Weed the Lawn and Feed the Roses

January 5 - February 18, 2017

Opening Reception: “First Thursday,” January 5, 6-8pm
Artist talk: “Saturday After”, January 7 at noon

Greg Kucera Gallery is pleased to announce representation of Northwest artist Juventino Aranda. The multimedia artist explores issues of identity, social justice and the marginalization of cultures in today’s United States.

“I am at the intersection of Mexican and American. Not Hispanic or Latino, yet I feel the effects of the Spanish conquest still over 500 years later. A search for self-identity informs my process as it relates to Pre-Columbian Mexico and the social, political, and economic struggles of this late capitalistic American nightmare. From Walla Walla, WA, working the land for low pay has been my family’s history to sustain America’s metaphorical dream.”

— Juventino Aranda

In works like GUESS WHO IS COMING TO DINNER (above left) Aranda starts with discarded textiles from Pendleton factories, originally woven as blankets based on traditional Mexican serapes. On their surfaces the artist paints swaths of color resembling color field paintings, contrasting high art aspirations with mass-produced cultural appropriation.