Narciso Arguelles - Creative Projects Grant Recipient

With the help of an OVAC Creative Project Grant, Narciso Arguelles will install a mural project at Brass Bell Studio in Oklahoma City in November 2011. The grant will help Arguelles obtain supplies including wood, canvas, and paint.

Arguelles, a Chicano artist who lives and works in central Oklahoma, offered background for the project in his grant proposal: "There is a large tradition of mural painters both in Mexican history and Chicano history. Mexican mural painters like Rivera and Orozco and Chicano painters like Victor Ochoa are familiar to people. There is also a tradition of clandestine Chicano street artists who paint with a spray cans. The concept of the project currently includes several panels of wood and or canvas, paper, vellum, and cardboard (really any surface). Media will include drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. Subject matter will include similar historical subject matter that Ochoa and Orozco pursued: celebration or culture, protesting social injustice, and exploring identity." Arguelles also hopes to build a camera to explore historic photography techniques as part of the project.

Narciso Arguelles, Milagros, Photography

Arguelles grew up in Tijuana, Mexico, and San Ysidro, California. He earned BFA and MFA degrees in California before relocating to Oklahoma. He has taught art at several universities in the Oklahoma City area. His work was included in OVAC's "24 Works on Paper" traveling exhibition in 2009. In 2010, his work was shown in a solo exhibit, "Chicano-Retrospect" at the UCO Art Gallery.


Guest Author: Susan Beaty