Maíz Journal | Manuel Andrade

October 12 - 30, 2015 | White Gallery

Reception: Thursday, October 22, 2015 | 5–7pm

Curated by Cass Ray

Maíz Journal is the name of the multimedia project I worked on for the past few months with the intention of creating new works describing my personal experience, association, and thoughts regarding Maíz, also known as Maize and Corn. The past year I had the pleasure and privilege of working for a small and growing Portland-based business called Three Sisters Nixtamal. The company is dedicated to using organic/non-GMO corn in a nixtamalization process in order to make fresh masa and tortillas in the most authentic-industrialized manner. The product re-introduced me to corn masa and tortillas, food I was raised on. My interest and appreciation for the plant itself, continues to grow. I decided it was time to cross the commercial kitchen with the Art studio.

In this series of works I chose to present a kind of mixed-media “Journal” that would represent associations with fellow corn workers, objects, and histories relevant to personal experience and learning on the subject. The pallet chosen is reminiscent to colors of corn I worked with. My aim with this short journal is to conjure an aesthetic simplicity reached through a series of processes, perhaps similar to the creation of a tortilla.

My practice in making Art stems mostly from Painting, Drawing, and Lithography. I grew up in Los Angeles where I was exposed to Murals and other forms of Street Art that contribute to my creative influences. I attended The Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy for a year in 1998-99 during my college education. I graduated with a bachelors in Studio Art and Art History from Humboldt State University in Northern California in 2001.