SGC Chicago: Enrique Chagoya’s Keynote Lecture

Posted by Amze Emmons on March 26, 2009 | 1 Comment

To a packed ballroom in Chicago’s downtown Hilton Hotel, Enrique Chagoya delivered a jovial and informative discussion of his work and life. He began by discussing his formative interests in art. In one such anecdote, he noted that his father worked for the Central Bank of Mexico, in it’s fraud division. As a young boy Enrique was taken by his father to visit the Bank’s “Museum of Crime” where the work of forgers and counterfeiters was displayed. The work and story of one such rascal resonated with the young artist, so much so that when he later he began his body of work in conversation with Goya’s prints, he approached the project with the specific zeal of a forger. Later, He recounted how as a young economic student in Mexico City he very nearly ended up on the wrong end of a military crackdown on student protest. These personal anecdotes interwoven into his slide talk provided insight Chagoya’s inspiration if not working methods, and shed a good deal of light on his compelling ability to wed fervent activism, a passion for art history and a zany sense of humor. Some the most recent work shown was from the “Reverse Anthropology” project, you can see an example of that Below. “Critic’s Tongue” was taken at the “Internally Displaced: Jane Hammond and Enrique Chagoya” exhibition, located at the A + D Gallery. To see more images from this exhibit continue onto the next page.