Existing as an Artist and Student in Times of COVID

By Geovany Uranda

I began attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), for the spring 2020 semester. It wasn’t my first time going to college. I had attended the College of Southern Nevada in 2015 as a trial run for upper level education, but left to pursue bettering my job situation instead. UNLV was pretty interesting, and I started to really enjoy the academic life. I was taking classes in photography, drawing, math, African American studies, and English. Right before spring break of 2020, most of my classes were developing big projects that I was excited for. Unfortunately right before spring break, we also had the start of a pandemic making waves across the the world. It had gotten so bad that all classes were moved to online only, and most people, like me, were laid off from work. I was upset and didn’t know what to do besides keep attending my classes online and just stay home. Soon, people were posting challenges and different methods of coping with the stay at home mandates throughout social media. I participated in one of these challenges for one of my classes and got featured in my first exhibition, even if it was a digital only exhibition. I created a piece inspired by an exhibition from the previous year by Justin Favela and Jay Lynn Gomez (formerly Ramiro Gomez).

That exhibition really inspired me to create work that celebrated my culture and the oftentimes unseen workers of Las Vegas. Although this view is quickly changing, it’s a major trope in the art world that digital illustration isn’t really a valid medium for art making and instead considered “design.” Having my work in this exhibition was an affirmation that I was creating art. For my photography class, I began working on an impromptu project because most of my classes’ syllabi were thrown out the window. I was supposed to recreate famous paintings using any digital camera. I only had my phone so I used that. I recreated Saturno devorando a su hijo by Francisco de Goya. I recreated it using a super huge burrito, and it was really fun to do. This was a very popular photograph on my Instagram that I didn’t even share until November of that year.

*Autorretrato (Saturno Devorando un Burrito),* digital photograph, 2020.

I also finished a coloring book that I was hired to do by local Las Vegas podcast, Latinos Who Lunch! The book was based on a popular episode called The ABC’s of Latinidad. I had gotten the project when I first met Justin Favela, one of the hosts and also a well known Las Vegas artist. It was a long and strenuous project, but I got a lot of free time to complete it because I was at home most of the time. This really helped me see a future in creating art and having an independent career with no hierarchies. The coloring book was well received and led me to get another design job.

A friend of the podcast, a small company based in California, Mercado LA, commissioned me to design a set of four masks for use during the COVID-19 pandemic. While creating the masks, I also got approached to design a mural for FUTURE RELICS: Artifacts for a New World, an exhibition by local art collective, GULCH, being presented at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art.

*Collection of Masks: Conejo, Jaguar, Murciélago, y Pescado*, dye-sublimation print on fabric, 2020. *FUTURE RELICS: Artifacts for a New World*. Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, UNLV; curated by GULCH Collective,

*Tres Fases*, acrylic paint, 2020. *FUTURE RELICS: Artifacts for a New World*, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, UNLV; curated by GULCH Collective

I used similar elements in both pieces because of the focus that I put on masks and as an allusion to the masks that were once exhibited in the space that were being critiqued through the exhibition. The mural was modeled after a fragment of an anthropomorphic brazier found at Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte, UNAM, Mexico City. This reimagining represents the people that we see in our communities and evokes Chicana/o/x art tropes using my signature style. The mascaras not only symbolize the phases of our future, our present, our past, but also centers blackness and peels the layers of whiteness back. During the setup for the exhibition, I made sure to document the process as much as I could. I took a time lapse recording and took several polaroids of the community that was helping me since it takes a community to paint a mural.

Later in 2021, I created a performance to go along with my mural for the closing reception of FUTURE RELICS. The performance had three parts: documenting community interacting with the mural, a surprise defacing of the mural, and a whitewashing of the mural. Because of the areas where murals usually live, there is an attitude of indifference towards the care and fate of these murals by institutions and governments. This gives way to people defacing and interacting with the mural in ways that are not seen as attractive by said establishments. I wanted to show this integral story of erasure through this performance. By defacing it, I created a different artwork and introduced it to the space.

The whitewashing portion was performed by fellow artist, Adriana Chavez, under the guise of character Juan Chico. This helped document the history of Chicano murals that have been whitewashed, or painted over usually by the color white, throughout the United States. Afterwards, I painted over the entire mural in my own time during closing hours to complete the process with my own hands for closure and healing. The mural is now buried under layers of white.

*The Whitewashing of Tres Fases*, acrylic paint, 2021. *FUTURE RELICS: Artifacts for a New World*, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, UNLV; curated by GULCH Collective.

Because of this performance and the visibility I gained from the initial mural, I was asked to be a part of the 2nd Bullfrog Biennial at the Goldwell Open Air Museum near Rhyolite. For this exhibition, I created seven wooden flames that evoked the This is Fine meme. It explores the themes of pollution, dumping, and the environment. The same way the meme is used on social media, the flames in this installation signify that something is wrong even though everyone is telling you, "This is fine."

*This is Fine,* acrylic paint, 3/4" plywood, 2021. 2nd Bullfrog Biennial, Goldwell Open Air Museum and Red Barn Art Center.

While taking an intermedia class in the fall semester of 2021, I got a project asking me to do a “performative installation.” I was really interested in reactivating artworks and creating different, for lack of a better word, lives for the pieces. I decided to repurpose my flames for this project and explore the themes of performance, protest, and the institutions that benefit from a colonial capitalist world. Through that series I specifically pointed attention towards Catholicism, the prison industrial complex, and gentrification.

*This is Fine,* acrylic paint, 3/4" plywood, 2021. Performative installation in front of Ferguson’s Downtown. Photo taken by Rick R.L.

Even though I have had financial struggles and other setbacks during the pandemic, I am glad I was able to create work that expressed how I viewed the world and what I saw going on around me. Although the rules and recommendations have become lax lately, there is still a harmful virus out there. I am hopeful that myself and other artists can still find time and energy to create in these times. I look forward to what 2022 has in store for me and my aspirations.

Geovany Uranda (he/him/they) is a Las Vegas Chicano artist exploring the mediums of muralism, design, and sculpture. He is currently attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and working towards a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in sculpture/drawing, painting, and printmaking. Geovany also works as a remote based design intern for the Mexic-Arte museum in Austin, Texas, and a graphic designer for Clark County Parks and Recreation. He has participated in multiple group exhibitions and collaborated on several projects including the design of The ABCs of Latindad Coloring Book for the podcast Latinos Who Lunch. His most recognized piece was a large-scale mural, Tres Fases, and was displayed at UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art’s Future Relics: Artifacts for a New World curated by GULCH Collective. His most recent work, This is Fine, was installed in the desert near the ghost town of Rhyolite for the 2nd Bullfrog Biennial at the Goldwell Open Air Museum and Red Barn Art Center.

Learn more about his work on his website at: geouranda.com.

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Kathleen KuoMarch 28, 2022JComment