WE THE PEOPLE
The Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum presents a new exhibition focusing on the American experience.
Figurative artists often find narratives for their canvases from experiences in their personal lives and in their surrounding culture. The result is diverse compositions that speak to artists’ own perspectives, but the works usually capture the attention of viewers because there can be a sense of familiarity. In the exhibition We the People at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Arizona, more than a dozen artists will display artwork highlighting the American experience. These range from pieces with social commentary and self-reflection to works that record moments of everyday life.
On view through August 5, the show combines the ideas of its three curators—Tiffany Fairall, the museum’s curator of exhibitions; its chief curator Patty Haberman; and Frank Gonzales, an artist and the museum’s exhibit designer/preparator—to create a varied display of subjects, mediums and techniques. Fairall says, “Frank’s always had an interest in figurative art, and I had a more political bend and Patty is about showing exceptional artists.”
In further highlighting the show’s reach, the museum explains, “It is often said that America is a melting pot, but as we embrace our diversity and eclectic construct, perhaps a more fitting metaphor is the increasingly popular term ‘tossed salad.’ As a collective group of people with converging stories and different experiences, this exhibition captures a limited snapshot of the complex cultural fabric that binds not only our country but our humanity.”
Mary Henderson’s current series, Public Views, examines people gathered in crowds for outdoor events. The imagery delves into how people choose to present themselves by participating in exhibitions,
political rallies, festivals, sporting events and more; it is their selves as part of the group, their selves in public and their private selves. From the series are her works Winter Coats, which depicts people of various age brackets during the 2017 Women’s March, and Cups, a painting of college students during a frat party.
“The subject matter is inspired by my own personal and family experience—as well as by broader social phenomena—and is based on pictures found online, photos that I have taken and images shared with me by friends,” explains Henderson of the body of work. “I am interested in how individuals and groups attempt to construct or live up to idealized personae or experiences and in how those efforts either conform to or break from expectations. The subjects of the work, shown in unguarded moments of vulnerability, reflection or preoccupation, exist in a state of suspension between individual and collective identity.”
Painting pieces that comment on aspects of American society is F. Scott Hess, who finds capitalism to be inescapable since we engage in business and corporate activities regularly. “Yet, one of the basic
tenets of business is ‘manufacture cheap, sell dear.’ In other words, rip off the populace for huge profit. Greed rules,” says Hess, whose painting Good Luck is a surrealistic view of the topic.
“My fantasy for Good Luck involved the premise that money, for whatever reason, is suddenly free,” Hess describes. “Hundred dollar bills are falling from the sky. What do businessmen do when the driving force in their enterprise is removed? What do they carry that is of value to the society they live in? What’s in the box?”
There are other artists in the exhibition who have found a niche by honing in on American culture. Shawn Barber, for instance, has been documenting tattoo culture and its history in The Tattooed Portraits Series since 2005. As of today, he has completed more than 350 paintings of the theme and has learned the craft himself. In this show is The Hurtado Family, an intimate portrait of a tattooist at home with his family drawing with colorful markers on each others arms and on paper.
“Nikko Hurtado has redefined and pioneered the modern color realism tattoo aesthetic. His contributions to the craft of tattooing are well respected and admired across the globe,” says Barber. “This family portrait is a window into a vibrant Mexican American family being creative and sharing the artistic experience.”
In his drawings Robert Pruitt frequently includes imagery of other artwork. In Untitled (Red Ribbon), for example, peeking out from the woman’s headdress is the sculpture Ethiopia – Awakening by Harlem Renaissance artist Meta Warrick Fuller.
Pruitt elaborates, “My drawings frequently include the artwork of African-American artists who have preceded me. My hope is that this serves as a framework for understanding my work and as a historical recognition of an underrepresented canon of artists. In this way, the work falls well in line with the theme of the exhibition. The drawing both literally and metaphorically reveals an othered history and expands the larger American narrative of representation.”
Turning toward his own life, as reflected through models, is artist Victor Wang, whose painting Falling Leaves is inspired by his immigration experiences. “In the composition, the woman is standing steadily and stably on her feet, confronting a new, colorful and motion-filled world,” he says. “Her eyes stir as if the viewers are questioning who she is and what she stands for. Her expression and gestures remain strong and undisturbed. She is not disturbed by her surroundings.”
Along with the storytelling in compositions, the exhibition also focuses on how art in America developed during the 20th century as the popularity of abstract expressionism caused many to push representational art to the sidelines. As the museum explains, “Today, we see a resurgence of this subject in a refreshing way, with many artists blurring or eliminating the boundaries of what was once considered two mutually exclusive categories.”