DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

expologoTomorrow and Sunday the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach hosts the fifth annual Latino Comics Expo.

Featured artists include POCHO contributor Eric J. Garcia, POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz, New York’s Stephanie Rodriguez and more.

Javier Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame, is the ringleader.

KCET’s Matt Stromberg explains the cultural significance of Latino cartoonistas and the political history they pioneered:

As box office figures can attest, comic books are big business, with successful cinematic adaptations proving that superheroes have made the leap from pop cultural niche to mainstream entertainment. Despite their wide appeal, however, comic books, at least the established titles that usually become big screens franchises, are still predominantly filled with white, male characters, especially in leading roles.

A new exhibition at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, “Artists Assemble! Empowerment and Inspiration in Contemporary Comics,” aims to challenge that narrative by focusing on mainly Latino artists who are using the medium to explore cultural and political issues that have meaning for them.

Mas…DON’T MISS! Latino Comics Expo this weekend at MOLAA (toons)

Latino Heritage Month Pochismo Profile: Xochitl Cahuenga-Alvarado

weliseCalifornia artist Xochitl Cahuenga-Alvarado (born in 1988 in Fresno) creates mixed media artworks and performances.

By investigating language on a meta-level, Cahuenga-Alvarado tries to grasp language.

Transformed into art, language becomes an ornament. At that moment, lots of ambiguities and indistinctnesses, which are inherent to the phenomenon, come to the surface. Ooooh, shiny!

Her mixed media artworks are an investigation into representations of (seemingly) concrete ages and situations as well as depictions and ideas of the Latin@ that can only be realized in mixed media art.

Mas…Latino Heritage Month Pochismo Profile: Xochitl Cahuenga-Alvarado

eBay bidding has begun! @LaloAlcaraz’ AZTEC SK8R UPDATED*

Completed Paintingobjects-0134I started this painting last week as part of a series of Mexicas (Aztecs) living and reacting to today’s world.

I was reminded of on-again, off-again modern-day Mexicas by a hate letter/post I got from the organizer and head poobah of a brown “self-hate” group, the Mexica Movement.

These geniuses are the Chicano equivalent of the kooky Westboro Baptist Church, except that instead of attacking everyone for living alongside gays, they attack their own community of Raza for such crimes as drawing a nationally-syndicated comic strip, or daring to perform Aztec Dance.

Mas…eBay bidding has begun! @LaloAlcaraz’ AZTEC SK8R UPDATED*

Unseen for half a century: Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe (photos, video)

tehuana_dresssqSelected photos of Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe – locked away for half a century – will go on exhibit in London next week.

fridaydiegoaskidsDangerous Minds reports:

After Kahlo’s death in 1954, her husband Diego Rivera shut her belongings in a bathroom at their Mexico City home, the Blue House, [video, below] the marvelous house they shared—and then insisted that it be locked up until 15 years after his death (which, in the event, happened in 1957).

In fact, the room wasn’t opened until 2004, when Ishiuchi Miyako was given permission to photograph its intimate contents.

The photographs will be on display at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London from May 14 through July 12.

Mas…Unseen for half a century: Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe (photos, video)

Charlie Chicken, Canine Artist: A Puerto Rican perro in NYC (video)


He’s only a small town dog from Puerto Rico, scoffers say. But seriously, can Charlie Chicken, Canine Artist, make it in the uber competitive New York artistic scene? Charlie’s creations (his mixed media are poop and urine) are regularly featured all across Brooklyn, the short documentary explains.

Frida Kahlo finally comes to senses, sees cosmetologist (photos)

(PNS reporting from MEXICO, DF) Dead Mexican feminist artist and icon Frida Kahlo has finally come to her senses and visited a cosmetologist here to clean up her act.

Check out the old Frida and compare with the new shiny, happy Frida:

fridabefore

after

PREVIOUSLY ON FRIDA KAHLO:

Illustrations via ColorLines.com

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You can’t un-see this: Celebrity Photoshop ‘makeunders’ (photos)

New York artist Danny Evans uses his mad Photoshop skillz to fight for truth, justice and pinche reality in a series of celebrity photographs artfully reimagined as photos of ordinary people. Here are Johnny Depp and Madonna, for example:

johnnydeppreally300 madonna300

Not done yet? You can take more, no problem? Meet Brad and Angelina and Jennifer Lopez by herself and pictured with Marc Anthony:

Mas…You can’t un-see this: Celebrity Photoshop ‘makeunders’ (photos)