Collective Care Is Our Best Protection
Collective Care Is Our Best Protection
Favianna Rodriguez, Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong (Twin Walls Mural Company), Keena Azania Romano, Leslie Dime Lopez, Vanessa Agana Espinoza Solari, and Yazmin Shi Shi Madriz
Exhibition: June 22 – August 20, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 18, 2pm-4pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Location: Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Together we are strong. And in a troubled world collective care is our best protection.
This exhibition brings together a group of women artists who are at the forefront in activating public consciousness through muralism and printmaking. At the center are works that illustrate the healing and protective power that resides in the act of collective care.
On display are two large scale portable murals: one painted by Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong from Twin Walls Mural Company titled Protectors of the Sacred, Power: A Prayer for Buffalo Nation; and the other painted by Keena Romano, Leslie Dime Lopez, Vanessa Agana Espinoza Solari and Yazmin Shi Shi Madriz titled Portals thru Powerful Prayers. Complementing these two murals are a series of collages and prints by Favianna Rodriguez that speak to our relationship with food and plants through rituals of self and collective care.
These works were created during the pandemic and stemmed out of a dire need to share responsibility for each others’ well-being. As we cautiously walk out of this pandemic, the artists’ work serve as a reminder of the need to continue embracing each other, especially as the pandemic made clear that issues in accessing affordable housing, health care, environmental protections, immigrant rights, and indigenous land sovereignty are deep struggles we remain in.
The title of the exhibition borrows from Favianna Rodriguez’ series “Collective Care is Our Best Protection” created during the pandemic as a “call for communities to care for each other and develop strong and autonomous support systems of mutual aid.”
Artists:
Twin Walls Mural Company: Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong
Keena Azania Romano, Leslie Dime Lopez, Vanessa Agana Espinoza Solari, Yazmin Shi Shi Madriz
Top image: Twin Walls Mural Company, Protectors of the Sacred, Power: A Prayer for Buffalo Nation, 2020
