“Soy Americano: Perspectives of a First Generation” – Curated by Miguel Monzón

“Born anchored Brown on a red blue and White background”

Modified Arts presents Soy Americano: Perspectives of a First Generation, featuring the work of Bobby Castañeda, Fernando Pinal Castro, Janet Diaz, Rogelio Gutierrez, Miguel Angel Monzón, & Joel Salcido.

A group of Mexican-American artists who’s works encompass the first generational experience and perspective. Their stories are wide and varied personally but together share a broader dialogue that is relevant to all Americans and immigrants alike.

This exhibition is a collection of prints, paintings, and poetry that shed light on the bi-cultural experience in the United States. These artists question the definitions we often overlook, they revisit the histories we too soon forget, they celebrate bi-cultural existence, and they share the struggles of growing up being stretched by two cultures.

An exploration on code switching, historia, tradition, lo cotidiano, commodification, y politica.
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Interdisciplinary artist and professor at Arizona State University Rogelio Gutierrez is a masterfully proficient lithographer who’s work deals with his experiences as a first generation Mexican-American/Chicano. This series of stone lithographs reflects the artist’s experience through a fusing of personal, social, and popular imagery to stimulate dialogue regarding issues of assimilation, exploitation, pride, and culture.

Interdisciplinary artist and MFA candidate in printmaking at Arizona State University Janet Diaz explores the clashing of cultures through the lithographic process by using imagery that references both indigenous and pop-culture icons to call into question the meaning of those symbols within a contemporary context.

Bobby Castañeda is a Chicago born painter who grew up between the streets of Zacatecas, MX and Phoenix, AZ. The son of an immigrant mother and a Xicano father, he is the voice of the streets, the vanguard of the gutter. Castañeda makes use of abstract expressionist modes and weaves in history to express the past to the present for a brighter future.

Miguel Angel Monzón is an interdisciplinary artist born of immigrant parents who’s work examines the concept of barriers/borders in the context of the Mexican-American experience. The personal takes a driving force in Monzón’s work, he incorporates automatic writings, day-to-day notes, and documented moments onto paper and canvas to intuitively draw parallels between the relationship of the personal and the public.

Fernando Pinal Castro is a Mexican born painter, sculptor, and DACA recipient who has studied, lives in, and works in Phoenix, AZ. His figurative abstractions explore the gamut of life from the quotidian to the unruly reality of living in the shadows. In fear of being persecuted Castro had initially opted to exhibit his work anonymously but in a show of courage and solidarity decided against it.

Joel Salcido is a modern day surrealist of the barrio, he is managing editor at Hayden’s Ferry Review, an MFA candidate in poetry at Arizona State University, and member of the Gutta Collective. He was born in Los Angeles, “smuggled” to the westside of Phoenix where he “translates the poetry of the barrio pigeons into brujeria”. His work has been featured in Write On, Downtown, PublicPool, The Decolonizer, and Four Chambers Press among others.

Gallery Hours:
Local First Arizona staff:
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Gallery staff:
First Friday, 6-10 p.m.
Third Friday, 6-9 p.m.
Saturday, 12-4 p.m.
Or by appointment, scheduled by E-mail.

Modified Arts
407 E. Roosevelt St.
Phoenix, AZ 85004
www.modifiedarts.org