Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Invites Arizona-Based Artists to Curate Collection Exhibition

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) will invite the Arizona-based artists M. Jenea Sanchez and Gabriela Muñoz to participate in a critical engagement with the SMoCA Collection, a first in the Museum's history. "Division of Labor: Women Shifting a Transnational Gaze" is on view Feb. 20 - Aug. 22, 2021.

"Building on our recent exhibition of women artists - 'Unapologetic: All Women, All Year' - 'Division of Labor' continues a critical look at the Museum's collection by introducing the underrepresented voices of women in the Latinx community from their own perspective," said Jennifer McCabe, SMoCA director and chief curator.

Beginning with works by two well-known photographers, Luis González Palma and Pedro Meyer, "Division of Labor" inspired Sanchez and Muñoz to expand on the narrow understanding of Latinx identity as seen in the SMoCA Collection. Working with a selection of nearly 20 works chosen through the unifying context of labor and the gaze, the artists invited long-term collaborators Ammi Robles and the DouglaPrieta Trabaja collective to create new works following an historical continuum through a collaborative process foundational to their artistic practice.

"From the artists' viewpoints of feminisms, labor and gaze, there were few representative works from SMoCA's Collection. Therefore, Sanchez and Muñoz incorporated their community-based, skill-sharing practice to build new works. In this forward-thinking approach the artists' turn their cameras on themselves and invited the DouglaPrieta Trabaja collective to do the same. The resulting images that make up the exhibition represent Latinx women from their own perspective, which is a complete innovation in this context," said McCabe.

The artists' long-standing relationship with the DouglaPrieta Trabaja collective typifies the framework of horizontal leadership and power-sharing that is at the heart of their practice. Together, the group of 10 female artists offer a unique perspective on labor in connection to feminisms, identity, equity and the gaze that reaches across the United States/Mexico border. This helps to shape and re-center the often-overlooked experiences of Latinx women living in the Southwest. The exhibition also addresses biases traditionally ascribed to laborers.

The artists featured in "Division of Labor" have worked transnationally over the past five years and, in this context, present a series of new portraits and self-portraits that break the conventional modes of artist and subject. Featured artists include M. Jenea Sanchez, Gabriela Muñoz, Ammi Robles, Trinidad Brasil Anguamea, Dulce Guadalupe Garcia Anguamea, Higinia Arce, Bertha Alicia Alvarado Arce, Rosalinda Sagaste Chavez, Victoria Guadalupe Nieblas Valenzuela and Matilde Sagaste.

"For myself - as a young curator of color - this exhibition adds to a movement that is shaping a way forward. In honoring, uplifting, and making visible the women in this exhibition we highlight what has been lost, but also what could potentially be gained. In terms of past, present, and future, what it means to nurture and be nurtured," said Keshia Turley, SMoCA's curatorial assistant.

"Division of Labor: Women Shifting a Transnational Gaze" is curated by M. Jenea Sanchez and Gabriela Muñoz in conjunction with Jennifer McCabe, director and chief curator, and Keshia Turley, curatorial assistant. This exhibition is supported in part by Surdna Foundation/National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC).

Upcoming 2021 Exhibitions

"Diedrick Brackens: Ark of Bulrushes" on view Feb. 20 - Aug. 22, 2021

"Division of Labor: Women Shifting a Transnational Gaze" on view Feb. 20 - Aug. 22, 2021

"Land/s" extended through April 11, 2021
"BEYOND: Works by Nellie King Solomon and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon" extended through April 18, 2021
"VOICE-OVER: Zineb Sedira" on view May 8 - Sept. 5, 2021

"Mimi O Chun: It's all cake" on view Sept. 4, 2021 - Jan. 30, 2022

"Brad Kahlhamer: Swap Meet" on view Sept. 25, 2021 - Jan. 23, 2022

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