Ariadna Vazquez, a three-time LQAF Visual Arts Scholarship winner (2012-2015), currently works as an Associate Producer and Photographer in Long Beach. She holds an Associate of Arts in Studio Arts, Emphasis in Photography from College of the Desert and a BFA in Photography from CSU Long Beach.
The last time she sent an update, she was about to have her first group exhibition after her first year at CSULB. Since then, she has held her senior thesis exhibition with fellow graduating photography students, ‘This Image Before Me’ at the Max L. Gatov Gallery East at CSULB School of Art.
She was also honored to be a part of the annual juried student exhibition, ‘Insights’ at the University Art Museum (UAM) at CSULB. Vazquez worked with Sarah Beltran, B. Olivia Sy and Erika Yokoi to create Fashion Statement, a piece about cultural appropriation.
The artists spoke with the Long Beach Post about their creative collaboration. “Fashion Statement is a layered concept and implies, according to Sy, “the white-washing that occurs when the fashion industry, let alone people who are not descended from a certain culture, abstracts and ultimately erases the meaning behind a cultural dress, item, or concept. Also, I hope generally that viewers who have worn headdresses or worn henna can understand that blindly doing so perpetuates this norm to treat cultures — and groups of people — as degraded costumes, and that is never, ever okay.”
Fashion Statement received the President’s purchase award. The purchase awards are determined by the president of the university, the provost and dean of the College of the Arts and Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) who survey the exhibition every year to select an artwork to purchase and then display on campus. Fashion Statement now hangs in the conference room in an administrative building on campus.
The summer after graduating from CSULB, Vazquez was selected to participate in the Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program at the University Art Museum (UAM) at CSULB. After her 3-month internship, she was hired on by the UAM to finish up the year working under the PR & Marketing Coordinator.
The year after graduation, she spent time on the weekend working at the Long Beach Museum of Art in the Education and Visitor Services department, while she also worked full time as a Digital Artist doing fine art photography printing and digital retouching and restoration work.
Last September she began work in a new industry, advertising. She now works full time at Team One a sister company to Saatchi & Saatchi LA. She works as a print producer creating ads primarily for the luxury car retailer Lexus.
This past February she was selected to participate in a small art show called ‘Be Mine’, that was held by a local artist’s collective called Squeeze Art Collective. She continues to look for opportunities to grow her career and her art.
See more of her artwork at : http://ariadnavazquez.wixsite.com/artofheartworkphoto
Follow her on social media at: @artofheartwork
