Gallery Revisited artist in LACMA exhibit and the Chicano Movement

I was very excited to see that Shizu Saldamando is included in a new exhibit at LACMA that opens for viewing on April 6th.

For the longest time a postcard for Shizu Saldamando's MFA show sat on my desk at the 2nd Gallery Revisited location in China Town. (pka: Bamboo Lane/Revisited)

In 2005 I curated a portrait exhibit and her work was perfect - I called her on a recommendation of a friend of the gallery, Pete Galindo - who also happens to be a good friend of Shizu's.

I just found out some shocking news regarding Pete Galindo's family:

On Friday February 29, 2008 five members of my family were arrested without cause. This video documents the first arrest and the police unlawfully entering my grandmothers home. Two of my uncles, after being handcuffed, were taken to a secluded location where they were beaten.
After hearing about this I went to the Hollenback Police station to check on the status of my family. Sergeant Provincio also explained that my family has been an issue with them for years.
I suspect that this comment is connected to my family's involvement in activism against police brutality that began when my uncle was killed in 1989 by police. When I tried to communicate to police officers by further explaining my role in working with at-risk youth and some of the programs I've been involved with in Ramona Gardens, officer Provincio proceeded to tell me I was a hypocrite because I didn't directly involve the police in my efforts.
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Unbeknownst to anyone if you just look at me,
I grew up with a family from Mexico that lived in Angeleno Heights.
Although no one in my family has ever been killed by police, I feel empathy toward Pete's family and his personal cause and my thoughts go out to him.
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On a lighter note, he also believed in Shizu and he was right!

There is I am sure, an excellent preface to the show,
in the mean time here are some words
from Shizu regarding the effect of ethnicity in her work as taken from the LACMA members newsletter:

"I am very conscious of the way race functions in my work, and I think I deliberately use race as a signifier not to uphold any essentialist or binary ideas, but to unravel and question fixed assumptions about the people and the materials I utilize."
(Materials refers to for example, her use of handkerchiefs, as in those used in art made by prison inmates. People refers to people who are her friends and who happen to be non-white.)

I wonder if those collectors who never bought her work from me ever did get something of hers? Because she is in about 3 other museum exhibits after this one....

Congratulations, Shizu!

"Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement" is curated in part by Rita Gonzalez of LACMA.

For more on issues of ethnicity in art, please read the preceding blog about Mark Greenfield.