmaking for Syjuco. Through their layered, rigorous, and often poetic work, Correa Valencia and Syjuco invite us to consider how we care for displaced people; how we tell the complex histories of communities outside of those in the dominant narrative; and how we can better uphold the promises of the American Dream.
Arleene Correa Valencia (b. 1993, Michoacán, Mexico; lives in Napa, California) is an inaugural recipient of the Bay Area Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts and received a regional Emmy award for her feature REPRESENT: Portraits of Napa Workers: Arleene Correa Valencia by KQED Arts. In 2023, Correa Valencia was also named a Eureka Fellow by the Fleishhacker Foundation. In October 2023, her work will be featured in the triennial Bay Area Now 9 (BAN9) at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
In 2021-2022, Correa Valencia’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition, Llévame Contigo, Yo Quiero Estar Contigo, at the Trout Museum of Art in Appleton, Wisconsin. In 2022, Correa Valencia had her first international solo exhibition, (in)visibles En La Oscuridad (De Regreso A Casa) at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Mexico, curated by Guadalupe García and generously sponsored by The ANT Project.
In 2023, Correa Valencia’s work was featured in exhibitions at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon; San Francisco Arts Commission, California; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York; Alfred University, New York; and Berkeley Art Center, California.
Catharine Clark Gallery opened Correa Valencia’s solo exhibition, Naces Así, Naces Prieto. No Naces Blanco / You Are Born Like This, You Are Born Brown. You Are Not Born White , on August 26, 2023, in the North Gallery through November 4, 2023. Correa Valencia’s work has been collected by the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas; Grand Valley State University Art Gallery, Michigan; Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, Kansas; and 21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, Kentucky.
Correa Valencia received her BFA and MFA from California College of the Arts. One of four children originally from Arteaga, Michoacán, Mexico, Correa Valencia is a beneficiary of DACA (Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals) and is on a path to becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States. The Correa Valencia family fled to the United States in 1997 and found home in California’s Napa Valley. Correa Valencia has been represented by Catharine Clark Gallery since 2022.
Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974, Philippines; lives in Oakland, California) works in photography, sculpture, and installation, moving from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations. Her projects leverage open-source systems, shareware logic, and flows of capital to investigate issues of economies and empire. Recently, she has focused on how photography and imagebased processes are implicated in the construction of racialized, exclusionary narratives of American history and citizenship. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship Award, a 2020 Tiffany Foundation Award, and a 2009 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Award. She was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC in 2019-20 and is featured in the acclaimed PBS documentary series Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century.
Born in the Philippines, her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child. Syjuco received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MFA from Stanford University. Her work has been widely exhibited and has been the subject of several solo museum presentations, including: Stephanie Syjuco: Blind Spot at the MSU Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan (catalogue); Stephanie Syjuco: White Balance/Color Cast, Anderson Collection at Stanford University, California; Stephanie Syjuco: Double Vision, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas; Stephanie Syjuco: Image Trafficking, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; Stephanie Syjuco: The Visible Invisible, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, Texas; and Vanishing Point (Overlay), Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland.
Syjuco’s work is featured in Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, October 20, 2023 – April 7, 2024. In 2024, Radius Books will publish an artist book conceptualized by Syjuco. Her work has been collected by institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Saint Louis Museum of Art, Missouri; MSU Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, among others.
A long-time educator, Syjuco is an Associate Professor in Sculpture at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked with Silverlens Gallery since 2023, exhibited with RYAN LEE Gallery since 2013, and has been represented by Catharine Clark Gallery since 2008.
Stephanie Syjuco
“Afterimages” and Fixed Focus (Dead Center) are from Syjuco’s series “Native Resolution” that expands on the artist’s research into the problematic construction of American history and concurrent histories of photography that inform deeply biased structures foregrounding whiteness as a normative subject. These works resulted from her Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in which the artist spent hundreds of hours embedded in the archives of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Anthropology in Washington DC searching for visual evidence of the Philippines and Filipinos in the official American archive.
“Afterimages” is a suite of five photogravures on gampi paper. The images are reproduced and manipulated photographs that were originally cartes de visites for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Syjuco crumples these photos, concealing the identity of the individual, thus protecting them from the viewer’s gaze.
Fixed Focus presents 36 photos mounted in a grid, displaying excerpts from the archival files of Dean Conant Worcester, an early American ethnographic explorer and staunch supporter of American imperialism in the Philippines. At the exact center of each image is a notated correction, evidence of a factual error or typed mistake recorded into the archive. Blown up so that the surrounding text is only legible via snippets, the errors themselves become the central focus, as opposed to the anthropological “findings” that served to support white superiority and early notions of eugenics. By showing these texts as fallible and correctible, Syjuco hints at the possibility for a counter-narrative to also be applied to the form of the archive. Each image is printed at the standard size of a sheet of paper to further reference the official form of institutional documents and records.
Applicant Photos (Migrants) (2017) is a series of three photographs printed at the scale of passport photos. Syjuco developed this body of work at the same time as “Cargo Cults” (2016), her now-iconic series of photographs in which she purchased clothes printed with geometric black-and-white patterns – which were often marketed as “exotic” or “tribal” print – from stores like H&M and Forever21 and restyled them to create fabricated “characters” that referenced racist tropes that are common in ethnographic photographs. “Applicant Photos (Migrants)”, however, was realized in direct response to 2017 immigration ban on Muslims seeking asylum in the United States. Syjuco again uses these garments from fast fashion chain stores. Sitting in as her own model, she fully obscures her face, thwarting the viewer’s attempts to “read” her identity. This serves a conflicting, dual purpose: to elude identification and remain anonymous in an era of surveillance and tracking, and to also reference the many ways that migrants and refugees have been depicted as a faceless, anonymous mass.
Phantom Flag (2018/2023) was also created in response to the 2017 immigration ban. Syjuco reimagines the American flag in translucent black silk, hanging mournfully against the wall. In the catalogue for Syjuco’s 2020 solo museum exhibition, Stephanie Syjuco: The Visible Invisible at the Blaffer Art Museum, curator Steven Matijcio writes that “as both an object and action, the funereal connotations of a deceased American dream float here ghost-like speaking to a nation-state evacuated of color, and the apparition of a country that has either lost its heterogeneity or found a place beyond the divisiveness of colorism.” Syjuco sewed the flag herself, which she notes was an important act of claiming her Americanness and of affirming her own right – and the rights of all immigrants – to citizenship.
Arleene Correa Valencia
Born in Mexico and based in California’s Napa Valley, Arleene Correa Valencia creates paintings, textiles, and drawings that reflect on patterns of migration and family separation. Her recent work is inspired by the letters that she wrote to her father as a child, during a period when her father had migrated to the United States while Correa Valencia remained in Mexico. Correa Valencia draws on her family’s archives and correspondence to craft a visual language that considers the politics of visibility and the complexities of undocumented immigration. A former Dreamer, Correa Valencia often incorporates her family’s textiles into the work to commemorate her own border crossing. Her work frequently depicts parents and children in silhouette, rendering them anonymous, as they cross the border. Outlined in thread, these figures appear both present and absent, seemingly in a perpetual state of transition.
Correa Valencia’s series of paintings En Tiempos de Crisis / Times of Crisis (2017) depicts undocumented farm workers in the Napa Valley during the 2017 California wildfires, the most destructive season on record. As vineyards in the region continued to burn, winery owners hired undocumented laborers to harvest and save their crops. The environmental conditions were extremely unsafe, as laborers were exposed to both fire and high levels of smoke and air pollution. Correa Valencia commemorates these undocumented farm workers whose labor was all-but-invisible in mainstream coverage of the wildfires. Correa Valencia also draws attention to how agriculture relies on undocumented communities, and how two seemingly different regions – Mexico and the Napa Valley – are economically dependent on one another. The work also considers the unintended consequences of improvements in labor conditions for undocumented workers who, after a second fire season, were protected from exposure to wildfire conditions, which led to less employment and subsequently less financial support for their families both in Napa Valley and in Mexico.
$9,500
$9,500
$9,500
$25,000
$9,500
$7,500
$7,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
3,494 ft, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
No Somos Blancos / We Are Not White, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Hoy Te Extra Demasiado / I Miss You Extra Today, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Somos Prietos / We Are Dirty Brown, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Lucharemos Juntos / We Will Fight Together, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia Mi Razón De Vivir / My Reason To Live, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Me Muero Sin Ti / I’m Dying Without You, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Te Necesito / I Need You, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia En Caravana / A Caravan, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Te Espere / I Waited For You, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia Parte De Ti / Part of You, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Tu Continuación / Your Continuation, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia Te Amo, Apá / I Love You Apá, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Muchachos Con Sueños De Triunfar / Teens With Dreams Of Success , 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Ojalá Encuentres Un Buen Coyote / I Hope You Find A Good Smuggler, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique Sheet: 14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Volveré A Verte / I Will See You Again, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Por Favor No Lo Mates / Please Don’t Kill Him, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Avísame Cuando Llegues / Let Me Know When You Make It, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Aquí Te Esperamos / We’ll Wait For You Right Here, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Un Año Sin Verter / A Year Without Seeing You, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
En Otra Vida / In Another Life, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
El Coyote / The Coyote, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Te Quiero, Papá / I Love You Daddy, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Papi Te Voy a Esperar Toda la vida / Daddy I Will Wait For You
All Of My Life, 2021
Repurposed textiles embroidered on paper; unique
Sheet:14 x 11 inches
Frame: 15 x 12 inches
$3,500
Arleene Correa Valencia
Siempre Pienso En Ti / I Always Think About You, 2022
Textiles and vinyl
15 x 16 inches
$3,800
Arleene Correa Valencia Fuga / Escape, 2022
Textiles on canvas
11 x 14 1/2 inches
$3,500
Afterimages (Interference of Vision), 2021
Photogravure printed on gampi mounted on Somerset black 280 gram cotton rag; re-edited photograph of an ethnological display of Filipinos from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Printed by Paul Mullowney and Harry Schneider in an edition of 20 plus 8 proofs. Co-published by BOXBLUR, Catharine Clark Gallery, and Mullowney Printing, San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR
Image: 16 x 20 inches
Sheet: 18 x 24 inches
Note: Crumpled/folded gampi is proud by 1/8” from back mounted layer of Somerset
Individual photogravure: $6,000 unframed / $7,000 framed
Afterimages (Field of Vision), 2021
Francisco, CA and Portland, OR
Image: 16 x 20 inches
Sheet: 18 x 24 inches
Note: Crumpled/folded gampi is proud by 1/8” from back mounted layer of Somerset
Individual photogravure: $6,000 unframed / $7,000 framed
Afterimages (Obstruction of Vision), 2021
Photogravure printed on gampi mounted on Somerset black 280 gram cotton rag; re-edited photograph of an ethnological display of Filipinos from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Printed by Paul Mullowney and Harry Schneider in an edition of 20 plus 8 proofs. Co-published by BOXBLUR, Catharine Clark Gallery, and Mullowney Printing, San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR
Image: 16 x 20 inches
Sheet: 18 x 24 inches
Note: Crumpled/folded gampi is proud by 1/8” from back mounted layer of Somerset
Individual photogravure: $6,000 unframed / $7,000 framed
Afterimages (Interruption of Vision), 2021
Photogravure printed on gampi mounted on Somerset black 280 gram cotton rag; re-edited photograph of an ethnological display of Filipinos from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Printed by Paul Mullowney and Harry Schneider in an edition of 20 plus 8 proofs. Co-published by BOXBLUR, Catharine Clark Gallery, and Mullowney Printing, San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR
Image: 20 x 16 inches
Sheet: 24 x 18 inches
Note: Crumpled/folded gampi is proud by 1/8” from back mounted layer of Somerset
Individual photogravure: $6,000 unframed / $7,000 framed
$45,000
Stephanie Syjuco
Applicant Photos (Migrants) #1, 2017
Pigmented inkjet print with archival framing and Optium UV filtering acrylic
Edition of 10 + 2AP; edition 2/10
Sheet: 3.6 x 4.2 inches
Frame: 20 x 16 inches
Full suite of three photographs: $20,000
Stephanie Syjuco
Applicant Photos (Migrants) #2, 2017
Pigmented inkjet print with archival framing and Optium UV filtering acrylic
Edition of 10 + 2AP; edition 2/10
Sheet: 3.6 x 4.2 inches
Frame: 20 x 16 inches
Full suite of three photographs: $20,000
Stephanie Syjuco
Applicant Photos (Migrants) #3, 2017
Pigmented inkjet print with archival framing and Optium UV filtering acrylic
Edition of 10 + 2AP; edition 2/10
Sheet: 3.6 x 4.2 inches
Frame: 20 x 16 inches
Full suite of three photographs: $20,000
