Chicano Artists and Friends at Santa Ana College

06 Sep Chicano Artists and Friends at Santa Ana College

By Liz Goldner

Gilbert “Magu” Luján was a visionary artist who helped define and promote Chicano art. The founder of the art collective, “Los Four”—which first exhibited Chicano artwork in 1973 at UC Irvine—wrote in 1969, “I believe there is a Chicano Art form and that it has been around for many years without formalization and recognition…Most Chicanos are aware of our current new breed renaissance which has flowered many investigations, probes and introspection in most areas of our life patterns…As we affirm broad-based awareness of our cultural linkage to Mexico and our Indian forefathers, it is clear to all that the Chicano culture is a real and identifiable body.” (From the catalog, “Gilbert ‘Magu’ Luján,” © 2017, University Art Galleries, UC Irvine.)

In the 52 years since Luján wrote those words, Chicano artwork has been continually created in a wide variety of media, and exhibited throughout Orange County, Southern California and beyond. A significant promoter of Chicano art in the OC today is Abram Moya Jr., a long-time artist, curator and activist, advancing Chicano causes. His exhibition, “Chicano Artists & Friends” at Santa Ana College (SAC) Art Gallery, features 45 art pieces by 30 artists, most of them from Orange County. Among the 45 pieces are two artworks by Luján who lived in Los Angeles for most of his life, and passed away in 2011.

“It took me a year to curate this exhibition,” Moya explained. “The artists participating are young and old, professional and amateurs, male and female. The show is In all media including oils, acrylics, pencil, collage and sculpture. Our mission is to show that Chicanos are artists too, and are just as good as anyone.” A few non-Chicano artists, whose work portrays Chicanos, are included in the exhibition. Artist Briyana Negrette assisted in the curation. James Rocha designed the flyer.

Moya has curated previous Chicano-related exhibitions at Grand Central Art Center, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, both in Santa Ana, at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona in 2020 (commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium), and at other places. He has shown his artwork at the Bowers Museum, Cal State Fullerton, among other venues. He recently completed the mural “Sempre Santa Ana” for the Heritage Museum of Orange County.

Moya attributes much of his development as a curator and artist to his mentor, Emigdio Vasquez, a Chicano artist and educator from Orange County. He includes the latter’s oil painting, “Emiliano Zapata,” an elegant depiction of the Mexican Revolution leader, in “Chicano Artists & Friends.” Vasquez is also known for his mural, “My Barrio,” displayed at Chapman University in Orange. “I consider myself to be a Chicano Social Realist,” he explained. “I like painting the daily lives of people in the barrio. This environment holds inspiring visions of human warmth and cultural heritage.”

Vasquez’s daughter, Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill, was inspired by her father’s profession and expertise from a very young age, later studying art in high school and college. Her two paintings in the SAC exhibition include the photo realist, “Mecha,” of her Mexican American high school student group from more than 20 years ago. Rosemary is the fifth person from the right in the back row in the painting.

Moya has contributed two social realist paintings to this exhibition, large pieces executed deftly with pencil, paint and other media. His “Las Mujean de Justicia de Acion” and “Las Mujean de Justicia de OC” depict local female activists who have contributed to the advancement of Chicanos. Part of his artistic mission, he explains, is to record “the social plight of the dispossessed and the oppressed.”

The painting “Ruben Salazar” in this show, addressing the history of Chicano activism, is by Katrina Mena. While other artists have illustrated the activist/LA Times reporter who was murdered in 1970, Mena presents him compassionately, peering out at his beloved Los Angeles with a halo over his head. Sergio Hernandez, known in part for his clever cartoons, contributed the drawing “Aug. 29, 1970” to this exhibition. While the title of his piece is actually the date of Salazar’s execution, the cartoon-style artwork features portraits of other revolutionary martyrs including Che Guevara—indicating that Salazar is in the same league as famous martyrs worldwide.

One of the most empathetic portraits in this exhibition is the vibrant “La Andrea” of a Chicana woman dressed and adorned for a celebration, by Santa Ana based Marina Aguilara. The artist is known for painting murals in Santa Ana, transforming ravaged walls into works of art. “Resistencia con Estilo” by Joe Bravo, the most humorous artwork in this show, illustrates a mustached Mexican man mirroring “The Joker,” with a sarcastic stance and smile. Bravo is also a well-known Los Angles based Chicano artist and muralist.

Other artists participating in this exhibition are Sarah Breucop, Carlos Callejo, Marisol Cardenas, Ricardo Cisneros, Josh Correa, Ricardo Duffy, Ignacio Gomez, Imelda Gomez, Adrienne Kaplan, Michael Kitada, Dave Maestrejuan, Christina Martinez, Kalyn & Shalyn Morales, Tai Nguyen, Peks, Roger “Eyes” Reyes, Tonatzin Reyes, Maria Reyna, Rochyroach, Cynthia Salazar, Mayra Sierra, Gregg Stone and Jesse Valenzuela.

As one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Chicano art in Orange County, this show is breaking ground in the advancement of this vibrant and socially conscious art form.

SAC Arts Gallery at the Santora Building, 207 North Broadway, Santa Ana; Appointment to see “Chicano Artists & Friends,” (714) 564-5615; on view through October 2. https://www.50thchicanomoratorium.com/news/chicano-artists-and-friends-art-show.