User:Jesslmc23/Margaret Garcia (artist)

Margaret Garcia (b. 1951) is a Mexican-American visual artist based in Los Angeles. She has become a figure in the Chicano art movement.

Biography
Margaret Garcia was born in 1951 at the County/USC Hospital in East Los Angeles where her grandmother worked as a nurse. She is descended from the Tarahumara indigenous people. When she was born, her parents lived in the Gladys Hotel on Skid Row, then they moved to Boyle Heights were she was raised. At the age of ten, Garcia started painting portraits of family members, and of the local Latino community. In 1978, she became involved with the Citywide Mural Program, and Judy Baca's Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). Despite never working in the medium, artist and director of the program, Glenna Avila, hired her to paint a mural. Garcia would continue to paint murals throughout southern California. She collaborated with Judy Baca on the famous The Great Wall of Los Angeles, which is the longest mural in the world and features vignettes of multicultural American history. Garcia is a prolific painter of portraits of the Chinana/o community in Los Angeles. She has taught courses and workshops on painting, and has lectured extensively in the region. In 2000, she was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Metro Art program to create a mural for the subway transit stop at the University City/Studio City location. She currently teaches at Plaza De La Raza in Los Angeles, California, and curates art exhibitions.

Education
Garcia studied art at the Los Angeles City College, California State University, Northridge, and the University of Southern California where she received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1992.

Artworks
Garcia she spent time in Chicago learning about art restoration, and learned about patinas and cultural color theory.

"Finding Jesus at the Taco Stand"
2009, 10 x 13 in., oil on canvas, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming

Part of the Cheech Marin Collection, this painting is a reflection of the neighborhood that Garcia grew up with in Boyle Heights. Garcia is known for painting people and the lifestyle of the neighborhood and the painting symbolizes the Chicano life of living in Los Angeles. It is also featured in the artbook collection of small paintings entitled "Chicanitas from the Cheech Marin Collection".

"Two Blue Whales"
1992, 17' X 63' ft, Acrylic, Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

Inspired by a news story about Blue Whales being hunted to extinction, Garcia created a mural featuring two Blue Whales playing in the ocean. The sixty-foot mural is painted on a wall between Beethoven St. and Venice Blvd. in Mar Vista. It was bought by The Center for Independent Living, a facility that provides individuals with physical disabilities as they become independent, because the building that featured the mural was bought by the organization and The CIL have kept the mural as it was never covered with additional marks like graffiti.

"Tree of Califas"
2000, Mural, Universal City Station, L.A. Metro Rail, Los Angeles, CA

The mural features a historical experience about the state of California, mainly about the station it's located, and how it was named after the fictional queen Calafia and greets tourists and residents about the key events and people that were a part in history. The structure resembles the mature pepper trees that were linked to Lankershim Boulevard and each piece of "bark" is a reflection of history through the colorful art tiles. It also includes drawings of people and notes of detailed history that gives viewers the education of the area they're standing on that can be ambiguous to others.

Solo Exhibitions

 * "Viision of Phantasmagoria", May 2009, Freemont Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA
 * "Arte Para La Gente", Oct. 2020-Jan. 2021, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura County, CA

Group Exhibitions

 * "Adelante! Mexican American Artists: 1960's and Beyond", Sept. 2011-Jan. 2012 Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale, CA


 * "Prayer Pieces", Dec. 2015, Casa 0101, Los Angeles, CA
 * "Papel Chicano Dos: Works on Paper from the Collection of Cheech Marin", Feb.-May 2017, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA
 * "LA/LA/LA", Sept.-Oct. 2017, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * "Summer in the City", Jul.-Aug. 2017, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA
 * Atzlan: A Sense of Place", Oct. 2017-Jan. 2018, The dA Center for the Arts, Pomona, CA
 * ""Lowrider: A Group Show", Apr.-May 2018, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA

Collections
Her artworks can be found in the Cheech Marin Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Ventura County, La Salle University Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum, Blanton Museum of Art, The Roswell Museum and Art Center, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Forest Lawn Museum of Glendale, the Riverside Art Museum, the Musée d'Aquitaine and the University of Wyoming Art Museum.

Honors and Awards

 * William Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award
 * Feitelson/Lundberg Award
 * California Community Foundation Grant