AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Six Artists In Search of Themselves

With drama, theater, magical realism and a twist of the absurd, these artists give the self-portrait a makeover

Beth Py-Lieberman

Senior Editor

September 19, 2014

*My Mom Braiding My Hair Like Her Mother Did to Her, Ca. 1990*, 2010, by Rivadeneira. Courtesy of the artist

*Duplicity As Identity: 90%* by Martínez-Cañas Courtesy Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami and Julie Saul Gallery, New York

*EVERYTHINGANDTHEPASTRYCHEF*, 2012 by Cruz Courtesy of the artist

"I photograph my mother and myself as characters exploring our family history," says Mozman. *El Niño*, 2011. Courtesy of the artist

"I explore the gang as a family," says Vasquez of his *YBG Collage*, 2013. Michael Chevallard Collection

"I painted people who I looked up to, in a monumental scale, so that the viewer will look up to them, as I do," says Vasquez of his 7-foot-tall painting *This is Ours*. Blair and Arthur Rice

In *The Neighborhood Tour*, Michael Vasquez says he is telling the story of a boy who grew up without a father. Collection of Evan and Stephanie Reed

*My Mom Thanking the Rain and Maria Worrying that I might get Sick Ongoing until 1992*, 2010 by Karen Miranda Rivaadeneira. Courtesy of the artist

*My Mom Healing Me From My Fear of Iguanas, By Taking Me To the Park and Feeding Them Every Weekend, Ca. 1994* by Rivadeneira, 2012 Courtesy of the artist

David Antonio Cruz layers his paintings with found materials to explore his family's migration from Puerto Rico *IWISHRAINYDAYSCAMEWITHASLICEOFMANGO*, 2012 Courtesy of the artist

Mozman says her images reflect on social hierarchies in Latin America. *Piscina*, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

Rachelle Mozman says her work featuring her mother "stands at the intersection of documentary, narration and performance." *El Espejo*, 2010. Courtesy of the artist

*Duplicity As Identity: 50%* by Martínez-Cañas Cricket Taplin Collection

María Martínez-Cañas says she is exploring "duplicity" as she overlays images of both herself and her father. *Duplicity as Identity: 10%*, 2008-2009. Courtesy Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami and Julie Saul Gallery, New York

*The Strand that Holds Us Together*, 2014 by Carlee Fernandez Courtesy of the artist and ACME, Los Angeles

*Self Portrait as Franz West's Sculpture*, 2006, by Carlee Fernandez Courtesy of the artist and ACME, Los Angeles

Carlee Fernandez says she's using her body as an anchor but adding to it new characteristics in *Bear Hair Study*, 2004. Courtesy of the artist and ACME, Los Angeles

Michael Vasquez, an artist who creates large-scale images of street gangs and well-tattooed homeboys, grew up without a dad. His mother worked as an office manager in a law firm in a St. Petersburg, Florida. “If there is not a father figure in a boy’s life,” says the 31-year-old artist, “who teaches him to be a man?”

“A lot of my work is narrative,” he says, pointing to his work entitled, The Neighborhood Tour, of a child riding atop the handlebars of a bike. The teen pedaling is cloaked in a black hoodie; his arm is wrapped firmly around the little boy. “The kid is venturing out into the neighborhood and the black background is the unknown; there is a lot of safety expressed in that embrace.”

Vasquez was discussing his work at a press preview recently for the National Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition “Portraiture Now: Staging the Self,” a show that features the biographical works of five other Latino artists, including David Antonio Cruz, Carlee Fernandez, María Martínez-Cañas, Karen Miranda Rivadeneira and Rachelle Mozman.

The show takes a sharp departure from the more traditional form of portraiture that the museum is known for—historic paintings, drawings and sculptures of America’s presidents, playwrights, poets and other persons of renown. “I’m really into the art of portraiture,” says the museum’s director Kim Sajet. “This is where we can have a lot of fun,” she says, adding that she hopes to explore the cutting edge of portraiture, including the recent commissioning of a monumental landscape portrait that will appear on the National Mall this October.

The six contemporary artists address self portraiture as a psychological and self-revelatory exploration of family, background and origin. The paintings, photographs and collages form a type of visual diary telling stories to express identity. Taking the shape of documentary, theater, the absurd and magical realism, they bring genius and creativity to a new kind of selfie (thankfully, minus the outstretched arm).

Vasquez’ identity is one that includes the experience growing up in Florida’s Pinellas County among street gangs, whose members became his friends and mentors. “Some people think I glorify gangs, but I try to show the caring aspects. I have other works that deal with the burden of that lifestyle.”

The Los Angeles-based artist Carlee Fernandez calls herself a sculptor but her works are expressed in photography. Her body becomes the basis or anchor for her “sculpture” as she takes on other identities, animal, human, even as another artist Franz West. But one of her most peculiar images became the icon for the show and calls for an explanation. A close up of her face—feathered hairstyle, bare shouldered—depicts her steady, direct gaze at the camera. Her nose, though, is stuffed with long wisps of brown hair or fur. “I wanted to use my own body within an animal—a bear,” she says of several images that depict her wearing portions of a bear suit. “Tidbits of fur were lying on the floor, so I stuck them in my nose, to make myself more masculine.”

Other artists in the show carry on the theme of searching for the self. New York artist, Rachelle Mozman, who is also from Panama, works with her mother, creating dramatic scenes with mom starring in most of the roles. David Antonio Cruz’ collages address the story of Puerto Rican migration. María Martínez-Cañas plays with the interconnectivity of both her father and her own features in a series of prints that merge their faces by degrees, or rather percentages. And Karen Miranda Rivadeneira stages reenactments that speak to a story telling magical realism with her Ecuadorian family using photographs that recreate her powerful or significant memories. Here she is in a field of nasturtiums, or with her mother braiding her hair, or in an hilarious scene in a park, when her mother makes her feed an army of iguanas to exercise her fear of the creatures. These scenes, Rivadeneira points out, are a “means for reflection and a search for truth.”

Portraiture Now: Staging the Self, curated by Taína Caragol, Brandon Fortune, Rebecca Kasemeyer, Dorothy Moss and David C. Ward is on view at the National Portrait Gallery through April 12, 2015. Hispanic Heritage Month at the Smithsonian is celebrated through October 15.