Final project

Jenna Arvelo
Semester project

    My semester project was based on a solo exhibition held in Bradley hall on the fifth floor December 12th 2017 titled ‘American Girl’. The exhibition is still up for view till January 31st. The themes this exhibition addresses pertains to the portraiture of young women of color and reclaiming the imagery that surrounds them. 
                                                            *Artist Statement:

   My intentions for this body of portraits stem from my deep admiration for women of color. These portraits are of women I’ve came across through social media and in real life; they’re my peers, my friends and my inspiration. This series was born with the purpose of confronting and reclaiming the imagery that surrounds women of color in place of one that engages with them as real individuals and allows their narratives to be spoken in a visual context. They are the faces of this new American culture.
   As people of color, representation matters. Throughout the history of portraiture, great artists and patriarchy, we fail to see great women artists, let alone women of color. In the history of women and art, portraiture surroundings women appealed solely to the male gaze; and in the context of  black women, the racist ideologies that were born from American slavery. For this reason I wanted to reclaim this history by creating portraits that appealed in a more inclusive humanist context allowing new narratives to be heard and acknowledged.
  This series in relation to other works of art that I’ve created stands as the only definitive body of work that embodied a solid idea in contrast to the scattered making I’ve done in the past.
Some of the issues I faced when creating this series was how to approach representing these individual women. Was it my place to be depicting them in this way? Was I taking their character out of context because I was viewing some of them as an outsider of their actual lives? Many of these questions came up as I talked to some of these women or did research on their actual lives (via Social media networking). So to remedy this, I used images they’ve taken themselves or had given me and incorporated specific details into their portraits that they’ve made publicly known.
  In the context of contemporary art, I believe this series fits into the pluralist notion of allowing the lives of these young women and their perspectives to exist simultaneously in the same space. It emphasizes the equal importance each one of these perspectives have and allows the viewer to redefine identity in the context of race, culture and gender.
 Artists that have influenced this series include Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley,  Jordan Casteel, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kudzana - Violet Hwami and Monica Hernandez.

‘American Girl’ painting directory
—Jenna Arvelo


‘Monica’: Oil on Canvas, 18’x 24’, 2017

‘Mars’: Oil on Canvas, 18’x 24’, 2017

‘Lee’: Oil on Canvas, 18’x 24’, 2017

‘Gabby’: Oil on Canvas, 18' x 24', 2017

‘Anajah’: Oil on Canvas, 18' x 24', 2017

‘Josie’: Oil on Canvas, 18' x 24' 2017

‘Salma’: Oil on Canvas, 18' x 24' 2017

‘Janet’: Oil on Canvas, 18' x 24' 2017

‘Haitian Mutt’: Oil on Canvas, 18' x 24' 2017

Images from the Exhibition: