{"id":50224,"date":"2016-11-25T21:53:24","date_gmt":"2016-11-25T21:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=50224"},"modified":"2016-12-04T01:33:43","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T01:33:43","slug":"genevieve-gaignard-tackles-race-class-and-identity-at-the-california-african-american-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=50224","title":{"rendered":"Genevieve Gaignard tackles race, class and identity at the California African American Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genevieve Gaignard tackles race, class and identity at the California African American Museum<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times<\/a>
\n2016-11-17<\/p>\n

Deborah Vankin<\/strong><\/a>, Contact Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nGenevieve Gaignard’s<\/a> identity-bending “Extra Value (After Venus)<\/a>” (2016). (Genevieve Gaignard \/ Shulamit Nazarian)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Growing up in the working-class mill town of Orange, Mass.<\/a>, Genevieve Gaignard<\/a> wrestled with her identity. She was the fair-skinned daughter of a black father and white mother. She was the proverbial middle child. She struggled with body issues. Often, she says, she felt misunderstood, if not invisible.<\/p>\n

Now 35 and living in Los Angeles<\/a>, Gaignard has a strong sense of herself and her place in the world as a multidisciplinary artist. In \u201cSmell the Roses,\u201d the artist\u2019s first museum show in Los Angeles, Gaignard tackles the big issues of race, class and, especially, identity.<\/p>\n

The exhibition at the California African American Museum<\/a> includes photography, video and assemblage works, but the nine large photographs, all richly colored performative self-portraits, are standouts. Like the artist Carrie Mae Weems<\/a>, Gaignard uses the medium to explore the contemporary African American experience; like Cindy Sherman<\/a>, she dons wigs and heavy makeup to create female caricatures that humorously embody societal stereotypes. The women she portrays are both anonymous and familiar \u2014 individuals steeped in aesthetics from pop culture, drag queen hyper-femininity, the working class, \u201970s chic \u00e0 la Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Get Down<\/a>,\u201d TV news and street fashion, among other influences…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genevieve Gaignard tackles race, class and identity at the California African American Museum The Los Angeles Times 2016-11-17 Deborah Vankin, Contact Reporter Genevieve Gaignard’s identity-bending “Extra Value (After Venus)” (2016). (Genevieve Gaignard \/ Shulamit Nazarian) Growing up in the working-class mill town of Orange, Mass., Genevieve Gaignard wrestled with her identity. She was the fair-skinned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,8,25],"tags":[25538,22437,22811,3909,147,13272],"class_list":["post-50224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-media-archive","category-women","tag-california-african-american-museum","tag-deborah-vankin","tag-genevieve-gaignard","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-photography","tag-the-los-angeles-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50226,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50224\/revisions\/50226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}