JON GREEN: ¡Vamos!
Clay Art Center Gallery, June 22 - Aug 04, 2023
Statement:
This work represents a personal narrative as a second-generation Chicano, and is an homage to the elaborate and diverse Latin American Craft-traditions before and after colonization.
My studio practice is explained as both a question and a statement; a curiosity of my ethnic identity and a pride in my Mexican-American heritage. Decorative patterning and bright colors are sourced from Mestizo prints of colonial Latin-America to represent the convergence of ethnic and cultural ideas that make up the Americas. This history is paired with personal symbolism that subverts traditional expectations of Latinx communities. I aim to explore the fragile boundaries of my blurred personal identity within the diverse multi-ethnic background of the Americas.
Each object in ¡Vamos! has dual meaning that references the role shifting contexts have on mixed identities. These objects represent the repossession of Mexican-American stereotypes; over-representation as highly sexualized, lazy, or in servitude to others. The work of this show aims to take up space in underrepresented spaces and also represents my Identity as both the colonized and the colonizer.
I aim to explore the fragile boundaries of my blurred personal identity within the diverse multi-ethnic background of the Americas.
Biography:
Born in a Mexican-American family, Jon Green is entertained by the absurd nature of the American-Dream. He completed his BFA at the University of Montana with a minor in Art History, and worked as a studio assistant for Julia Galloway, Casey Zablocki, and Anton Alvarez. Jon has attended Residencies at Red Lodge Clay Center, Medalta Clay District, and is currently the Rittenberg Artist-in-Residence at Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY. Jon Green’s work pays homage to the craftspeople and merging customs of the Americas through aggrandizing objects and ornamentation.
Watch Jon introduce their Exhibition.
