Pocho / celebrates the hybridity of Latinx/American identity.
January 22 – February 12
Zygote Press Virtual Exhibition: curated by Lauren Cardenas
Virtual Opening: Friday, January 22
Curatorial / artists talk: Thursday, January 28th, 6pm EST

Pocho celebrates the hybridity of Latinx/American identity. By definition, a "Pocho" is an Anglicized Mexican or American of Mexican origin who speaks Spanish with a U. S. accent and who distorts and reconstructs the language. "Pocho" is a derogatory term for "half-breed," or someone who has a bifurcated cultural identity (mita y mita). It recently has been reclaimed as a positive term, to show pride in one's multicultural background.

The U. S. is politically divided, nationalist, and insular. Many place the blame for the country's problems upon minorities. Latinx individuals, in particular, are being prosecuted, threatened with deportation, refused amnesty, and threatened by having their families divided by a border wall. These unfortunate events have caused multicultural individuals to wonder: what does it mean to be American?

As an American who is also Mexican, I always have struggled with my own hybrid identity. Like many Americans, I am an amalgamation of different cultures, races, and ethnicities. I am not a part of a homogeneous ethnic-less identity.
This group curated exhibition is an introspective examination of what it is to be American through the lens of Latinx individuals with dual identities. This exhibition is an introspective examination of what it is to be American through the lens of Latinx individuals with dual identities. The artists in this show utilize various visual languages to convey a portion of their identities.

Julia Arredondo's
work examines contemporary mysticism by creating homemade altars that focus on empowerment and spirituality practices outside of the Catholic church.

Häsler Gomez uses a minimalist approach to discuss gender, labor, and the immigrant experience, utilizing objects from home/road construction to illustrate his experience as an undocumented Latino man.

Josh T. Franco, an artist and art historian, employs the tradition of scriptoria to create environments for contemplation by reproducing and reinterpreting inherited visual and written language.

Margaret Perez's drawings function as a visual language to convey the injustices and uncertainties this year as brought to our society's forefront.

Lauren Cardenas utilizes the archive as a tool to communicate a narrative about bifurcated identity, using printmaking as the visual language to express this concept. Collectively, the work in Pocho examines how one finds a sense of self in a country that is actively trying to expel, "Other," and marginalize you.

January 22
January 22
Virtual Exhibition Opening
January 28, 6:00pm – 7:30pm EST
January 28, 6:00pm – 7:30pm EST
Join us for a live Artist Panel to discuss Zygote's new Virtual Exhibition: "Pocho". Moderated by Brittany M. Hudak, Zygote Program Administrator and Art Writer

Free!
Register: Artist Panel via Eventbrite

January 22 – February 12
January 22 – February 12
Visit our Youtube playlist
Josh T Franco / Dancing with Primitives (Saturday, January 9, 2021) / Video performance
Julia Arredondo is an artist entrepreneur who recently concluded her MFA at Columbia College Chicago. Originally from Corpus Christi, TX; Julia is heavily influenced by the small, family-based businesses she grew up around.
Häsler R. Gómez was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 1993, but has lived in the United States since the age of four. As a queer undocumented man, his work predominantly deals with issues of personal, political, and social desire, and probes the complexities and connections between language, history, immigration, gender, and oppression.
Josh T Franco is an artist and art historian from West Texas.
Perez is a Printmaker and Illustrator who works with silkscreen, relief, digital collage, and installation in her work. In her current work she investigates being a Mexican American woman, while also navigating and discussing the tension that brings with it in America today.
LAUREN CARDENAS is the Assistant Professor of Printmaking, University of Mississippi, Oxford. She is a studio artist who focuses on print media. Cardenas holds a BA in Painting, Printmaking and Drawing from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, she has completed the Tamarind Institute Printer Training Program and holds an MFA in Visual Art from Washington University in St. Louis.
Julia Arredondo, Gemini, 2020
Julia Arredondo, Gemini, 2020
Julia Arredondo, Nana, 2019
Julia Arredondo, Nana, 2019
Julia Arredondo, We Walked All Night Through Brooklyn, 1962
Julia Arredondo, We Walked All Night Through Brooklyn, 1962
Häsler R. Gómez, UNTITLED (I CAN’T—), 2020
Häsler R. Gómez, UNTITLED (I CAN’T—), 2020
Häsler R. Gómez, UNNAMED (DEATH MASKS), 2018—2019
Häsler R. Gómez, UNNAMED (DEATH MASKS), 2018—2019
Häsler R. Gómez, UNNAMED (MONUMENT II, III, X, V, XIII, VII), 2019—2020
Häsler R. Gómez, UNNAMED (MONUMENT II, III, X, V, XIII, VII), 2019—2020
Josh T Franco, The Primitives’ Revenge (Helen Gardner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 1926), 2018
Josh T Franco, The Primitives’ Revenge (Helen Gardner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 1926), 2018
Josh T Franco, The Primitives’ Revenge (Heinrich Wölfflin, Principles of Art History, 1915), 2018
Josh T Franco, The Primitives’ Revenge (Heinrich Wölfflin, Principles of Art History, 1915), 2018
Margaret Perez, Chinga La Migra, 2020
Margaret Perez, Chinga La Migra, 2020
Margaret Perez, (detail) Chinga La Migra, L, 2020
Margaret Perez, (detail) Chinga La Migra, L, 2020
Margaret Perez, (detail) Chinga La Migra, C, 2020
Margaret Perez, (detail) Chinga La Migra, C, 2020
Margaret Perez, (detail) Chinga La Migra, R, 2020
Margaret Perez, (detail) Chinga La Migra, R, 2020
Margaret Perez, Untitled Eagles, 2019
Margaret Perez, Untitled Eagles, 2019
Lauren Cardenas, assimilation, 2020
Lauren Cardenas, assimilation, 2020
Lauren Cardenas, 545, 2021
Lauren Cardenas, 545, 2021
Lauren Cardenas,#sueñoamericano inflight meal, 2019-2020
Lauren Cardenas,#sueñoamericano inflight meal, 2019-2020
Zygote Press

Zygote Press is an artist workshop promoting contemporary fine-art printing. Through advocacy, exhibitions, community programs, and affordable, professional workspace, Zygote stimulates collective exchange. Here, artists create new work, audiences explore new ideas, and collaborations strengthen our community.

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