La Peña's 34th Anniversary Celebration!
34 Years in Murals
Saturday June 06, 2009
FREE (Donations Gladly Accepted) - 3-5pm reception 6pm recital
Join us for a reception & unveiling of portable murals commissioned by La Peña to exceptional Bay Area muralists & artists Ray Patlan, Susie Lundy, Tirso Gonzalez & Juana Alicia Montoya. Later on in the night we will have performances by students of La Pena’s classes including Latin jazz, Afro-Peruvian music, Puerto Rican bomba, accordion, guitar, theater, & the La Peña chorus.
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One of the original muralists who created the Cancion de la Unidad La Peña's landmark mural, Raymond Patlan, is a major figure in contemporary mural history. Mr. Patlan has painted over one hundred murals and organized numerous public art projects throughout the world and is one of the earliest initiators of the contemporary Mural Renaissance movement in the United States. Patlan befriended and studied the works of artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jose Chavez Morado, Jose Luis Soto, Arnold Belkin and Benito Messeguer. Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Academia San Carlos in Mexico City, Patlan then attained his MFA at California College of the Arts. He has taught at schools such as Art Institute of Chicago, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, La Academia San Carlos in Mexico City, Dartington College of Art in Devon, Great Britain and the Chelsea School of Art in London, England. Currently he is an instructor at Laney College and the California College of the Arts in Oakland. Mr. Patlan is also commission by the Alameda County Arts Commission to complete a mural at the New San Leandro Juvenile Facility.
Juana Alicia Montoya - “I am a muralist, printmaker, educator, activist and painter who loves to draw. I have been teaching for twenty-five years, working in many areas of education, from community organizing to migrant and bilingual education to arts education, from kindergarten to graduate school levels. I feel that it is my responsibility as an artist to be an activist for social justice, human rights and environmental health, and I see the work of parenting and teaching akin to being an artist. I began working as an artist in my teens, coming of age in the human rights movements that included the United Farm Workers and that protested the war in Vietnam. I work in many forms and traditions, with a particular dedication to the fresco buono, an ancient painting technique that, practiced all over the world, has endured many centuries. The majority of my public works are in the Bay Area, but I have also painted murals in other parts of the world, including Managua, Nicaragua.
Tirso Gonzalez is best known for his work as a printmaker, as well as his is work at the Mission Cultural Center's Mission Gráfica, and as a cultural educator on both sides of the border.
Susie Lundy is a graffiti herstorian, has received her PhD from UCLA and her M.Ed. in arts and education from Harvard University. She is also a b-girl, deejay, educator, and muralist. Dr. Lundy is an Oakland resident and is currently working on publishing her book about Oakland's political graffiti writers. Her work includes directing youth mural programs and integrating social justice into the visual and performing arts.
