Hispanic Heritage Beyond a Month
On the afternoon of September 7th, part of Kress Contemporary was transformed into a nostalgic dreamscape of Jalisco, Mexico. Guided by Linda Ronstadt’s resonating voice, gallery-goers could find the main event at gallery 236. Here, the room had become Untitled Space, Brenda Segoviano’s first solo exhibition. Color cascaded from the ribbon-adorned ceiling down the floor, where cinder blocks housed fruits and flowers and candles. Above all, the walls contained Brenda’s collage works which told a vulnerable tale of familial love and the complexities of being Mexican-American.
Segoviano reminisced about her beginnings while on a call with me: her art first started as a hobby over ten years ago while staying overnight at a hospital. Brenda asked a nurse for something to pass the time. The nurse came back with a magazine and a notebook and told her to rip whatever she wanted out of it. This became a therapeutic escape for Brenda. “I would sit for hours on my living room floor just cutting up paper,” she recounted.
The once abstract collages were shaped into their current form during the lockdown of 2020, when she was in Mexico visiting her family and grieving her late grandfather. “My paternal grandfather passed away from cancer, and it just immediately shifted my perspective.” When she came back to the States, she felt homesick. “Coming to America feels like going to work after being at home resting,” she said. She directed this longing for her home into her collages. “At least my feeling is encased in this art.”
From there, her collages started to focus on her familial ties and her reverence for them. Scattered throughout multiple pieces were motifs of flowers and fruits, and most importantly, the people who represented her family. The fruit, which also appeared physically in the exhibition as accompaniment to her art, stood for the hard work of her mom as an agricultural laborer.
One piece that she highlighted was called Caritina, dedicated to her aunt. This piece, which sat upon its own altar, showed a woman obscured behind a metal mask with fruits and flowers and delicacies forming part of her head. “As a little kid, I found myself just being enamoured with her personality, her wit, her attitude,” said Brenda. Despite this, she noted that there were parts of her aunt that remained unreachable. “I didn’t have a relationship with her that was very personal, but I already knew about her just by being around her… She was a force, and I loved that about her.” Caritina sits in a glass frame, protected yet transparent.
Similar contradicting feelings are carried throughout her pieces and beyond, as her artist statement also touched on the struggles that Mexican immigrants face in this country. Often, they are reduced to the value of their labor, for which they aren’t paid very much, yet Mexican culture is vibrant and abundant throughout the United States. We see it in the media, art, food, and more. Still, immigrants consistently fight an uphill battle for dignity. In addition to this, they are increasingly at risk of violence due to comments and initiatives being made by the U.S. administration, such as the 287(g) agreement, which encourages racial profiling by police.
Despite these struggles, Brenda set out to share her art with the world while highlighting Mexico, and she succeeded. The show, which will be at Kress Contemporary until October 3rd, is an experience anyone from any background should treat themselves to.