California State University, Dominguez Hills’ (CSUDH) University Art Gallery and PRAXIS art engagement program have received two grants totaling $45,000 to support the residency of Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Martinez and an exhibition of his work.
The National Endowment for the Arts granted PRAXIS $30,000 from its first round of national awards in 2021 of more than $27.5 million for projects that span 14 artistic disciplines. The grant was awarded in the “Visual Arts” category.
The Pasadena Art Alliance (PAA) has also contributed to the Martinez residency and exhibition in a significant way with an additional $15,000 grant. The PAA awards projects created by established as well as unconventional institutions that meet its rigorous process and standards. This is the fifth year in a row that PRAXIS has received funding from the alliance.
The grants were received by Devon Tsuno, assistant professor of Art and Design and creator and co-director of PRAXIS, and Aandrea Stang, director of the University Art Gallery/assistant professor of Art and Design and co-director of PRAXIS.
“We are grateful to both the Pasadena Art Alliance and our peer panelists at the National Endowment for the Arts for their ongoing recognition of our programs,” said Stang. “We are looking forward to Patrick engaging with our students through the PRAXIS residency and to introduce his work to the larger DH community through his exhibition.”
Of Filipino, Mexican, and Native American descent, Martinez grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Martinez, whose renowned Pee Chee series highlights the threats posed to people of color by law enforcement, creates art with a strong social justice message. His mixed media landscape paintings are abstractions composed of Los Angeles surface content that address place and socio-economic position, and expose sites of personal, civic and cultural loss.
His neon sign works are fabricated to mirror street level commercial signage, but are remixed to present words and phrases drawn from literary and oratorical sources. While his acrylic on panel cake paintings memorialize leaders, activists, and thinkers.
“I’m incredibly excited to share what informs my art practice with the students of CSUDH, but more importantly I want to activate these students to establish their own systems of art making,” said Martinez.
Martinez’s artist residency was originally planned for summer 2021 but will be rescheduled to when regular operations and in-person instruction returns to CSUDH.
