One of the artists that stood out to me during Friday's presentations was Monica Kim Garza. She is a Mexican Korean artist whose artwork portrays nude, carefree, racially ambiguous, women. I liked the energy and different environments she portrayed the women in. I also like her use of bright colors, fabric and sequins, and overall just the very bright almost youthful feel in her paintings.
My classmate that presented shared that what she liked or stood out to her about Monica Kim Garza’s work is that it is not political. In looking into the artist I found that the artist herself explains that she is inspired by life instead of conceptual ideas relating to movements. This was in response to an interviewer telling her that people often see her art as a “political body-positive activist statement”. To know that she believes art is open to interpretation but that her intention behind the art is isn’t strictly political made me think about how she would fit into the dialogue of Chicano art.
In the beginning of the quarter we discussed what makes Chicano art what it is and a lot of was based on needing it to be intentionally political. With Monica Kim Garza, however, aside from not knowing if she would consider herself Chicana, her motivations for her art are not the same. Although I personally would emphasize that making art that portrays women of color happy and enjoying life is in itself political, I love how ultimately she wants to make art that is authentic to herself.
I definitely agree that art that depicts women of color as happy is a political act in itself. One could think of being happy as an act of rebellion especially because these systems are there to prevent marginalized people from being happy.
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