Chaffey College and the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art proudly present Student Invitational 2017, the 40th annual juried exhibition featuring Chaffey College student artists. In this rigorous program, the selected artists work closely with faculty, the museum curators, and other art professionals to create a new body of work, culminating in a professional quality group exhibition at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art.
This was printed on the occasion of the exhibition, Student Invitational 2017, April 10 – May 11, 2017 Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Chaffey College 5885 Haven Avenue Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91737 www.chaffey.edu/wignall
Crystal Dickerson-Hancock Eduardo Galvez Raylene Jimenez Vienna Medina Jesus Meza Victoria Ramirez Tiffany Smith Joshua Vega Lily Welling
Crystal Dickerson-Hancock
Crystal Dickerson-Hancock, Sacrifice, 2017, archival pigment print, 20 x 20 inches.
As a photographic artist, I explore the esoteric nature of the female spirit and the incarnations of her soul. Since the beginning of time, the Divine Feminine has been viewed as the matrix of creation. It is a spiritual connection that pervades all aspects of our daily lives and informs elements of our lives that we may, or may not be aware of. As a woman, I am drawn to examining the universal archetypal female and those things cherished by her. As a Christian I am also interested in examining the relationship between religion and femininity. In addition to woman’s inner glow, I explore the darker side of femininity. It is often the twisted fate of the damsel in distress or the stern matriarch that are the subjects of my photographic work. I am enchanted by raw effeminate beauty and seek to represent that through conceptual imagery. Preferring to work in rugged landscape settings instead of in a studio, I employ both the nude body and costumed figures to create fictional realities. My images have an ethereal soft focus borrowed from my love of Pictorialist photographs. I am captivated by the Italian Renaissance period and therefore I take cues from the spiritual content of fifteenth-century paintings. I use photography to access a similar kind of visual language. It is my thought that this kind of imagery creates imaginary and elevated worlds beyond our own existence.
Eduardo Galvez
Eduardo Galvez, Putty, 2016, graphite on paper, 18 x 24 inches.
All of my work is drawing, just pencil on paper. To me, drawing is the poor man’s art practice. There is a basic raw emotion in seeing a human form etched in graphite onto a blank surface. It is a medium that deals in grayscale, a medium that accurately reflects a gentle melancholic outlook I have on life. I love drawing because it’s not just a photograph that tells its faithful reality; it’s merely an interpretation of reality. You don’t need a lot of money to draw but you do need a lot of creativity. Drawing lends itself to transparency, and it is not something that hides mistakes easily. Many people see drawing as a study for other pieces, such as paintings, sculptures, installations and this makes it seem somehow incomplete. I relish this aspect of drawing, I embrace its status in the art hierarchy and I love that it is underappreciated. My work uses drawing to create portraits of the human form that are based in my irregular sense of reality. The people in my drawings are products of my imagination, realized in pencil on paper. The drawings are from a relationship I had with a woman. After we broke up, I felt such a loss that I used the drawings to amend, or rejoin, the absence I felt in losing this person. Our forms, melding together, were the initial inspiration for what would become the figures I now draw. Only two figures are sharing space in these drawings, her and I, telling a non-linear story of a close bond we once had. I then moved into using a lot of photographic imagery of my life, other sources, and this helped generate a compilation of figurative devices that I translated onto paper. Currently I use my own photographs, combined with a catalog of imagery I have collected, to reflect on my obsession with my former partner. In my process, male and female forms share physical space and thus symbolically collapse all levels of sexual dimorphism. I am interested in hermaphroditism, but it is not the sole objective of my work. I am, rather, simply expressing an aspect of my psychology and allowing the viewer to witness my narrative and my vulnerability on paper.
Raylene Jimenez
Raylene Jimenez, image from Esta Soledad, 2017, 35mm slide, dimensions variable.
In his book, The labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz states that “fear makes us turn our backs on death, and by refusing to contemplate it we shut ourselves off from life.” Because of its uncertainty, death is feared and avoided. Paz points out that you must be open to death if you are to be open to life. Death is “a somersault between two lives.” Seven years after dating my high school sweetheart we got married. After three months, our marriage had abruptly begun to unravel into what would be the beginning of an uphill battle. Parallel to my separation, I began traveling to Mexico, which would eventually become a coping mechanism. Mexico’s familiarity provoked within me the emotions of what was, what is and what could have been. In coming to terms with my marital separation I understood I was dealing with the unknown, I was dealing with a kind of death. This allowed me to mirror myself into the subjects of my photographs. Two years into this body of work and I am still dealing with these emotions. However, to overcome the fear of the unknown there is a process of letting go. I want the viewer to recognize the relationship between the dichotomies I present in my work; that without one you cannot have the other. As Paz writes, “the pangs of love are the pangs of solitude. Communion and solitude are opposite and complementary.”
Vienna Medina I started drawing at a very young age. I drew lots of different animals but I was really into dragons. As time went by my art skills developed and I was able to draw from my imagination. I began to draw imaginary characters who existed in my head. These were not literally puppets, but I used them to act out imaginary scenarios and plays. My drawings were realizations of my own sensibilities. All of my characters know each other in some way. Some of them are coworkers, some of them live in the same neighborhood and some even grew up together. The progression from individual drawings to comics with dialogs, panels, and timelines came naturally, as did creating full blown animations. Ted is the guy who is always very angry. Roger is very creepy. Tilian has social anxiety and is very paranoid. Allison and Jason are twins. Dean is the charismatic one. All the characters are mostly men, but there are a few girls like Allison. Together, all of the characters create an ensemble of misfits who live, love, and get into predicaments here in Los Angeles. Two animators who have influenced me are Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez. They each have their own distinct styles and I have appreciated their work since I was a small child. What I have taken away from them is their ability to use their characters as devices to express their individual gifts in storytelling. My aim, in the animations I create, is to continue in that vein.
Zen Madmarth, Screen Test: Ted, 2017, digital animation, dimensions variable.
I want to give the viewers an experience of my characters, their quirks, and their stories. The work in this show is made from several parts. I have chosen to do this in a format that doesn’t reflect trends in the commercial animation for film and serialized television. One thing that really inspired my animation was Andy Warhol’s screen tests. They were such a huge influence that I decided to incorporate something similar into the animation. I want the viewers of this piece to get a sense of how much more meaningful these characters are to me. I want them to experience the friendship I have with these characters.
Jesus Meza
Jesus Meza, Among Triangles, 2016, inkjet print, 19 x 38 inches.
This series is titled 26th Ave. My relationship to this title was cultivated from skateboarding throughout different environments and terrain. All of the works in this series are diptychs placed in separate frames. The individual photographs are shot instinctively, honing in on a particular environment and moment that I have experienced. Later, once looking at the images in post-production, I begin to ascertain the formal qualities between the shots, pairing and editing them to examine possible visual relationships between any given two. This process is somewhat like putting a key in a lock in total darkness. You know you have it right when the door opens. I am a skateboard photographer. In some ways, skateboarding and photography contrast each other but it isn't until you drop yourself deeper into the two lifestyles that you see how essential a photographer’s role is in skateboarding. Photography operates within a very structured and technical skill set that aims to capture and freeze moments in space and time. Skateboarding on the other hand is a spontaneous and unstructured pastime that sets aside the day to day grind of bills, commutes, and worries for a couple hours of life in the moment. Pair these two passions together and you have a connection that, in a sense, thrive off of one and the other. I try to let both practices, skateboarding and photography, inform each other to create work that is genuine and original. Transient and fleeting, these diptychs are a simple reminder of how comparable things could be if you can just seize them.
Victoria Ramirez
Victoria Ramirez, Cheating Man, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 44 x 42 inches.
I am a painter. I use color, line and form as a writer uses nouns, verbs and adjectives. My paintings express things from all aspects of my life, everything good, bad, and the ugly. I use everything, put it all into a metaphorical blender and press go. What comes out is what you see. The choices that I make in creating a work are difficult to explain, but somehow there is a rightness, truth or simple honesty to this philosophy. Painting is a friend and I wouldn’t jeopardize that friendship in any way by being deceitful or dishonest. I like to play with the tension between the organic and the geometric. While I don’t seek to upend either mode of working I am testing the limits of putting them together. I like pink, I like flowers, I like empty spaces, circles, nature, no-where, old quilts, water, rocks, hair, tiny dogs, eyes, hugs, experiences, zoning out, brick walls, color charts at hardware stores, dirt, tools, black shirts, Barcelona, IKEA, chairs, walking in the city, laying on the grass, fire, girls, Salvador Dali, the sun, people watching, Bad Brains, and skateboarding around suburban streets. I avoid painting things that I do not like. Most of the time I feel like shit and I’m pretty unhappy about the world I live in yet my works show little to none of that. If my work was a distorted carnival mirror it would only reflect the things we actually like about ourselves and the world we live in.
Tiffany Smith
Tiffany Smith, Gross, 2017, marker and colored pencil on paper, 18 x 24 inches.
We live in the age of the Selfie, an image that is the bastard child of celebrity photography and rampant, narcissistic self-promotionalism. These images seem to be of high social importance, yet in the overall scheme of things they are meaningless and pointless. Despite this, people relentlessly shoot and post them, producing an unending barrage of fakeness and cultural veneer. I have a different sense of self, and therefore a different sense of “selfie.” My work is a consideration of the modern portrait. My only interest in selfie is that I am not interested in reproducing any glamor shots of myself or my friends. Instead, my focus is on the insecurities people, including myself, have about their physical appearance. I like double chins, moles, bad teeth, hair in the wrong place, acne, bad glasses, bad makeup, shots from unflattering angles, bad hair, awkward smiles, cellulite, stretch marks, wrinkles, body fat, and freckles. I like all the things that give a shitload of Photoshop artists work in the media world. I like these faults and I draw them so that I can exaggerate them. When people put on make-up, aren’t they just drawing a face on their own face? I guess I’m just putting it on paper. I also like the psychology of people’s discomfort with the unflattering qualities of their bodies. I like to think that what I do somehow makes viewers of my work feel uncomfortable, or at least makes them confront their discomfort. Traditional portraiture should be a study in subtle psychology and a good, flattering likeness of the sitter. My work is also a study into the psychology of the sitter and a twist on the notion of a flattering likeness. My subjects are all close friends and family so I have an intimate understanding of their particular insecurities. My work doesn’t seek to embarrass them, but rather address the broader social implications of a culture that camouflages itself in false notions of beauty.
Josh Vega
Josh Vega, Guitar Pedals, 2017, gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches.
Since the early 1980’s Hardcore Punk has distinguished itself from more socially acceptable versions of Punk by being fastest, harder, louder, and more aggressive. Bands like Minor Threat, Black Flag, and Bad Brains were some of the early forebears of this brand of music. Fast forward 30 years and today bands like Code Orange, Renounced, and Fury are continuing to find an audiences composed of young disaffected adults. Hardcore Punk is not for Mom. It is a music scene that operates on the fringe of contemporary music, an outsider genre that attracts outsider listeners, unlike popular music that caters to a much more mainstream audience. Hardcore Punk attracts kids who have looked into the belly of the modern American beast and are not happy about what they found. While these kids may not be terribly articulate about what upsets them, the music fills in the blanks and allows them to disassociate themselves from the meaningless social, political, and cultural treadmills they have been coaxed into all their lives. I’ve been involved in the Hardcore Punk scene mostly out here in the eastern edges of Southern California where it has found a firm footing amongst kids who have grown-up in lower to middle class working neighborhoods. Like many other people attracted to this kind music I have a difficult time explaining why I like it so much. One key may be the vicarious nature of listening to super aggressive sounds, gaining a sense of empowerment and rebellion over all of the other controlled aspects of our lives. There is also knowing that you are with a concentrated group of like-minded people. Much like people who gather at a church or a political rally, you have a feeling of unity and belief that binds all of you. A few years back I decided to start photographing the local Punk scene. In the beginning it was way to give back or make a contribution to something I felt involved with. Now, I see myself as a documentarian of sorts, changing me from being a kid who listened to the music into a kid who now sees the music. My images are a window into a world that not many people get to see, a scene not many of them even want to know about. My work can never really give the viewer an accurate sense of what it’s like to be at one of these shows but I strive to give them an idea of how intense the experience can be. Unlike more popular forms of music, my work isn’t about attracting new followers or believers by creating an appealing look for this scene, but rather I want viewers to get down and dirty with something real, raw, and passionate.
Lily Welling The TRIUMFEMINATE represent three trans women– Marsha Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Lili Elbe–whose monumental impacts on our conceptualizations of gender and on the LGBT liberation movement were promptly erased from popular historical context, either shortly after their death or even within their lifetimes. The TRIUMFEMINATE, named after the triumvirate which existed during the Roman Republic, are aggressively reintroduced into historical consciousness via works that expropriate the visual language of the Italo-Byzantine. These works insist that Johnson, Rivera, and Elbe have at least the same–or greater–historical significance as Emperor Constantine.
Lily Welling, Untitled, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 78 x 48 inches
Lili Elbe (born 1882, died 1931) was an artist and model who came to prominence in Weimar Germany. In 1930 Elbe received what is generally agreed to be the first genital reassignment surgery. A year later, under the demands from her own government that she acquire a uterus to be confirmed as a woman, Elbe was killed by medical malpractice. Her posthumous biography was a bestseller, but with the destruction of Weimar sexology by the Nazis, her place in history was erased.
Marsha Johnson (born 1945, died 1992) and Sylvia Rivera (born 1951, died 2002) were pioneers in gay liberation; first-hand accounts of the Stonewall riots credit Johnson as the first to act, to de-arrest Stormé DeLarverie, a major lesbian figure. The same accounts also credit Rivera with being a major organizer for the subsequent nights of rioting. During the years after Stonewall, Johnson and Rivera had founded STAR and spent years advocating for LGBT youth and imprisoned gay liberationists. Yet by the early 1970s cisgender and white gays and lesbians began to push them and other activists of transgender experience or of color out of the movement. Marsha died suspiciously, in an apparent murder which the NYPD refused to investigate, while Sylvia passed from cancer in 2002. These paintings of the TRIUMFEMINATE draw their form from Christian iconography and painting of the proto-Renaissance. The use of gold suggests miraculous space, their robes ceremonial significance, the physical size demands the attention and significance they deserve, and the arrangement, a triptych, neatly dovetails with the sensibilities of the original Italo-Byzantine works. TRIUMFEMINATE is an unyielding re-imposition of Johnson, Rivera, and Elbe’s historical significance. The TRIUMFEMINATE collectively revolutionized gender in the 20th century, building upon a history of variant gender expressions that had existed in some shape or form since the earliest human societies. TRIUMFEMINATE celebrates these three women, it celebrates every person who has found their truth within the word transgender, and it celebrates every person for whom the word transgender may not apply, but who nonetheless fail to be seen and understood under binary, cissexist conceptions of gender.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This exhibition and related programs are generously supported in part by the President’s Equity Council, Associated Students of Chaffey College, and the President’s Host Account. Institutional support for the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art is provided by Chaffey College, the School of Visual & Performing Arts, and the President’s Office. CHAFFEY COLLEGE GOVERNING BOARD Katie Roberts, President Kathleen Brugger, Vice President Gloria Negrete McLeod, Clerk Gary C. Ovitt, Member Lee C. McDougal, Immediate Past President SUPERTINTENDENT/PRESIDENT Henry Shannon, Ph.D. ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT INSTRUCTION AND INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS Meridith Randall DEAN VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS Jason Chevalier, Ph.D. DIRECTOR/CURATOR WIGNALL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART Rebecca Trawick ASSISTANT CURATOR WIGNALL MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART Roman Stollenwerk PRINTING Chaffey College Print Shop
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