Week 3: Wiki artist Amina Cruz

 

I decided to do my project on Amina Cruz. Cruz is a photographer and a current student at UCLA. She was born in the city of Los Angeles where she also lives and works. Amina earned her BFA from the Parson School of design in 2002. Cruz has been part of many group exhibitions, speaking engagements, and has a number of press publications. She is currently working on two projects she holds dear to her heart. The first is Queer Punks and the second is about her family. Her grandparents met in Arvin, California where they were farm workers, and a place where she has wheat-pasted family art to fill in the archive telling her family's story taking back power from the farms. On her Instagram account, her photographs connect punk scenes across Colombia, Mexico, and here in Los Angeles speaking on the migration experiences and social strife that link Latinx creative expression. As a teen, Cruz was a daydreamer and was drawn to different subcultures. Her curiosity about exploring different subcultures continues today through art. She likes to investigate the areas between transformation and identity.

Group Exhibitions 

2019 -Forging Territories: Queer Afro and Latinx Contemporary Art, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA 

-Altar, Dia de Los Muertos, Grand Park, and Self Help Graphics, Los  Angeles, CA

-Scream Queen, AMAX Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  

-Club sCUM: Three Year Anniversary, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA 

-LA Zine Fest Artist Wall, LA Zine Fest, Culver City 

 

References: 

https://shoutoutla.com/meet-amina-cruz-photographer/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/vb577m/the-latinx-artists-using-instagram-to-fight-erasure-in-a-gentrifying-los-angeles