Abstract

Amado M. Peña’s signature style of Southwest landscapes, starting from the 1980s, represents a combination of Regionalism’s influences with his graphic design techniques in Chicano art. Peña is known for his views of Southwest that centers rural lifestyles and cultural motifs based on Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The roots of Peña’s Regionalist interests come from his early work from the 1970s, which he developed while working as a part of the Chicano movement. This paper is an investigation of these early works, on how they informed his later styles depicting rural life and communities, to uncover the ways in which a postmodern Regionalist style developed out of the graphic sensibilities of the Chicano movement.

About the presenter

Liz Kim is a lecturer in art history at Texas A & M University--Kingsville. She received her Ph.D. in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2017. As a Field Editor for Exhibitions Southwest at caa.reviews, and a critic writing for publications such as Glasstire, frieze, and Hyperallergic, she has been producing reviews on the art of the US-Mexico border region and the American South. She continues to expand on the significance of her findings as a critic through further research and collaboration, including with Carey Rote and Gina Palacios for the recent exhibition at Texas A & M University--Corpus Christi, “De Generación en Generación: 3 Generations of Chicano/a Artists.”