On September 21, 2021, Second Street Gallery presented a virtual artist panel discussion with Jackie Amézquita, John Hee Taek Chae, LaRissa Rogers, and Luis Vasquez La Roche, on LaRissa Rogers' recent solo exhibition in the Dové Gallery, On Belonging: The Space In Between.
Watch the recording HERE.
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Learn more about the participating artists below:
Jackie Amézquita (b. 1985, Guatemala) holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from ArtCenter College of Design and an Associate degree in Visual Communications from Los Angeles Valley College. She is a Master of Fine Arts candidate in the New Genres program at the University of California, Los Angeles (2022). Amezquita's practice is influenced by her relationship to borders and diaspora, and informed by her experiences as an immigrant woman. Amezquita works with durational performances, site specificity and materiality, creating a language that navigates socio-political relationships.
John Hee Taek Chae is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the ways in which ideology determines reality. He makes installations that plot and connect the historical and personal narratives that have constructed his sense of identity; narratives in which desires collapse, mutate, or converge when confronted with power, opportunity, or illusion. His works are a composite of imaginaries, excerpts, declarations, and remembrances associated with the reciprocating effects of evangelism, colonialism, and capitalism–exploring pervasive contradictions that result when tools of persuasion barter in false promises but also act as genuine containers of faith. Chae received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020. He is a 2021 MacDowell Fellow and currently lives and works in Richmond, VA.
LaRissa Rogers (b. 1996) is an antidisciplinary artist born in Charlottesville, VA. She holds a BFA in Painting and Printmaking and BIS in International Fashion Buying from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has exhibited work and performed in institutions such as ICOSA in Austin TX, Fields Projects in NY, Welcome Gallery in Charlottesville VA, Target Gallery in Alexandria VA, 1708 Gallery in Richmond VA, Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville VA, The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative in Charlottesville VA, W Doha in Qatar, The Fronte Arte Cultura in San Ysidro CA and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach VA. She is the 2020-2021 Graduate Opportunity Fellow at the University of California Los Angeles, the 2021 Sutton-Wallace Family Fellow at New City Arts, and the 2021-2022 VMFA Visual Arts fellow at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She is currently pursuing her MFA in New Genres at the University of California Los Angeles and will be attending BEMIS Center of Contemporary Art Residency in Summer 2022.
Luis Vasquez La Roche holds a BA in Visual Arts from the University of the West Indies and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. They have exhibited work and performed in institutions such as Field Projects in NY, ICOSA in Austin TX, Denison Art Space in OH, Deakin University in Melbourne Australia, La Vulcanizadora in Bogotá Colombia, MCLA Gallery 51 in MA, Fresh Milk in Barbados, Alice Yard, Medulla Art Gallery and Y Art Gallery in Trinidad and Tobago, LACE in Los Angeles CA, AIR gallery in NY, The Carr Center in Detroit MI and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Richmond VA. They were also part of Beta-Local's Itinerant seminar in Puerto Rico, OAZO AIR in the Netherlands and Mare Residency in Puerto Rico. In addition, they were the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in 2018. They are currently a full-time lecturer at the Academy for the Performing Arts at The University of Trinidad and Tobago and part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies.