2014-15 Alida Cervantes

Alida Cervantes, the 2014-15 Alice C. Cole '42 Fellow, is a Mexican artist who at the time of this fellowship lived and worked in the Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, CA border region. Born in San Diego, she was raised in Tijuana and grew up on both sides of the border. Her paintings, drawings, and performance work draw inspiration from class, race, and gender relations in colonial and present-day Mexico. Cervantes earned a BA from the University of California, San Diego in 1995, then studied at Scuola di Arte Lorenzo di Medici in Florence, Italy, for two years. In 2013, she earned her MFA from the University of California, San Diego. Her work is part of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and Charles Saatchi, London collections.

people standing around in a gallery with white walls, a white column, and gray floors; large paintings on panel lean against the walls. At right is a potted tree.

Majas, cambujas y virreinacas

Mills Gallery, Boston, MA

April 14 - June 25, 2017

Colonial era women encounter nearly nude men in imaginative and perverse works by Alida Cervantes, which conflate Mexico's racially and socially charged colonial past with its complex present. Cervantes' work explores the complexity and tension of being a "border" artist, and the constant shifts of social and political lines as she crosses the border daily from San Diego to work in her art studio in Tijuana, Mexico.

Her rich and provocative paintings, drawings, and video work address social hierarchies, gender relations, and the reflexive histories situated within colonial and present-day Mexico, where "sex, love, and emotions both flow and are repressed".

Majas, cambujas y virreinacas, an exhibition of Cervantes' work facilitated by the Cole Fellowship, was hosted by the Boston Center for the Arts' Mills Gallery in Boston's South End due to construction impacting the usual Wellesley Art Department exhibition spaces.

large painting leaning in a corner, depicting two figures on a silvery background and red floor

corner of a gallery with white walls and gray floor; at left are two small mostly red paintings hung on the wall above a small pink and yellow painting resting on the floor; at right is a very large piece with an upper portion made of painted corrugated metal and a lower portion of wood painted ochre with black silhouette figures

large two-panel piece resting on the floor; 3 figures, one kneeling in front of another in elaborate outfit and the other with a grinning face or mask, on a white background

large panel of raw wood with loops of paint on the floor in a gallery with white walls and gray floor; in the center of the piece is a more detailed painting resting on a flat piece of wood depicting a dark skinned figure attending to a light skinned figure in elaborate dress; at left is a potted plant with two tall stems or trunks

Alida Cervantes artist website

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seal of the Alice C. Cole '42 awards - line drawing of a woman with chisel and paint brush, surrounded by circular borders and oak leaves

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