Tianguis: Pacific Standard Time
Tianguis Outdoor Art Market
Saturday, September 24, 6–10pm
Ana Guajardo’s Tianguis-the Nahuatl word for open air markets dating from the Mesoamerican period and still in existence today-is a project examining a contemporary community of vendor-artists in Los Angeles that participate in and innovate the urban, public market culture. It is a collaborative project utilizing the participation of a special community of artists and entrepreneurs that are relationally connected through Latino cultural events and venues in East Los Angeles. While this neighborhood has served as a hub to unite them annually at specific events, their work and residencies are by no means confined here.
The Tianguis Project aims to illuminate the complex network of art, commodity, politics and culture that are activated in the temporal and spatial constructs of these markets.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Ana Guajardo is an independent curator, UCLA World Arts and Culture graduate student, and professional artisan and creator of Los Switcheros a line of handmade home décor products. Her line is sold in over two dozen stores nation wide as well as weekly events, festivals and conferences in the Los Angeles area and beyond. She has worked in a curatorial assistant capacity at the New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, and has recently curated exhibitions in Los Angeles. She’s Crafty was her first exhibit presented at Imix Books in Eagle Rock, which showcased the work of Los Angeles artesanas including clothing and jewelry designers, urban healers, altar makers, paper mache and other media. MaquiL.A., presented at SPARC similarly incorporated these artists and considered the interventions their works staged by creating alternative modes of production and consumption in a city with the most sweat shops in the US. Guajardo organized a group of artisans as part of Suzanne Lacy’s performance project Stories of Work and Survival, presented as part of MOCA’s WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. Her commitment as a curator is to exhibit cultural histories in which art plays a vital role to incite dialogue and action.
