July 2024: Meet the Artists
Estelle Maisonett, José Villalobos, and Victoria Martinez
Estelle Maisonett
Estelle Maisonett is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Her work is an investigation of how personal and socio-cultural relationships to objects and materials inform preconceived notions of identity, economic status, accessibility, race, sexual orientation, and gender. With a practice comprising photography, printmaking, sculpture painting, and video, Maisonett’s life-size collages explore how Latinx identity has historically been composited by fragments of cultures locally and abroad.
Maisonett received her MFA in Painting and Printmaking at the Yale School of Art in 2023 and her BFA from SUNY Purchase College in 2013. She was a recipient of the 2023 Quinn Emanuel residency, 2023 Barry Cohen Scholarship, 2022 Alice Kimball Travel Grant research Fellowship, 2021 NewWave Artist-in-Residence, 2018 Artist in the MarketPlace Fellow at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and a 2018 BronxArtSpace Artist in Residence. Estelle has exhibited at The Bronx Museum of Art, Chashama, Silent Barn, Field Projects, Bronx Art Space, El Barrio ArtSpace at PS109, Latchkey, Longwood art Gallery, The Andrew Freedman Home, Hostos College, The School of Visual Arts amongst others. She is an arts community worker and educator who has worked with The parsons school of Design, NYU, The Bronx Children’s Museum, Department of Education NYC Schools and additional community spaces in New York City.
José Villalobos
José Villalobos’ multimedia practice conveys the effects of machismo within Norteño culture. Through sculpture and performance Villalobos’ displays a nuanced and proud connection to his heritage, withstanding the historic and violent undercurrents of homophobia that exist within it. Villalobos grew up in a traditional and religiously conservative family on the US/Mexico border in El Paso, TX. His work reconciles identity challenges he faced throughout his life, caught in between traditional Mexican customs and American mores, as well as religious ideologies condemning gayness. At the heart of Villalobos’s work lies in the performativity of these identities. Sometimes by performing self-inflicted endurance acts, he makes visible the unseen trauma endured by those who exist beyond artificially constructed “norms.” Villalobos manipulates material as he examines gender roles within family and culture. Dismantling historical modes of masculinity centers an interstitial space where materiality softens virility. Villalobos’ practice protests the toxicity of assimilation and reclaims the maricón label. As LGBTQ+ and body autonomy rights are increasingly at risk, and the government fails to provide protection for basic human rights, Villalobos’ commentary is crucial to shedding light on the silencing of queer voices.
Victoria Martinez
Victoria Martinez is an artist who honors her Mexican-American ancestry through abstraction. She creates textile-based projects including painting and sculpture. Her work is inspired by murals, graffiti, ancient sites, architecture, and the urban environment. She has exhibited at venues including the Yale University Art Gallery, Perrotin Gallery viewing salon, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Transmitter Gallery, and Museo Universitario Del Chopo in Mexico City. Martinez’s work has been supported by The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Research Fellowship at Yale University, the Actos de Confianza Grant through the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), and a travel grant through the Theaster Gates Rebuild Foundation. Martinez holds a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2010) and an MFA from Yale University School of Art in Painting and Printmaking (2020). Her work has recently been acquired by the De La Cruz Collection and she is the inaugural artist selected to lead a mural through Yale University’s Climate Engagement through Art in Cities fellowship. Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at The Chicago Cultural Center curated by Kristin Korolowicz and a natural dye performance and artist talk facilitated with Alana Hernandez and Olga Viso at Arizona State University.
