The Museum of Sonoma County (MSC) is pleased to present Tierra de Rosas (“Land of Roses”), a solo exhibition of the work of Maria de Los Angeles, a Mexican-born artist and immigration activist who was raised in Santa Rosa, California, and now, based in New York, is receiving national recognition.

Maria de Los Angeles is a multidisciplinary artist who addresses issues of migration, displacement, identity, and otherness through her drawing, painting, printmaking, and fashion. She holds an MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale School of Art (2015), a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute (2013), and an Associate Degree in Fine Arts from Santa Rosa Junior College (2010). She was awarded the Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize by Yale University (2015) for her artwork and her role in the community.

Tierra de Rosas is a homecoming of sorts for Maria de Los Angeles. She was born in Mexico and crossed the border into California with her family when she was a small girl in 1999. The family settled in Santa Rosa, where Maria attended Lawrence Cook Middle School, Elsie Allen High School, Santa Rosa High School, and Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC). This solo exhibition is the first such exhibition of her work in her adopted hometown since leaving for New York and will feature original works made specifically for this exhibition, including works created in collaboration with local students.

De Los Angeles has been an Artist in Residence at several notable institutions such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), El Museo del Barrio in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Mana Contemporary in New Jersey, Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, and the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon, where she had a solo exhibition in 2018.

Recent exhibitions include group shows with Every Woman Biennial, Self Help Graphics, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, St. Johnʼs University, Robert Mann Gallery, and E.TAY Gallery. She participated in a panel discussion on xenophobia and deportation in America at Gavin Brown's Enterprise. Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic, NY Magazine, HelloGiggles, and The Observer.

Maria de Los Angeles says of her work, “Currently, my work is rooted in my immigrant experience in the United States. I portray the criminalization of migration, definitions of citizenship, biculturalism, and how cultural identity is perceived by some in this time of division and rising nationalism. I begin by drawing from my imagination then, later, from photographs, combining the two to create a macro migration narrative. Geographically, the imagery combines fictional and actual moments on the US-Mexican border; I emphasize what life is like for undocumented persons in the United States.”

 

A Way of Life

Concurrent with Maria de Los Angeles’s exhibition, MSC is pleased to present A Way of Life, co-curated by Maria de Los Angeles and MSC Executive Director, Jeff Nathanson.

A Way of Life is a companion to the exhibition Tierra de Rosas, celebrating the personal and artistic connections that provided support, influence, and inspiration for Maria de Los Angeles on her path from Santa Rosa to Pratt, Yale, New York, and her rise as a nationally-recognized emerging artist. “The ten artists selected for this group exhibition are people in my community whose dedication to making their art and points of view have shaped my understanding of art and of being an artist,” says de Los Angeles. “This group exhibition is a celebration of their work.” The artists in A Way of Life include:

Sharon Arnold

Alan Azhderian

Ryan Bonilla

Maria Cañas

Jack Leissring

Scott Malbaurn

Vincent Ramos

Alejandro Salazar

Catherine Sieck

Jim Spitzer

 

Tierra de Rosas and A Way of Life are generously supported by Ronald Casentini, Eric and Debbie Green, Jack and Diane Stuppin, and Resolution Capital.

 

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Press

María de los Ángeles regresa a casa con exhibición “Tierra de Rosas” en Sonoma County Museum, (La Prensa, 8/27/2019)

Maria de Los Angeles brings her art back home for Santa Rosa show, (Press Democrat, 8/22/2019)

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