Yvonne Venegas

Thursday, October 20, 7pm
Free to CCNY members, SVA students, faculty, and staff
$5 general admission, $3 for other students with ID

Q & A to follow the discussion

Mexico City-based photographer Yvonne Venegas is known for her series The Most Beautiful Brides of Baja California, a documentary portrait of the bourgeoisie of Tijuana, focusing on women she grew up with and the way their children are being conditioned to conform to the expectations of their class and social position. In 2010, Venegas’ book Maria Elvia de Hank, an extended portrait of the opulent and guarded lifestyle of one of these women, was published by the editorial house RM and exhibited at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles. Venegas grew up in Tijuana, the daughter of a studio photographer whose own commercial work recorded the new bourgeoisie of Tijuana in studio portraits and at their weddings. Yvonne Venegas left Mexico to study at International Center of Photography, then returned to Tijuana to get an MFA at the University of California, San Diego. Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, Fundación Televisa, Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City and Anna Abello Collection in France. She was awarded top honors for the series The Most Beautiful Brides of Baja California at the tenth annual Bienal de Fotografía, organized by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and she has won the stART up Award from the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Magnum Expression Award (2010), and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores Grant by the Mexican Cultural Fund. Her work has been exhibited internationally, in institutions including Alcalá 31 in Madrid; Seattle Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego; Diaz Contemporary Gallery in Toronto and the Museé a Beaux Arts, of Orleáns, France. Visit her website at www.yvonnevenegas.com