Week 8 Presentation: Linda Vallejo

From this week’s presentations, the one painting that really stood out was Linda Vallejo’s sculpture of the Oscar Awards called “Liberty”, which was part of her Make ‘Em All Mexican series. The fact that she made a statue liberty that was of different skin color caught my attention. Linda Vallejo is a Mexican-American artist that are known for her painting, sculpture and ceramics. Her works are usually about ethnic identity in American art and popular culture. In her Make ‘Em All American series, it addresses the some of the most difficult questions that people are unable to answer, which are “Do race, color, and class define our status in the world?”, “Is it possible to be a part of and earnestly contribute to multiple cultures simultaneously?”, or “Does color and class define our understanding and appreciation of culture?”

The statue of liberty is one of her sculptures in Make ‘Em All American (MEAM) series. She explained that during her trips to different museums and galleries all over the world, from China to New York, she noticed that they were all objects that are mostly cultural symbols and icons. Therefore, Linda decided to create one of the icons of the United States, which is the statue of liberty, from her own personal Mexican-American, Chicano lens.