Part 1 | The Power of Political Satire with Artist Enrique Chagoya

05/21/19 • 52 min

Nick sits down with artist Enrique Chagoya, in Part 1 of a two-part series. Enrique Chagoya is an artist who inverts cultural appropriation in a manner he calls “Reverse Anthropology”. With a deft wit, his paintings, drawings, prints and codices use “symbols as one would use words in a sentence,” often with hilarious and biting results. At times his art can even arouse misinterpretation, negative press, and even vandalism. Nevertheless he persists and continues to tackle subjects like sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, racism, xenophobia, and pop culture, to name a few. Present in all of his work is humor, thoughtful juxtapositions, and myriad references harkening back to other artists’ work, pop icons, figures of government, and his Mexican heritage. It can be disarming to view his work, where you might be laughing and unsettled at the same time. And that is the power of his art; it is intended not to change minds but provoke conversation and dialog.

Chagoya is currently Professor of Art at Stanford University. His work has been shown internationally and is represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the LA County Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art, the Des Moines Art Center, the Whitney, MOMA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Check out his work here.
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See the show notes here.

Check out his work here.
Follow the Print Cast
See the show notes here.

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SoCal Community Printmaking with Printshop LA

Imagine a space where you can spend an afternoon screen printing your own band merch? Or finally learn how to use a Risograph machine to print your own zine? Maybe you want to enroll in a class; maybe make an etching or a woodcut? It can be difficult to find the space and amass the needed tools and learning the techniques is another huge hurdle. Today in Los Angeles, there is one place where you can attempt to do all of that and more. Nestled in Chinatown, sharing a space with an art book seller A.G. Geiger, 4 artists run a communal printmaking studio called Printshop LA. These artists come from diverse backgrounds with personal art practices that dovetail with the mission of the shop. It reflects the vitality of LA’s art scene where artists often have to join forces to make an impact and create opportunities. By combining business models, they not only enhance their individual practices but also extend a lifeline to artists and the public who would love to share their equipment and resources. Printshop LA is Michelle Miller, Jayse Caitlin, Sean Hernandez and Dave Kloc. I welcome three of the four founding members today where we’ll talk about their pursuit of making printmaking accessible in Los Angeles.
Check out all three artists on Instagram
Press Friends aka Sean Hernandez
Heavy Gel aka Jayse Caitlin
Michelle Miller
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Part 2 | The Power of Political Satire with Artist Enrique Chagoya

In Part 2 of Nick's interview with Enrique Chagoya, they do a deep dive into his art. They discuss the history of the codex book format, dating back to pre-columbian times, and why it's a relevant format for Chagoya's art. If you recall, it was a lithographic codex that was vandalized in Loveland, Colorado, and we recounted the entire incident in Part 1 of this interview. We go on to talk about appropriation and specifically artists who create art on top of other artists' work. Chagoya calls prints unique multiples, which implies they possess a similar aura like that of unique works of art. The artist shares how he maintains work-life balance, why meditation helps his daily life, and how he keeps going with a busy teaching and art career.