Five artists

The female powerhouses I will be introducing have one significant

thing in common; there are many incredible female artists we have learned in class; I particularly want to focus on the Latinx community. The Latinx community has been a minority throughout history; however, these strong women have brought attention to celebrate their colorful culture. Catholicism and belief systems that are taught to younger girls can be very oppressive. The patriarchal system, known as machismo in Latin households, is a reality all-female, and LGBTQ members face growing up and continue to fight. The five following artists that I will further address will be classified into two themes, religion/spiritually and female empowerment, both being some form of taboos to the Latinx. 

Topic: Religion/Spirituality

Marta María Pérez - 

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The Mexican-based photographer Marta María Pérez was born in Havana in 1959, and she graduated with a degree in painting from the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in Marianao. Pérez has made black-and-white photographs that typically show a part of her body (rarely her face) her signature style. These black and white photos are called "static performance." She often arranges her body in unconventional ways and has unusual objects as part of her or influencing her body—one of her most well-known photographs is Protección 3/3, 1990. In the photograph, she is exposing her breasts, while she has these clay-like paste on them. Pérez combines imagery relating "to certain beliefs about conception within Santeria (a modern Cuban religion derived from a fusion of Afro-Caribbean and Roman Catholic belief)." (Chadwick, 428) She has turned to Afro-Cuban mythology to express female spirituality. The titles in her photographs function as dedications recalling omens based on Santería or Palo Monte beliefs but also guided to the experience of being a woman. Protección 3/3, 1990, Perez brings to attention her experience with motherhood, showcasing the very thing that feeds her children. Some of the works are transgressive of the taboos related to maternity and the feminine in the syncretic belief systems.



Frida Kahlo 

Henry Ford Hospital, 1932 by Frida Kahlo

One of the most recognized female painter in the world, Frida Kahlo, brings in Latin culture to the forefront. Kahlo was born July 6, 1907; the Mexican artist is best known for her intense and brilliantly colored self-portraits that deal with themes of identity, the human body, and death. Kahlo is often identified as a surrealist artist, which "For Kahlo, as far other women artist associated with the surrealist, painting became a means of sustaining a dialogue with the inner reality." (Chadwick, 313) The surrealism's goal was to liberate thought, language, and human experience from the oppressive boundaries of rationalism. Frida's paintings merge depictions of the cosmos, the earth, and the body with the artist's immediate existence, allowing shockingly personal depictions of her physical and psychological pain to bleed into the iconography of Mexico's Aztec, colonial, and revolutionary history. It is essential to note that although Frida was called a surrealist, she never identified as one; she asserts, "They thought I was a Surrealist, but I was not. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality." However, I argue that although her works are not considered dreams, they do feel very spiritual.



Topic: Empowerment
Belen Bike 

Belen Bike (Belen Jaramillo), Quito, Ecuador , 2017

Belen Bike is an Ecuadorian muralist who has made her passion for cycling the subject of her work, as shown in her several murals throughout the city. The cyclist brings colorful women onto the city walls of the nation's capital, Quito, as well as other cities in the region. She began painting at a young age, and after majoring in design, she leaped to contemporary art. She started with classical painting, which was her gateway to illustration. Her work has a sense of nostalgia, melancholy, and classic beauty that bring female artists to the forefront. Her murals draw on issues women face every day, combining aspects such as motherhood, sexuality, and self-doubt into beautiful pieces of art.


Paz Errazuriz

Evelyn I, Santiago, from the Adam’s Apple series, 1987

Paz Errázuriz is a Chilean photographer with a career spanning more than thirty years. Her candid yet poetic black-and-white photographs often take the form of a series, at times accompanied by the writings of other women. In the 1970s, Errázuriz ventured to photograph communities being marginalized under Chile's Pinochet-led dictatorship. Ignoring laws that restricted women's access to certain areas, she entered brothels populated by queer and trans sex workers, psychiatric hospitals; circuses; and boxing clubs. After befriending members of these diverse scenes, she took their portraits. The resulting photos radiate intimacy and warmth, revering their subjects and exposing the oppression they faced. She challenges the viewer to look at the images while bringing awareness to minority groups.



Mónica Mayer 

The Clothesline by Mónica Mayer in the Contemporary Art University Museum, Mexico City, May 2016,

Mónica Mayer, born in Mexico City, 1954, studied visual arts at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Mexico City and, in 1980, obtained a master's degree in sociology of art at Goddard College while participating at the Feminist Studio Workshop in Los Angeles, California. After being exposed to sexism during art school, Mayer started on a journey that used art as a way of promoting the feminist movement. During her formal education, she was naturally drawn to the theme of feminism. Her master's thesis was Feminist Art: An Effective Political Tool, she also attended a Feminist Studio Workshop at the end of the 1970s in Los Angeles. In 1978, Mayer created The Clothesline, which brought attention to the untold stories and silent voices of the urban Mexican women. The piece asked women to complete the phrase, "As a woman, what I most hate about the city is..." Most women who answered highlighted the experience of sexual harassment within the urban environment. Mayer empowers women through sharing their experience, a topic often ignored by art institutions.

work cited 

Chadwick, Whitney. “Women, Art, And Society,” Fourth Edition. World of Art. 2007.
“Mónica Mayer, The Clothesline (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/conceptual-and-performance-art/conceptual-performance/a/mnica-mayer-the-clothesline.“Paz Errázuriz. The Intrepid Vision of an Artist.” Revista LA FUNDACIN Atom, revistalafundacion.com/diciembre2015/en/exhibition/.Leon, Loza. " You Need to Keep an Eye On.” Culture Trip, The Culture Trip, 31 July 2017“Marta María Pérez.” Hammer Museum, hammer.ucla.edu/radical-women/artists/marta-maria-perez.