La Movida/The Hustle

La Movida /The Hustle – a solo exhibition of new work by Maria Cristina Tavera (“Tina”) explores how material culture (physical objects, such as clothing and domestic objects) reflects a society’s values, in this case a subculture. The exhibition’s title has many layered meanings, La Movida is the hustle, where one works hard to gain an advantage from a situation almost always for a monetary benefit... Quien no transa, no avanza… It is also a colloquial word to mean countercultural movement or nightlife scene.
 

EVENT DATES
  Exhibit Opening: Saturday, August 28, 2021 from 5pm-10pm includes live music and a Latinx tianguis open air art market from 5-9pm.
 

GALLERY HOURS
  Gallery hours; Thursday, Friday and Saturdays 12noon-5pm or by appointment
 

ABOUT THE ARTIST
  Tavera’s artwork stems from her own bicultural, and bilingual identity to examine cultural signifiers regarding constructions of race, ethnicity, gender, and national identities. The artistic intent of this project is NOT to create traditional objects; instead to explore creating objects that incorporate Latin American and Latinx iconography into aesthetics. Historically the idea of ownership did not exist in Latin America prior to Spanish and European colonization. Rather, an emphasis was placed on a family’s ability to produce their own necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. People in the Americas began constructing the hierarchy of social class identities in association with imported commodities to achieve social mobility by displaying European items (fine cloth/clothes, furniture or art) in their homes or on their body. Now the evolution of material culture has transitioned even further due to the contemporary global economy.