Shizu Saldamando

Shizu Saldamando (born 1978 in San Francisco, CA), is an American visual artist. Her work merges painting and collage (often using origami paper) in portraits that often deal with social constructs of identity and subcultures. She has worked in the genre of arte paño, a type of prison art involving portraits of family members and friends drawn in ball-point pen on napkins or handkerchiefs. Saldamando also works in video, installation and performance art.

Contents

• Artist s talk shizu saldamando
• The art of shizu saldamando
• Biography
• Education
• Quotes
• Exhibitions
• References

Her work was included in the group exhibition "Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter" at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in 2011, Her work was also shown in "We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles," curated by Elizabeta Betinski as an official collateral exhibition of the The 56th Venice Biennale. She was a resident artist at the Art Omi International Artist Colony in 2002.

Biography

Saldamando was born to parents of Mexican-American and Japanese-American descent. She was raised in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Education

MFA, California Institute of Arts, 2005

BA, University of California, Los Angeles School of Arts and Architecture, 2000

Quotes

"A lot of what I try to capture are different subcultures or scenes in which people have created their own world outside of larger alienating constructs."

"My friends and I would buy Teen Angels, a magazine of lowrider and cholo art, and try to copy the drawings of Aztec pyramids and warriors and naked girls. I think that's how I got good at ballpoint pen renderings."

"Growing up in the Mission district in San Francisco, it was predominantly a hip-hop culture. Here in Los Angeles, I'd go to shows or house parties, and it would be all Latino kids listening to the Cure and the Smiths. In L.A., I felt normal for the first time."

Exhibitions

"When You Sleep: A Survey of Shizu Saldamando." Vincent Price Art Museum, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA. September 10 - December 7, 2013.

"There is a Place..." Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA. January 2 - January, 30 2010.

"Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement." Los Angeles County Museum of Art, April 6, 2008–September 1, 2008.

"Lo Brown--Brown Art in Lo Places/Lo Art in Brown Places." Tropico de Nopal, Los Angeles, CA. 2006.

"Hecho en Califas." Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA. 2004.

"The Visitors Show." Social and Public Art Resource Center, Venice, CA. 2004.

"Visions of a Post-Modern Aztlán." Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia, PA. 2004.

"13 y 13: Emerging Chicana/o Artists of Los Angeles." Galeria Otra Vez, Self-Help Graphics & Art, Los Angeles, CA. 2004.

"Re-Do China" Ethan Cohen Gallery, 2003.

"Mexicanidad." Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago, IL. 2003.

"Che y Que." Galeria Otra Vez, Self-Help Graphics & Art, Los Angeles, CA. 2003.

" A New Generation." Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art, San Francisco, CA. 2002.

"Substance of Choice." Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, CA. 2002.

"The Game." Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA. 2002.

"Air Raids." L. A. Freewaves Festival, Los Angeles, CA. 2000.