The inaugural exhibit of “Looking Back, Looking Forward,” curated by gallery director and Mesa museum studies professor, Alessandra Moctezuma delivered an eye for artistry, from Jan. 28th to Feb. 13th. If beauty, in fact, is in the eye of the beholder, then Mesa College’s new alumni exhibit surely satisfied audiences with its aim to highlight feminist struggle and multicultural connections created between themselves and Mesa College.
The featured artworks in the form of a variety of media was located in the newly remodeled Fine Arts building next to the Student Services building.
48 Mesa alumni looked back with this one of a kind alumni reunion, as they showcased all of their current projects which presented their growth and discovery ever since taking studio art classes on campus. Upon entering the exhibit space you are transported to a poetic space of urban landscapes and natural topography topped with a blend of ethnic diversity and racial equality.
Grace Gray-Adams, artist and alumnus, expressed her ideas on femininity. She used dryer lint as a medium to recreate female reproductive organs in elegant antique frames in “18 Yonis Expressing the Devine Feminine.” Gray-Adams has been using dryer lint as an artistic medium ever since the 1980s, as she is interested in the essence that the lint encapsulates as it can be “a piece of tissue from a cold or a pubic hair from a lover.”
Gray-Adams continues to give back by teaching art and computer graphics classes at three community colleges. Jenny Armer, the assistant gallery curator for the exhibit, said, “Everyone had their own ideas and artworks to submit and we didn’t put any restraint on that.”
Artist and arts educator, Anna Stump, offered two of her pieces for the exhibition. Stump incited thought-provoking political discussions with her pieces, “Piñata over Trump’s Wall (Snow White)” and “Piñata over Trump’s Wall (Cupcake).” The idea being that, through mixed-media on panel, she was able to express the outsider-looking into the vibrancy of Mexican culture after having grown up in Chula Vista, San Diego. Stump currently teaches studio and art history courses at San Diego City College and Grossmont College.
The San Diego City College District continues to create opportunities for Mesa students and alumni alike, through the creation of different galleries. “Body Language,” which is now on exhibit at Grossmont College’s Hyde Art Gallery, will be on view until Feb. 26, and there’s more to come.
