#end of year review
Here at CAM, we wanted to share our participatory actions and highlight our interactions with the arts. This end of year review for 2021 contains the different efforts we made to be art patrons during the continuation of the COVID-19 ( and its variants) pandemic.
(Detailed interior view of “Rise of the Resistance” ride at Disneyland’s Star Wars Galaxy Edge.)
While abiding by the mandates, we traveled to five locations across Southern California to partake in person the artworks and cultural stimulation. In July 2021, we started off at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim to take in Star Wars Galaxy Edge sprinkled with some nosglatic rides, tasty food, and great souvenirs all while the park was at limited capacity.
(“Untitled” print by Albert Reyes.)
In September 2021, CHICANO ART MOVEMENT traveled to the home of illustrator Albert Reyes to pick up an art print added to our collection and correlating with the piece, we had a spooky chat about the upcoming Halloween season. Afterwards, Reyes extended an invitation for us to tour his Haunted House creation for a second year in a row & was filled with fright around every turn.
ReadCHICANO ART MOVEMENT visits: Artist Albert Reyes 2021
(Detailed view of Pipilotti Rist survey at MOCA Los Angeles.)
In October 2021, CAM purchased tickets to experience“Pipilotti Rist: Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor” at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA Los Angeles. The Swiss born artist created an interactive, multi-sensory exploratory exhibit filled with phenomenal visual techniques. We also visited the Geffen Store to support the sales of the Pipilotti Rist Microfiber Cleaning Cloths (both Face & Colors editions) & the plantable seed cards made exclusively for Rist’s exhibition by Margins Imprint.
(Pilar Castillo artwork for “Stories of the Land” exhibition.)
In November 2021, at Santa Ana College’s Art Gallery we analyzed the “Stories of the Land”exhibition that focused on female artists who connected with the land in one way, shape, or form in their respective mediums. The piece that has stayed with me was the installation by Pilar Castillo entitled “Plantation to Paradise Designing the Caribbean: Handkerchiefs” that depicted the impacts of the tourism industry on the region.
View CHICANO ART MOVEMENT attends: “Stories of the Land” exhibit 2021
(Logo and welcome sign by Tropico de Nopal Gallery Space.)
In December 2021, CAM traveled to Echo Park’s Trópico de Nopal Gallery Space for some holiday shopping at the Caracol Marketplace which hosted various artistic vendors & creators. Our attendance was specifically for the hand printed items by Dewey Tafoya, Masterprinter & Assistant Director of the Professional Printmaking Program at Self Help Graphics & Arts, who had four of his unique designs to be silk screened on bring your own textiles thanks to Tafoya’s $5 special.
(Detailed view of “Cakeland.LA” exhibit.)
On a cloudy December 2021 afternoon, we drove to Downtown Los Angeles’ Chinatown to experience the multi-sensory, multi-layered “Cakeland.LA” by Scott Hove. Housed within this experiential art gallery, we ventured into Hove’s creations that contained elements of illusions, sweet but metaphysical manifestations, and sharp scenarios of creative ingenuity.
(Top to bottom: Dewey Tafoya silkscreen image & Mark Englert print by Bottleneck Gallery.)
During the pandemic, we supported the arts by purchasing artists editions, totes, and multimedia pieces. Robert’s favorite collected piece of the year was a silkscreen by Dewey Tafoya which depicts Olmec heads stacked in an Aztec tzompantli pattern style. During this year’s May the Fourth Be With You - a celebration of Star Wars, I received my Mark Englert’s “There Aren’t Many Jedi Left” timed edition print from Bottleneck Gallery. I chose Englert’s image to add to my collection; his version of a heartfelt scene within the Mandalorian life-action series where little Grogu communicates his thoughts, feelings, and connection to Mando via the force to my favorite mujer Jedi - in limbo, Ahsoka Tano. One distinct feature of this Englert’s print was its glow in the dark transformation to depict the duel fight between Ahsoka and the villainous Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth.
At CHICANO ART MOVEMENT we would like to highlight a big accomplishment of ours that happened in 2021. We wrote and finalized our extensive media coverage for the second and third installments of CHICANO ART MOVEMENT reviews Pacific Standard Time: Latin American and Latino Art in Los Angeles. On the tumblr platform, one can read about the 18 programs we attended plus gather descriptions and details found within the PST: LA/LA endeavor. On CAM’s Facebook page, we posted an extensive photo album documenting the different facets of participation in the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA edition.
Read CHICANO ART MOVEMENT reviews Pacific Standard Time Attended Programming parts 1 through 3.
