Nora Chapa Mendoza

Nora Chapa Mendoza (born 1932) is a Texas born artist.[1] She has been named Michigan Artist of the Year[2] and is recipient of the Governor's Arts Award.[2] In 1996 she was one of eight artists that participated in the renovation of Detroit's Music Hall.[3]

Biography

Life and Education

She was born in Weslaco,Texas to Mexican parents.[4] She studied at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit[5] and Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan.[6]

Art work

She has become well known for the forms hidden within her abstract paintings.[7] Her paintings often draw on themes of immigration and deterritorialization,[8] human rights, labor, rebellion and are informed by her Mexican heritage and her experiences as an artist in Detroit.[4] She has done work including restoration, workshops, artist in residence, and murals.[4]

Arts Organizations

Throughout her life, Mendoza worked to create an environment where differences were valued, and where future generations would not experience the discrimination she experienced in her own life.[9] In 1978, Mendoza, along with a group of Latino artists formed Nuestras Artes de Michigan (NAM),[10] with chapters established in Ann Arbor, Detroit and Lansing.[11] She was also a founding member of the Michigan Hispanic Cultural/Art Association (MHCC).[11] In 1999, Mendoza acted as the official liaison to the Michigan Latino Arts and Culture Initiative, a collaboration of Casa de Unidad, the Michigan Council for the Arts, and the Michigan Department of Education.[11]

Awards and Recognition

In 1981, She opened Galeria Mendoza in Detroit which became the "first legitimate Latin American art gallery ever established in Detroit."[4]

She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is represented in collections around the world. Her collectors include Detroit's former Mayor Dennis Archer, singer Aretha Franklin, actor Edward James Olmos, and the former president of General Motors Mr. Jack Smith. Corporate collectors include the Ford offices in Rockefeller Plaza (New York, New York), Edison Plaza (Detroit, Michigan), General Motors offices (Detroit, Michigan), and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan (Detroit, Michigan).[5]

References

  1. ↑ "MALCS 2007 Summer Institute". Archived from the original on 2008-02-04. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  2. 1 2 "Nora Mendoza". El Museo del Norte. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  3. ↑ "Book Exito" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Bilek, Suzanne (2012). Great Female Artists of Detroit. Charleston, SC: The History Press. p. 68. ISBN 9781609496715.
  5. 1 2 "Finding Aid for Nora Chapa Mendoza Papers, Julian Samora Library at the Institute for Latino Studies, created July 02, 2012". Finding Aid for Nora Chapa Mendoza Papers, Notre Dame University, Julian Samora Library at the Institute for Latino Studies. July 2, 2012. Retrieved March 2016.
  6. ↑ norte, museo. "Nora Chapa Mendoza". Museo del Norte. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  7. ↑ "Chicano & Hispanic Art". Oakland County, Michigan. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
  8. ↑ Hernández-Ávila, Cantú, Inés, Norma Elia (2016). Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art. Texas: University of Texas Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-1477308363.
  9. ↑ Mendoza, Nora Chapa (March 23, 2001). "Race and Culture in the 21st Century, Nora Chapa Mendoza". International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art, Digital Archives. Retrieved March 2016.
  10. ↑ "ICAA Documents > THE ARCHIVE > Full Record". icaadocs.mfah.org. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  11. 1 2 3 Vargas, George (2010). Contemporary Chican@ Art: Color and Culture for a New America (first ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 34, 46, 48, 179–191. ISBN 978-0-292-721 17-3.


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