Exhibition: “Vernacular Glamour”

Installation view of Vernacular Glamour, Cambridge Art Association, January 6 — February 19, 2022. Photo by Kiley Richards.

My first solo curatorial project of 2022, Vernacular Glamour at the Cambridge Art Association, closed on February 19th, just over a week ago.

The group exhibition featured works by Juan Arango Palacios, Maria Yolanda Liebana, Perla Mabel, Chloe Luisa Piñero, Ginger Q, Rixy, Moises Salazar, and Jhona Xaviera that mobilize the artifice and exuberance of glamour to address the complexities of everyday life. Featuring recent work by Latinx artists from across the US, the exhibition considered how contemporary Latinx artists use materials and imagery from their communities and immediate surroundings to critique hegemonic tastes while affirming the radiance of racialized, queer, femme life.

While concentrating on the work of artists coming of age in the 21st century, the exhibition concept was informed by the work of feminist Chicana and queer Chicanx artists from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s and by Amalia Mesa-Bains’ path-laying scholarship on “domesticana” from the 90s, which provided a necessary intervention in art criticism to critically appreciate the work of artists racialized and gendered as “other” who engage the domestic, the spiritual, craft, and self-fashioning in their art.

You can purchase the exhibition catalogue through the Cambridge Art Association here.

The exhibition received the following press:

Celina Colby, “Cambridge Art Association show probes queer, Latinx experiences”, Bay State Banner, February 2, 2022.

Cate McQuaid, “‘Vernacular Glamour’ excavates the material world”, Boston Globe, January 18, 2022.

Claudia Fiks, “Raising their voices: Reclaiming Space and Celebrating Identities at CAA”, Artscope Magazine, December 28, 2021.