ChicaChic Intergenerational Panel Discussion

ChicaChic, an art exhibit showcasing five leading Chicana visual artists, continues at two venues at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) through March 18th, 2011.

On March 12th exhibition artists Favianna Rodriguez and Angelica Muro will be in conversation with artists Patricia Rodriguez, Lorraine Garcia Nakata, and moderator Viva Paredes. They will be discussing the community structures that supported their development as artists, and the political and social climates in which those structures were formed. Panelists will talk further about their work in relation to evolving community concerns, and invite a dynamic conversation with the audience.

The works in ChicaChic honor the concepts, themes, and iconography of the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s but respond to the changing social context of a media-saturated world. Ana Teresa Fernandez's "Acuario," depicts a woman "washing" the beach at the U.S.-Mexican border with her hair; the striking image demands both that we engage with the current debates over immigration, and the politics of women and labor. Favianna Rodriguez's prints reflect contemporary ideas about social movements and community alliance building.

In addition to Fernandez and Rodriguez, ChicaChic features the work of Angelica Muro, Mitsy Avila Ovalles, and Shizu Saldamando. The work of these five artists varies greatly, but they all are responding in novel ways to the shifting needs of their communities.

As part of ChicaChic, each of the five artists is creating an original poster for a public art campaign, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The posters remain on view in many BART stations through San Francisco, Oakland and Colma.