Labor and Immigration Artists A Resource Guide

Labor and Immigration Artists: A Resource Guide Prepared by Jesse Connor American Labor Museum – Botto House National Landmark 83 Norwood Street Haledon, NJ 07508 (973) 595-7953 www.labormuseum.net labormuseum@aol.com Table of Contents Introduction Artists Exhibited at American Labor Museum Mike Alewitz Marilyn Anderson Michael Anthony David Bacon Donna Berger Pamela Calore Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge Martin J Desht Earl Dotter Joseph E.B Elliott Kathleen Farrell Thomas Germano Juan Giraldo Robert Gumpert Robin Holder John Jordan Fred Londier Sherrell Medbery David Parker Mark Priest Milton Rogovin Miriam Romais Guy Saldanha Gary Schoichet Other Artists Donna Bogosto Kearns Eric Breitenbach Tania Bruguera Christopher Cardinale Nora Chapa Mendoza Sue Coe 29 Beverly Conley Carlos Cortez Molly Crabapple Slobodan Dimitrov Susan Eisenberg Ellen Griesedieck Gary Huck Ryan Inzana Michael Jacobson-Hardy A Joseph Kinkel Michael Konopacki Peter Kuper Rodrigo Lara Zendejas Ricardo Levins Morales Ken Lonn Mark Maio Mazatl Josh McPhee Dylan Miner Doug Minkler Kelly and Kyle Phelps Vincenzo Pietropaolo John Pitman Weber Kevin Pyle Rachel Romero Jos Sances Nicole Schulman Judy Taylor Nick Thorkelson Thomas Elmo Williams Andy Zermeño Introduction The Pietro and Maria Botto House in Haledon, New Jersey, is a National Historic Landmark which was opened to the public in 1983 as the non-profit American Labor Museum Built in 1908 by Italian immigrants who had been drawn to the Paterson area to work in the silk industry, the home – with its second floor balcony and hilltop location – became an ideal rallying ground for striking silk workers organized by the International Workers of the World in 1913 Today, the museum’s mission is to honor the legacy of the home and of the family who built it and opened it the striking workers by advancing public understanding of the history of work, workers and the labor movement throughout the world, with special attention to the ethnicity and immigrant experience of American workers This guide presents a selection of contemporary visual artists whose work focuses on these very themes of labor and immigration The artists are separated into two categories: those who have had their work previously exhibited at the American Labor Museum, and those who have not Featuring a short biography, contact information, and a work sample for each artist, this guide will serve to both facilitate the museum in its continuing mission to book relevant and interesting exhibits Additionally, this guide has been made available to the public in order to help raise the profile of these talented artists, and to facilitate museum visitors who wish to learn more about them Mike Alewitz Mike Alewitz is a renowned muralist and labor activist For three decades he has been active in movements for peace and social justice A student leader at Kent State University in Ohio, he was a railroad worker, machinist, and sign-painter before earning an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1983 Since the early 1980s, he has painted murals for the United Farm Workers, Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the United Mine Workers Union, and many others He has painted murals in Nicaragua and Chernobyl, and has been involved in a close collaboration with working-class movements in Mexico He teaches mural painting at Central Connecticut State University and is the artistic director of the Labor Art and Mural Project – RoGallery and Monthly Review Press Website: http://www.alewitz.com Email: alewitz@comcast.net Marilyn Anderson Marilyn Anderson is an artist, photographer and author She originally comes from Oregon and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago She then spent time in Mexico and Guatemala, subsequently receiving her BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop/SUNY Buffalo For 16 years she worked as a visual arts mentor at SUNY Empire State College, in Rochester, NY Since the 70s, she has produced publications, including Backstrap Weaving (co-authored with Barbara Tabor), Guatemalan Textiles Today and Granddaughters of Corn (co-authored with Jonathan Garlock) Over the years, she has received a number of grants and fellowships and has had many exhibits of her photographs She continues her photography, produces block prints, paintings and publications as she works on further projects about Maya arts traditions She also co-directs the Pro Arte Maya education project for children in Guatemala – Personal Website Website: http://www.proartemaya.org/ Contact: http://www.proartemaya.org/about/contact Michael Anthony Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Michael studied the visual arts at Fairleigh Dickinson University After graduation, he taught school in Paterson and later worked in a textile mill In subsequent years, Michael continued to photograph the American scene and founded several companies, including a children’s book publishing firm He is now fully dedicated to photography and design with special emphasis on raising awareness of our beautiful yet fragile environment through his Earthography® Images series His book Mill Ends - A Photo Recollection chronicles the waning days of the textile industry in Paterson, New Jersey Shot in the 1970s, the photographs capture the workers, the mill and the surrounding industrial neighborhood as they were: stark, gritty and raw The American Labor Museum / Botto House National Landmark exhibited the photographs presented in this book – Personal Website Website: http://www.circlemstudios.com/index.html Email: michael@circlemstudios.com David Bacon David Bacon is a journalist and photographer He is an associate editor at Pacific News Service and a regular contributor to The Nation, The Progressive, Z, The American Prospect, and the L.A Weekly His photographs documenting the lives of the workers discussed in the book were recently exhibited at the Oakland Museum of California as well as in Germany and Great Britain – University of California Press Website: http://dbacon.igc.org/index.htm Email: dbacon@igc.apc.org 10 Donna Berger Donna Berger is an award-winning Illustrator, Artist, Designer and Marketing Consultant As one of three artists-in-residence, her studio is at the Chelmsford Center for the Arts, formerly The Old Town Hall This is where she creates Illustrations and Designs for Picture Books and Children’s Publications, Design and Marketing materials for Business Clients and Fine Art for individual commissions She generally uses a digitizing tablet and creative software on a Macintosh computer for the children’s book illustrations and business work, and traditional drawing and paint materials for her fine art projects – Personal Website Website: http://www.donnaberger.com/ Email: Donna@donnaberger.com “The Mill Girls” – Three Dimensional display Pamela Calore 57 Dakota, as well as Brussels, Paris, LaRochelle, and Cuernavaca He has mentored complex projects and consulted on space and project planning – Chicago Public Art Group Website: http://www.cpag.net/home/artistbios/weber.html Email: johnw@elmhurst.edu Migrant – Woodcut Kevin Pyle Kevin C Pyle attended the the University of Kansas where he received a B.F.A in illustration, studying under illustrator Thomas B Allen He moved to Brooklyn N.Y in 1988 to pursue a career as an illustrator He has done illustrations for The New York Times Op-Ed page, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, The National Law Journal, The Progressive, Adbusters and numerous other publications He has done performance and installations based on the text that have been exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Mass MOCA, and numerous gallery settings His first graphic novel Blindspot, was published in 2007 by Henry Holt for Young Readers It was included in the Best American Comics 2008, edited by Lynda Barry – Personal Website Website: http://kevincpyle.com Email: kcp@boatfire37.com 58 Page from Wage Theft Comics: Crime and Justice Rachel Romero An interdisciplinary artist, Rachael Romero left Australia as a teen, traveled the world and now lives and works in NY Her body of work includes public art, posters, prints, mass installation, film, video, painting and writing In 2015, her work will became a part of How Posters Work, running May–November at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York Notable projects include her work as the principal artist of the San Francisco Poster Brigade – Personal Website Website: http://rachaelromero.com Email: sfposterbrigade.info@gmail.com 59 For the San Francisco Poster Brigade Jos Sances Jos Sances was born John Joseph Sances in Boston on August 18, 1952 After a failed career as a military strategist during the Vietnam conflict and an undesirable discharge under honorable conditions, Mr Sances intermittently, as finances allowed, attended Montserrat School of Visual Art in Beverly, MA (now Montserrat College of Art) Jos arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976 For the past 35 years he has made his living as a Designer/Printmaker/Muralist Jos is founder and the art director of Alliance Graphics Since its beginnings in 1989 it has grown into a successful, union screenprint and design shop Over the years Jos has designed and printed thousands of posters and t-shirts for hundreds of progressive causes, while at the same time maintaining a steady output of art which address issues and ideas which concern him In 2010 the Library of Congress aquired 487 prints from Sances which represented a broad overveiw of his thiry years of printmaking Before Alliance Graphics, he co- 60 founded Mission Grafỵca at the Mission Cultural Center in 1980 and worked there until 1988 – Personal Website Website: http://josart.net Email: jos@unionbug.com Cover of Farmworker Comix Nicole Schulman Nicole Schulman was born and raised in New York City in the 1970’s by a couple of Jews from the Bronx She is mostly known for her comics, posters, album covers and illustrations which have appeared in the New York Times, The Progressive, New Politics and Inguine Mah! gazine (Italy), as well as in World War Illustrated – of which she is on the editorial board She has never made much of an attempt to break into the gallery world, yet thorough the prodding and hard work of other people, Nicole’s work has been exhibited in Exit Art, in Cities Against the Wall exhibition (shown simultaneously in New York, Tel Aviv and Hebron), in the Municipal Art Museum of Ravenna, Italy during the Komikazen Festival 2005, a and many more in and outside the US (that she has hardly bothered to keep track of) Nicole also managed to edit the 61 book Wobblies: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World while working full time without going completely insane (but came pretty damn close) This collection includes work from all her friends at WW3, as well as her own Nicole also received a grant from the Puffin Foundation to work on a graphic novel about IWW organizer Frank Little- she will finish this book sometime, hopefully, before she drops dead – Personal Website Website: http://nicoleschulman.com Contact via: http://nicoleschulman.com/?page_id=76 Judy Taylor Judy’s work consists of figurative and narrative paintings, labor-focused work, landscapes and portraiture Her scenes of workers and nature found on the Island often incorporate island residents as models Prior to coming to Maine she lived in New York City, transferring there from Chicago to study figurative art She was accepted into New York Academy of Art on full scholarship and received her Master’s certificate in their pilot program She went on to study painting at the National Academy of Design with Harvey Dinnerstein and Ron Sherr In 1996 she relocated to Maine and was an Artist-in-Residence at Acadia National Park Since 2002 she has resided full time in Maine where she maintains her studio and teaches 62 there and at workshops in Austin, New York, Italy and France In 2007 she was awarded the commission to paint the History of Labor in Maine which took a full year to complete Her work is in many public and private collections including: Johns Hopkins University, the United States Park System, Friends of Acadia, and the Jackson Laboratory – Personal Website Website: http://judytaylorstudio.com Email: punchinellas@hotmail.com Panels from Maine Department of Labor mural Nick Thorkelson The comics and cartoons of Nick Thorkelson have appeared in labor and community organizing materials and the Boston Globe as well as, most recently, a series of nonfiction comics anthologies including Yiddishkeit, Radical Jesus, and Bohemians – Dissent Magazine Website: http://www.nickthorkelson.com Email: nthork@nickthorkelson.com 63 Tribute to Ernest Riebe’s Mr Block, from Wobblies: A Graphic History Thomas Elmo Williams "I believe coal miners and other blue-collar workers are the foundation of our country." said L.U 6363 member Thomas Elmo Williams of Helper, Utah, "and I just hope to justice to them through my paintings." The coal miner-turned-artist paints what he knows best: laboring men and women, at work and at rest "America's blue-collar workers of the past as well as the friends and acquaintances I've made through my work." A native of West Virginia, the 45-year- 64 old Williams worked as an underground coal minder in Hiawatha, Utah, for 14 years before work-related injuries resulting in six operations on one of his legs forced him to leave the industry in 1990 His underground experiences surviving a series of mining accidents nurtured his desire to immortalize his fellow miners through his paintings – United Mine Workers Journal Website: http://www.boxcargallery.com Email: davidandelmo@gmail.com Andy Zermeño Every newspaper worth its salt has its own political cartoonist, and the farmworker movement’s, El Malcriado, was no exception Artist Andy Zermeno, cartoonist extraordinaire, was hand-picked by Cesar Chavez to create Don Sotaco, the wily, resourceful, self-deprecating, slightly helpless, and sometimes bumbling farmworker character to represent the views of the striking farmworkers From 1965 to 1971, Don Sotaco reigned supreme He became the symbol 65 of the eventual triumph of the strike and boycott over the pompous and arrogant attitudes of the growers about the hopes and aspirations of the striking farmworkers to build a better life for themselves Even during times of setbacks and dark days, Don Sotaco stood firm, and managed to find small union victories to buck up the spirits of the workers; he never gave up – Farmworker Movement Documentation Project Website: https://libraries.ucsd.edu/farmworkermovement/gallery/index.php?cat=66 Email: dlp@ucsd.edu (Farmworker Movement Documentation Project Digital Library) ... Nora Chapa Mendoza Nora Chapa Mendozahas worked for more than 40 years as a full time visual artist, a painter who served the state as a member of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs,... Ryan Inzana Ryan Inzana is an illustrator and comic artist whose work has appeared in numerous magazines, ad campaigns, books and various other media all over the world His illustration work has... Table of Contents Introduction Artists Exhibited at American Labor Museum Mike Alewitz Marilyn Anderson Michael Anthony David Bacon Donna Berger Pamela Calore Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge Martin