In San Ysidro, Calif., a border town yards away from Tijuana, Mexico, the community center Casa Familiar showcases submissions from artists across the globe with The Front Art Cultura.

The best art museums provide a haven for voices from each work housed within the confines of their walls. Casa Familiar’s program The Front Arte Cultura, a 15-year-old art gallery in the Mexico-U.S border town San Ysidro, California, achieves just that. Every piece, from both established and emerging artists hailing from Tijuana, Mexico to Kyiv, Ukraine, is chock-full of emotional messages. The current exhibit “Love is an Action,” open to the public until May 7, aims particularly to commemorate International Women’s Day. “It's a space for women, for women artists, to show your work,” gallery director Francisco Morales said. “To talk about relevant issues of women and non-binary equity, gender violence.”

One piece, "Braiding a Message of Love" by the art collective from both sides of the US-Mexico border Collectivo XoQUE, invites visitors to write encouraging letters on glittery gold stars. Morales noted that “Love is an Action” had a significantly large number of interactive pieces adhering to the theme, but inviting viewers to participate in the artwork is an element that Front Arte Cultura sees throughout their various exhibitions. “Popular artists are enjoying having the activation of the public to complete their works.”

Another, “Generico Generacional", is a heavy-handed splice of emotion straight from Tijuana-based artist Angelica Omaña . Atop a canvas built with a collage of medicine and cigarette cartons is three layers of portrait: Omaña’s self-portrait, her mother, and her grandmother. The individual elements each play a role in its voice. From the medium to the subjects of the portraits, the most minute details together lend themselves to the all-encompassing message of Omaña’s anxiety about aging and the detriment of smoking. As a nurse in Mexico during the peak of COVID-19, Omaña’s experience gave her a unique, personal perspective on those health-related worries.

Partial meaning from “Generico Generacional" may be lost on a viewer who ditches the effort to delve deeper, but Morales believes that some of the greatest art takes time to understand. “I've seen pieces that need no explanation and those are amazing,” he said. “But I’ve also seen various pieces, that once you read the text, it blows your mind open with so many ideas and possibilities.”

One contribution to the “Love Is An Action” exhibit, an idea explored with pictures in 2020, came from an artist who today faces an environment created by the antonym of love — the Russia-Ukraine War.

In a series of three photographs, the formerly Kyiv-based artist Maria Kasvan explored the bonds of “parenting.” Since she did not have children in 2020, her closest relationship to motherhood at the time was the bond she had with her pet dog. Kasvan captured that emotion in a photo entitled “Love is in the Air.” The second photo in the series, “My Friend Enke,” depicts a mother huddled over her baby son surrounded by dirt. The third, “See The Sea,” finds its subject from a mother and daughter vacationing at Dzyrylgatch Island, a deserted island in Ukraine. The two are swimming nude in the black sea, creating an intimate moment of maternal affection.

Unintentionally, Kasven’s photos also serve as a painful juxtaposition to her present reality. In 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war forced the artist to flee to nearby Poland for safety. “It's very ironic because the message that she's sending is love,” Morales said regarding Kasven’s work in the gallery. “Then, a month later, the country is at war and hate is kind of predominant in the country.”

Other works in the gallery almost overflow with passion, specifically as a form of protest. "Raspado (Abolish ICE)" by Annabel Turrado projects a video of a woman shaving a block of ice atop corn husks as a commentary on the inhumane practices of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Another installation, “Amino Mujeres,” calls on visitors to write anonymous letters to send to women and non-binary persons in an act of solidarity. Intertwined not only in “Love Is An Action,” but all of The Front Arte Cultura’s exhibits is fervor for social justice from many different ethnic identities, from contributions by indigenous Kumeyaay artists protesting against colonization to local Filipino migrants sharing their immigration experience.

https://thefront.casafamiliar.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/PRICE-SHEET-of-Dia-De-La-Mujer-Wall-Text.docx-Documentos-de-Google-1.pdf

Featured