20 Contemporary art by Dovey Martinez & Nico Inzerella. ONLINE GALLERY available.

Vermillion | March 10, 2020

Check out the online gallery for this show HERE

Details about the show.

March 2020 features two artists who have previously exhibited at Vermillion during the yehaw in March 2019 (curated by Jessica Ramirez). This year finds both artists continuing on their emerging careers and further honoring their heritage.

Title: Del Barrio: Dovey Martinez & Nico Inzerella.
Opening: March 12, 6-9pm. All Ages. Runs: March 12-April 4, 2020.
Traditional food and music TBA.

Dovey Martinez:
About the Art
“I use gold paint over the face and bodies of the people I paint as a metaphor for their high value to second generation immigrant children, but also to America. Immigrants are selfless. Immigrants are strong and resilient and work to help their own families but also are constantly seeking to build community. It is not my intent to create art to elevate myself, but rather to share the beauty and value of my Honduran and Latinx community.

Every painting depicts someone I know on a personal level. The imagery is gathered from my travels to Honduras, to the callejones in Los Angeles, and my neighborhood in Seattle. I am painting my mom, my grandma, myself, but also the parents of my friends and others I with whom I have been raised. The color choices are bright and vibrant to represent the color palette of traditional Honduran paintings.”

About the Artist:
“I strive to use paint and personal imagery of my friends and family to share a story of labor, struggle, perseverance, motivation, and identity. In this work you will see paintings of my single mother, a Honduran immigrant to the United States who has been working as a domestic housekeeper for thirty years. I have had the privilege of attending private education on scholarships from middle school onward. I received my bachelor’s degree in studio arts from Connecticut College in 2018.”

“In high school, my mother went to a gathering at my private high school in Seattle, Washington to meet other parents. I remember asking her why she only went once and did not return to the monthly parent gatherings. She told me that most parents had careers such as lawyers and doctors and she was embarrassed when she was asked what she did for work. This is what serves as my motivation to paint. I want to depict my mother in her labor in order to share our story as well as to serve as representational pieces to other immigrant families.”

“I am excited to share with others the resilience and beauty of those in my community with viewers who may not have experienced this otherwise. I hope these paintings serve as motivación to be proud of your own culture and value it as gold, in particular those who’ve sacrificed much to provide opportunities for us.”
Link to Dovey’s site: doveyswork.weebly.com
D ovey Martinez: Emerging Arts Leader Look at SAM
Instagram: @doveyswork

Nico Inzerella:
About the Art
“Preserving my family culture is important to me and I do this through my artwork. Over the past 15 years I’ve traveled extensively throughout Mexico and Central America taking thousands of photos. I combine my photography, fine arts, and graphic arts to create my final pieces. This series captures the hard work and everyday life of Latin America.”

About the Artist
“My family has been in the US (California, Oregon and Washington) for 4-5 generations. For my first small chunk of life I grew up in Ventura, California but my family moved to the Seattle area in the early 1980s. My Mexican culture slowly moved up North as well. During my childhood and teenage years I was brought up as being “American” and I was stuck in this limbo of trying to fit in while living in the suburbs of Seattle. It wasn’t until after college when I moved to Mexico for 6 months I started to explore who I really was and not the “expected” person I had identified as. I found a way to connect with my Mexican culture through my art.”

Process:
“It starts with capturing nice photos that most likely I took while living, surfing, practicing yoga, and studying art while living in Mexico or Guatemala throughout the years. I have approximately 5000 photos from a couple years of living abroad. Once I have my subject matter I run it through some filters and then vectorize it then print it in large format. As for the artwork in the video I made one of my photos into line art and transferred it to a linoleum block then carved it. I then used oil based print ink and made a print from the block. I then figure out what kind of theme or background and with a mixture of collage and paint I create the background on a wood panel. I then wheat paste the vector art or the block print to the wood panel. Lastly I paint on top of the art work, hand-make papel picado (paper flag) and add the some sort of bling bling—I use a lot of gold leaf. I’m starting to look into more print work on canvas. It’s much more time consuming but the carving portion is very meditative to me—plus I can’t draw for the life of me.”

“This summer I’ll be teaching a Collage + Paint class at North Seattle College – Continuing Education and I’ll be showing my technique, some basic paint techniques, some block print technique, image transfer, and bringing it all together into collage and paint. It’ll be an open studio class with a short lecture/ technique but then all studio time. “

More contact info;
Instagram: @chicanoart206
Website: http://nicoidesign.com/fine-art/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicoinzerellaart/
Instructor BIO at North Seattle College https://conted.northseattle.edu/instructor-bios/53865