For this conversation, MOA and Latin Expressions brings together artists and curators from two distinct and exciting exhibitions featuring the work of Latin American artists in North America: MOA’s current feature exhibition, Xicanx: Dreamers + Changemakers / Soñadores + creadores del cambio, and Volver (to return, to become) on view at CityScape Community ArtsSpace through November 12.

This event will be a conversation between visiting Xicanx exhibition artists Linda Vallejo, Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez, Vancouver-based curator Miret Rodriguez, and artist from the Volver exhibition Ximena Velázquez. The speakers will exchange viewpoints and opinions on their personal experiences as Latin Americans and art professionals in North America. They will explore the differences and common points between being a Latin American artist in Vancouver and a Mexican American artist in the US.

Please note that this event is being held at the Museum of North Vancouver (MONOVA) located at 115 Esplande W.

This event is part of Latin Expressions: A Celebration of Latin American Heritage Month hosted by the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre (VLACC).

Bios

Linda Vallejo consolidates multiple, international influences gained from a life of study and travel throughout Europe, the United States, and Mexico to create works thatinvestigate contemporary cultural and political issues, and that visualize what it meansto be a person of colour in the United States. She states that these works reflect her“brown intellectual property”: the experiences, knowledge, and feelings gathered overmore than four decades of study of Latino, Chicana/o, and American Indigenousn culture and communities.

Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez describes herself as a “home girl” from San Antonio. Vasquez works as a multimedia artivist (artist/activist), educator, and business owner. She comes from a long line of curanderas (Indigenous healers), but her method of healing is through her art. Currently she is re-imagining and re-imaging through a Xicanx feminist lens the patriarchal cultural myths that position womxn as unscrupulous characters. She also addresses the lack of representation of Xicanx and womxn of colour in the arts and education. Vasquez states that she makes art because she possesses no better method to open minds and hearts. Vasquez was shaped by El Movimiento, the Chicano/a civil rights movement. Her creation Citlali: La Chicana Super Hero links her ancestral past with her activist present.

Cosponsored by the MONOVA which operates both the Museum of North Vancouver at the Lonsdale shipyards and the Archives of North Vancouver located in Lynn Valley.