Art Lecture: “The Artists’ Gaze of ‘the other’: Salomón Huerta & Shizu Saldamando Speak”

Moderator: Dr. Álvaro Huerta, Associate Professor, Cal Poly Pomona

Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Time: 4:00pm to 5:15pm (Pacific Time)

Type: Hybrid (in-person and Zoom)

Location: University Library, Third Floor Reading Room, Cal Poly Pomona

Huerta painting credit: Untitled, oil on canvas, Salomón Huerta (2021)

Saldamando painting credit: "Rafa, El Unico," oil on wood, Shizu Saldamando (2013)

Bio Lines:

Salomón Huerta is an acclaimed, LA-based artist. He received his B.F.A. from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena and M.F.A. from UCLA.

Shizu Saldamando is an acclaimed, LA-based mixed media artist. She received her B.A. from UCLA School of Art and her M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts.

Links of artists:

https://www.harpersgallery.com/artists/salomon-huerta/biography

https://www.shizusaldamando.com/

Bios:

Salomón Huerta is an acclaimed, LA-based artist. Huerta was born in the neighborhood Colonia Libertad in Tijuana, Mexico. Huerta is best known for the vibrant prints he created for Heads, Figures, and Houses series which provides images of Latinos that are not ghettoized. Untitled (Head) exhibits Huerta’s departure from traditional forms of portraiture and confronts the viewer with the subject’s anonymity. By denying the viewer the subject's eyes, Huerta denies an emotional connection and makes the viewer aware of the tension this relationship creates. At the same time, his minimalist renderings of tract housing employ geometric shapes and monochrome colors to transform suburban homes into homogeneous emblems of the American Dream. Huerta’s work was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial and has been collected by many major museums and collections in the United States, Mexico, and Europe. He received his B.F.A. from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena and M.F.A. from UCLA.

Shizu Saldamando is an acclaimed, LA-based mixed media artist. Saldamando is originally from San Francisco’s Mission district. Primarily concerned with portraiture and drawing, she experiments with a broad range of surfaces and materials from wood panels to bed sheets. Saldamando’s practice employs tattooing, video, painting and drawing on canvas, wood, paper, and cloth, and functions as celebration, and homage to peers and loved ones. Her mother’s family is Japanese American, by way of Boyle Heights/Sawtelle areas of L.A., and survivors of the Japanese American Internment camps. Her father is Chicano from Nogales, AZ. She received her B.A. from UCLA School of Art and her M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts. She is currently represented by Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles.