Amalia Mesa-Bains

Plats: Santa Clara

Född: 1943

Biografi:

Amalia Mesa-Bains is a renowned Chicana artist, curator, author, and educator, born on July 10, 1943, in Santa Clara, California. She is best known for her large-scale installations that reference home altars and ofrendas, engaging in a conceptual exploration of Mexican American women's spiritual practices.

Early Life and Education

Mesa-Bains received a B.A. in painting from San Jose State University before earning a M.A. in interdisciplinary education from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. Her educational background has had a significant impact on her artistic style and approach.

Artistic Career

Mesa-Bains's first exhibit was at the 1967 Phelan Awards show that took place in the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. She began creating altar installations in 1975, which often honor women who have broken social barriers. Her artistic work is often autobiographical, relating to her Mexican Catholic heritage. Mesa-Bains has incorporated "dried leaves, rocks, pre-Columbian ceramic fragments" and other unusual materials to construct artworks such as her 1987 work Grotto of the Virgins, which is dedicated to Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), actress Dolores del Río (1905–1983), and to the Virgen de Guadalupe. Mesa-Bains's works have been exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Williams College Museum of Art, the Queens Museum in New York, the Contemporary Exhibition Center of Lyon in France, the Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Sweden, the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland, and the Culterforgenin in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• Notable awards: Mesa-Bains has received several notable awards, including the San Francisco Mission Cultural Center's Award of Honor, Association of American Cultures' Artist Award, and the MacArthur Fellowship award.
• Publications: Mesa-Bains has written Ceremony of Spirit: Nature and Memory in Contemporary Latino Art, and her essay "Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasquache" theorized domesticana as a set of aesthetic strategies that use spaces and experiences historically associated with Mexican American women as sites for Chicana feminist reclamation.
• Current work: Mesa-Bains continues to create and exhibit her art, pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a Chicana artist in the United States. Her work can be found on Wikioo.org, where she is featured as an artist.

Mesa-Bains's contributions to the art world have been recognized by her peers and the public, and she continues to inspire new generations of artists with her innovative and thought-provoking work. As a Chicana artist, Mesa-Bains has made significant contributions to the world of art, and her legacy will continue to be felt for years to come.