Artist Jason Garcia
Photo courtesy of okuupin.com
The Adams State University Art Symposium kicks off with a screening of Don’t Call Me Son on February 14 and the first hands-on art workshop Storytelling in Contemporary Native American Ceramics on February 16. The events are free and open to the public.
Don’t Call Me Son, (Portuguese: Mãe só há uma) a 2016 Brazilian drama directed by Anna Muylaert, begins at 6 p.m. in the Visual Arts Building room 227. The movie received a Jury Prize at the Teddy Awards for LGBT-related films at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.
The film stars Naomi Nero as Pierre, a teenager unsure of his gender identity but not yet committed to coming out as transgender, whose life and sense of self is complicated when he learns that the woman who raised him is not his real mother, but stole him from the hospital shortly after birth — and in fact he has a whole other birth family, whose expectations of their missing son and brother he may also never be able to meet.
The February 16 art workshop, Storytelling in Contemporary Native American Ceramics will feature artist Jason Garcia at 10 a.m. in the Visual Arts Building room 169. According to okuupin.com, Garcia carefully examines and interprets life around him and then shares those uniquely personal observations with the rest of the world. In his finished work—most often clay tiles that are created in the traditional Pueblo way with hand-gathered clay, native clay slips and outdoor firings, he transforms materials closely connected to the earth into a visually rich mix of Pueblo history and culture, comic book super heroes, video game characters, religious icons and all things pop culture. The son of well-known Santa Clara Pueblo potters John and Gloria Garcia (known as Golden Rod), and the great grandson of the equally revered Santa Clara potter Severa Tafoya, Garcia notes he has been an artist all his life.
La Monarca, a one month symposium focused on empowering local traditions and resisting global movements of power through the arts, represents beauty, migration, and transformation. These qualities are the conceptual starting point for a symposium that aims to cultivate discussion around the persistent and enduring effects of colonialism in the Americas. Through looking at the visual culture of indigenous and other underrepresented groups this symposium will highlight a chorus of voices and visions from the American Southwest, Mexico, Central and South America.
An exhibition, Local Traditions, Contemporary Visions, will feature select pieces from the Adams State Luther Bean Museum collection with work from artists featured in the La Monarca Symposium. The exhibit will be on display from February 26 through April 6 in the Hatfield Gallery, located in the Adams State Visual Arts Building. A closing reception will take place from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. Friday, April 6.
The Art Symposium will continue through March 14 featuring films and art workshops. For more information and a complete schedule visit La Monarca.
