artist

DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

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expologoTomorrow and Sunday the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach hosts the fifth annual Latino Comics Expo.

Featured artists include POCHO contributor Eric J. Garcia, POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz, New York’s Stephanie Rodriguez and more.

Javier Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame, is the ringleader.

KCET’s Matt Stromberg explains the cultural significance of Latino cartoonistas and the political history they pioneered:

As box office figures can attest, comic books are big business, with successful cinematic adaptations proving that superheroes have made the leap from pop cultural niche to mainstream entertainment. Despite their wide appeal, however, comic books, at least the established titles that usually become big screens franchises, are still predominantly filled with white, male characters, especially in leading roles.

A new exhibition at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, “Artists Assemble! Empowerment and Inspiration in Contemporary Comics,” aims to challenge that narrative by focusing on mainly Latino artists who are using the medium to explore cultural and political issues that have meaning for them.

Mas…DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

Latino Heritage Month Pochismo Profile: Xochitl Cahuenga-Alvarado

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weliseCalifornia artist Xochitl Cahuenga-Alvarado (born in 1988 in Fresno) creates mixed media artworks and performances.

By investigating language on a meta-level, Cahuenga-Alvarado tries to grasp language.

Transformed into art, language becomes an ornament. At that moment, lots of ambiguities and indistinctnesses, which are inherent to the phenomenon, come to the surface. Ooooh, shiny!

Her mixed media artworks are an investigation into representations of (seemingly) concrete ages and situations as well as depictions and ideas of the Latin@ that can only be realized in mixed media art.

Mas…Latino Heritage Month Pochismo Profile: Xochitl Cahuenga-Alvarado

eBay bidding has begun! @LaloAlcaraz’ AZTEC SK8R UPDATED*

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Completed Paintingobjects-0134I started this painting last week as part of a series of Mexicas (Aztecs) living and reacting to today’s world.

I was reminded of on-again, off-again modern-day Mexicas by a hate letter/post I got from the organizer and head poobah of a brown “self-hate” group, the Mexica Movement.

These geniuses are the Chicano equivalent of the kooky Westboro Baptist Church, except that instead of attacking everyone for living alongside gays, they attack their own community of Raza for such crimes as drawing a nationally-syndicated comic strip, or daring to perform Aztec Dance.

Mas…eBay bidding has begun! @LaloAlcaraz’ AZTEC SK8R UPDATED*

Unseen for half a century: Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe (photos, video)

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tehuana_dresssqSelected photos of Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe – locked away for half a century – will go on exhibit in London next week.

fridaydiegoaskidsDangerous Minds reports:

After Kahlo’s death in 1954, her husband Diego Rivera shut her belongings in a bathroom at their Mexico City home, the Blue House, [video, below] the marvelous house they shared—and then insisted that it be locked up until 15 years after his death (which, in the event, happened in 1957).

In fact, the room wasn’t opened until 2004, when Ishiuchi Miyako was given permission to photograph its intimate contents.

The photographs will be on display at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London from May 14 through July 12.

Mas…Unseen for half a century: Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe (photos, video)

Charlie Chicken, Canine Artist: A Puerto Rican perro in NYC (video)

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He’s only a small town dog from Puerto Rico, scoffers say. But seriously, can Charlie Chicken, Canine Artist, make it in the uber competitive New York artistic scene? Charlie’s creations (his mixed media are poop and urine) are regularly featured all across Brooklyn, the short documentary explains.

Frida Kahlo finally comes to senses, sees cosmetologist (photos)

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(PNS reporting from MEXICO, DF) Dead Mexican feminist artist and icon Frida Kahlo has finally come to her senses and visited a cosmetologist here to clean up her act.

Check out the old Frida and compare with the new shiny, happy Frida:

fridabefore

after

PREVIOUSLY ON FRIDA KAHLO:

Illustrations via ColorLines.com

POCHO ÑEWS SERVICE PNS IS A WHOLLY-FICTITIOUS SUBSIDIARY OF POCHISMO, INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION, WHO IS A PERSON ACCORDING TO THE SUPREME COURT. DON’T ASK US, WE JUST WORK HERE.

You can’t un-see this: Celebrity Photoshop ‘makeunders’ (photos)

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New York artist Danny Evans uses his mad Photoshop skillz to fight for truth, justice and pinche reality in a series of celebrity photographs artfully reimagined as photos of ordinary people. Here are Johnny Depp and Madonna, for example:

johnnydeppreally300 madonna300

Not done yet? You can take more, no problem? Meet Brad and Angelina and Jennifer Lopez by herself and pictured with Marc Anthony:

Mas…You can’t un-see this: Celebrity Photoshop ‘makeunders’ (photos)

Pocho Ocho secret items from Frida Kahlo’s closet *not* on display

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What’s behind the blue door?

While visitors to the Casa Azul Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico City think they’re viewing a definitive selection of items from Kahlo’s closet that have been hidden for 58 years, POCHO has learned that curators, sensitive to the artist’s legend, have held back some items from public display.

Here are the top eight items you won’t see:

8. Lifetime membership card, Hoop Earrings of the Month Club
7. Photoshop 0.1 beta test DVD
6. Leon Trotsky’s private cellphone number

Mas…Pocho Ocho secret items from Frida Kahlo’s closet *not* on display

On Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, it looks a bit like Christmas (photos)

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Ramiro J. Gomez is a West Hollywood installation artist who makes and places cardboard avatars of immigrant laborers around Southern California’s richer neighborhoods; his mission is to make normally invisible people visible, if just for a short time.

Monday around 4:30 Gomez was busy populating the cardboard labor force on Beverly Hills‘ famed shopping street, Rodeo Drive, where it’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas — Beverly Hills style, that is. Weather? Sunny, with temperatures in the low to mid 60s ℉.

Here’s what he posted on Facebook:

Finished with the cardboard installation spree today. My heart inevitably was racing, especially when I placed the cutouts on busy Rodeo Dr. but that is the most liberating and rewarding aspect of my project, the ability to go in plain sight and creatively make a statement.

Eloisa is the elote seller, Rodrigo is the paletero, and Mayra is the woman with the balloons. Here’s the view from Gomez’ camera:

Mas…On Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, it looks a bit like Christmas (photos)

Eye of the beholder: A day in the life of an Eames chair (video)

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DIEZ tells the story of a molded plywood Eames chair and its journey over the course of a few days in San Francisco, a journey that starts when the chair is momentarily left in front of an upscale gallery, and an older Mexican woman takes the chair, mistaking the modern design icon for trash. This random event sets in motion the chair’s journey and surprising transformation.

DIEZ deconstructs; literally and figuratively – an Eames chair. The story illustrates in a whimsical fashion how the value of material objects can have different, but no less important, meaning to different people. DIEZ shows the many different realities that exist in the same neighborhood and the contrasting values that accompany them. Ultimately DIEZ asks the question; when divided into its DIEZ (ten) basic components, what value does an Eames chair really have?

— Filmmaker Immanuel Martin

Letter from the Editor: Respect the pinche artist (*updated)

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Yesterday I drew and subsequently shared on Facebook my syndicated editorial cartoon on Dolores Huerta receiving her Presidential Medal of Freedom (above.)

Many of you shared it, as was my request. Thank you! We are all proud of the living legend Dolores Huerta, and the respect she has garnered, especially this week.

However one person, an FB user named Steven downloaded my heartfelt artwork, defaced it and even removed my name and made his own anti-Obama and Dolores Huerta statement. His political opinion is not the issue here. I have held much the same anti-political parties opinion in the past. What has angered me is the disrespect to my work as an artist. Let me explain why, just to be completely clear.

Mas…Letter from the Editor: Respect the pinche artist (*updated)

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