Amalia Mesa-Bains (born July 10, 1943),Telgen, page 272-273 is a

Chicana Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American iden ...

curator, author, visual artist, and educator. She is best known for her large-scale installations that reference home altars and '' ofrendas''. Her work engages in a conceptual exploration of Mexican American women's spiritual practices that addresses

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

and

imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

histories of display, the recovery of

cultural memory Because memory is not just an individual, private experience but is also part of the collective domain, cultural memory has become a topic in both historiography ( Pierre Nora, Richard Terdiman) and cultural studies (e.g., Susan Stewart). These ...

, and their roles in identity formation. In her writing, she examines the formation of Chicana identity and aesthetic practices, the shared experiences of historically marginalized communities in the United States, especially among women of color, and the role of

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

within museums and cultural institutions. Her essay, "Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana

Rasquache Rasquachismo is a theory developed by Chicano scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto to describe "an underdog perspective, a view from ''los de abajo''" (from below) in working class Chicano communities which uses elements of "hybridization, juxtaposition, ...

," theorized domesticana as a set of aesthetic strategies that use spaces and experiences historically associated with Mexican American women as sites for

Chicana feminist Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement in the United States that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicana identities. Chicana feminism is empowering and demands women within ...

reclamation.

Biography

Mesa-Bains was born in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...

.Ruíz, 452 She received a B.A. in painting from

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

before earning a M.A. in interdisciplinary education from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the

Wright Institute The Wright Institute is a private graduate school focused on psychology and located in Berkeley, California. History The institute was founded by Nevitt Sanford in 1968 when he left Stanford. Dr. Sanford first gained prominence as a co-author of ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. She then worked for the San Francisco Unified School District as a psychologist. She was the regional committee chair (Northern California) for the exhibition Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation. She has written ''Ceremony of Spirit: Nature and Memory in Contemporary Latino Art.'' Mesa-Bains lives in San Juan Bautista, California

Career

Mesa-Bains worked as an educator for 20 years in the San Francisco Unified School District, where she served as an

English as a Second Language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...

teacher and a multicultural specialist. She also worked at the Far West Laboratory, where she performed case-based educational research. She co-wrote a casebook and teacher's guide entitled ''Diversity in the Classroom'' with Judith Shulman in 1993. As an artist, her works have been exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Williams College Museum of Art, the Queens Museum in New York, the Contemporary Exhibition Center of Lyon, France, the

Kulturhuset House of Culture (Swedish: Kulturhuset) is a cultural center situated to the south of Sergels torg in central Stockholm, Sweden. The House of Culture has been described as a symbol for Stockholm as well as of the growth of modernism in Sweden. ...

in Stockholm, Sweden, the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland, and the Culterforgenin in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Awards

In 1989 she received the San Francisco Mission Cultural Center's Award of Honor, Association of American Cultures' Artist Award and the Chicana Foundation of Northern California's Distinguished Working Women Award in 1990, INTAR-Hispanic Arts Center's Golden Palm Award in 1991, and the

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...

award in 1992.

Exhibitions

Mesa-Bains's first exhibit was at the 1967 Phelan Awards show that took place in the

Palace of the Legion of Honor The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which al ...

in San Francisco. She began creating altar installations in 1975. Her artistic work is often autobiographical, relating to her Mexican Catholic heritage. Although these works take the form of an altar, they are not specifically intended for religious use. According to Kristin G. Congdon and Kara Kelley Hallmark, authors of ''Artists from Latin American Cultures: A Biographical Dictionary'', "Mesa-Bains's altars often honor women who have broken social barriers." Using techniques related to found object art, Mesa-Bains has incorporated "dried leaves, rocks, pre-Columbian ceramic fragments" and other unusual materials to construct artworks such as her 1987 work ''Grotto of the Virgins'', which is dedicated to painter

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

(1907–1954), actress Dolores del Río (1905–1983), and to the artist's grandmother. In 1990, Mesa-Bains was in The Decade Show, a multidisciplinary exhibition of the art and issues of the 1980s collaboratively organized b
The New Museum
The Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, and

The Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

and Including more than 100 artists. James Luna, Carmelita Tropicana, Betye Saar, and

David Wojnarowicz David Michael Wojnarowicz ( (September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist, and AIDS activist prominent in the East Village art scene. He incorp ...

were amongst the more than 100 artists included across multiple disciplines.

Collections

Her installation, ''Ofrenda for Dolores Del Rio'' (1984, revised 1991), was collected by the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

as part of the exhibition ''Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art'' (2013), which highlights Latino Art contributions to American art history. This work pays homage to Dolores del Rio, who was often cast as an "exotic" woman. Amalia has remarked the 1991 revised version can be differentiated from the 1984 version by the addition of a picture of the artists' mother, Marina González Mesa, just to the right of the lower central picture of Dolores in the silver dress.

References