Rebellion! Public Art and Political Dissent: Oaxaca and L.A

Chaz Bojórquez

Chaz Bojórquez was exposed to the uses, values and craft of East Los Angeles graffiti, a tradition since WWII. In 1969, he created a tag that represented him and the streets – a stylized skull called “Señor Suerte” (Mr. Lucky), which became a gangster tattoo image of protection from death. Bojórquez is acknowledged as a pioneer and ‘Godfather of East Los Angeles ‘Cholo’ style graffiti for more that 50 years. Bojórquez is represented in numerous permanent museum collections: The Smithsonian Institute (American, History and Archive Museums), LACMA, MOCA and Laguna Art Museum. Bojórquez exhibits and lectures internationally, and paints “live” at Street Art exhibitions demonstrating his unique letter styles and pursuing commercial/cultural assignments.

Cosijoesa Cernas

Cosijoesa Eleazar Cernas García (Tlacolula, México, 1992), lives and works in Tlacolula and Oaxaca. He is a self-taught artist and has participated in visual art workshops and classes for the past ten years. He studied contemporary art at La Curtiduría in Oaxaca City from 2012-2014 under the leadership of artists Demián Flores, Mónica Castillo, Edgardo Ganado Kim and Naomi Rincón Gallardo. His collective exhibitions include Mexicanos al Grito de Guerra (Tlacolula, 2011) and Es el Fin al fin (Casade la Cultura Tlacolula, 2012) and participation in the Puntos de Encuentro Visual Arts Festival (Oaxaca 2012).  As part of the Tlacolulokos’ exhibition The South Never Dies (MUAC, 2014; Museo Amparo, 2015) Cernas screened the videos “The Dance of the Marmots,” “Place of the Crooked Things,” and “Eternally Forgotten.” He currently teaches silk screening classes, graphic design and voice over at the King Kong workshop in Tlacolula. His musical project “Sonido Cuche” remixes cumbia music and audio from yellow journalism. As a member of the Tlacolulokos collective, Cernas is in charge of diffusion, registering and editing the audiovisual material, and maintaining social networking spaces, in addition to his contributions as an artist.

Amanda de la Garza Mata

Amanda de la Garza Mata is the curatorial consultant for Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in L.A. De la Garza lives and works in Mexico City as Adjunct Curator at the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC, UNAM). She has been awarded the Emerging Curators Prize, Frontiers Biennial, and the International Curatorial Projects Grant. This is the second exhibition in which she has worked with the artist collective Tlacolulokos.1Amanda de la Garza Mata is the curatorial consultant for Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in L.A. De la Garza lives and works in Mexico City as Adjunct Curator at the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC, UNAM). She has been awarded the Emerging Curators Prize, Frontiers Biennial, and the International Curatorial Projects Grant. This is the second exhibition in which she has worked with the artist collective Tlacolulokos.

Main Image: Chaz Bojórquez

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