SAN FRANCISCO, CA. The Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco, as part of the celebration during the Hispanic Heritage Month, cordially invites you all to connect to our virtual event (in English).
FRIDA KAHLO;
IMPACTING COMMUNITIES IN CALIFORNIA
On Wednesday October 14th at 4PM, Pacific time.
The Artist FRIDA KAHLO (l907-l954) an iconic Mexican figure, had an important impact in San Francisco in the l930's and l940's. If you want to know more about FRIDA's powerful influence in the United States, specifically in California, please join the Specialized Panelists AMALIA MESA-BAINS, RIO YAÑEZ and CELIA STAHR, moderated by Consul General of Mexico REMEDIOS GOMEZ ARNAU, who will provide an oral tour about the artistic force of KAHLO, in our state, by sharing stories about the times KAHLO lived in San Francisco, California, that will continue up to these days.
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE PANELISTS ARE AS FOLOW:
Moderator:
Consul General of Mexico REMEDIOS GÓMEZ ARNAU
REMEDIOS GÓMEZ ARNAU was appointed by the President of Mexico and ratified by the Senate as Consul General in San Francisco California, taking office on May 17, 2019
She has previously headed the Consulates General of Mexico in Atlanta Georgia, San Diego, California, and Raleigh, North Carolina, from 2001 to 2008, from 2008 to 2016. and From 2016 to 2019 respectively.
Prior to her tenure in Atlanta, she was the Academic Secretary and Associate Researcher at the Center for Research on North America (CISAN) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Her research included U.S. foreign policy and the Mexico U.S. relationship.
Gómez Arnau was appointed Technical Secretary for Mexico of the First Binational Study of Migration commissioned by the Governments of Mexico and the United States, from l995, to l997. She was also intend to participate in the Mexico -US Binational Migration.
AMALIA MEZA-BAINS
MEZA-BAINS Is an internationally renowned artist, scholar, and curator. Throughout her career she has expanded understanding of Latina/o artists' references to spiritual practices and vernacular traditions through her altar installations, articles and exhibitions. In l992 she was awarded a Distinguished Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation.
Her work has been shown at several Museums in North America, including the Whitney Museum of American Art at Phillip Morris and at International venues In Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ireland, Sweden, England, France and Spain.
In 2011, her work was featured as part of NeoHooDoo: Art for A Forgotten Faith, and in 2013, she recontextualized objects from the collections of the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in New World Wunderkammer. As a cultural critic, she has coauthored, along with bell hooks of Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism.
She founded and directed the Visual and Public Art department at California State University at Monterey Bay, where she is now professor Emeritus. Mesa-Bains community work includes board of trustee positions with the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, and advisory boards for the Galleria de la Raza and the Social Public Resource Center in Los Angeles.
CELIA STAHR
CELIA STAHR , PHD, theater art history at the University of San Francisco, where she specializes in modern and contemporary art with an emphasis upon issues of race and gender. She also teaches African art and the Diaspora. Formerly an affiliated scholar at Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research, STAHR focused on the Marginalized Abstract Expressionist painter ELAINE de KOONING, which formed the basis of her Genders article "Elaine de Kooning, Portraiture, and the Politics of Representation."
Her book, Frida in America: The Creative Awakening of a Great Artist, was published in March 2020 by St. Martin's Press. It was named one of five books to look forward to in 2020 by JAIME HERDON at THE WOLFER, and one of seven books to read in March by Fortune. The New York Times Book Review wrote : "It's intriguing to encounter an artist in the act of becoming herself...Stahr's Chronicle of KAHLO's breakthrough includes vivid descriptions of the scenes that inspired her"
RIO YAÑEZ
From the moment he was conceived in an artist's studio in San Francisco, RIO YAÑEZ fate as an artist was sealed. He was born in the Mission District in that city, where he now works as a Curator, as a Photographer and as a Graphic artist.
As a curator, RIO often collaborates with his father RENÉ YAÑEZ, and the pair has been developing exhibits together since 2005. Their exhibitions have traveled in cities ranging from San Francisco to Tokyo, Japan.
His reimaginings of Artist FRIDA KAHLO, had included the GHETTO FRIDA PROJECT, which includes a series of prints, writings and performance pieces featuring a thugged-out KAHLO. He is also a founding member of "The Great Tortilla Conspiracy" the world's most dangerous tortillas' art collective.
RIO YAÑEZ works at the South of Market Cultural Center (SomArts) as a curator and Manager.
For those who missed the event in English on Wednesday, October 14th at 4:00 PM a video of the presentation can be seen online: https://www.facebook.com/ConsulmexSFCO/videos/638797727008049/