Quica is a Xicana artist from East Los Angeles. Her work is an exploration of issues concerning life, community, indigenous ceremony, dreams, ancient Aztec & Mayan Codices, as well as ancient & contemporary indigenous philosophy. As a teen, she began her art education in community art classes at Self Help Graphics and Plaza de la Raza where Yreina Cervantes introduced her to painting and drawing. It was these influences combined with the Chicano graphic arts and murals of East Los Angeles that inspired her to obtain a BFA in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where she was able to study advanced printmaking under master printer Anthony Zepeda. In 1998 she co-founded a local, women's' artist collective called Mujeres de Maiz. As a volunteer core member, she designs and produces an annual poetry and arts community publication featuring artists from all over the nation.
In addition to self-publication, her work has been published in various publications including the Spectator, the University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Criticism and a book that involved a national art tour called Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California. She has also been invited to nationally exhibit in many university galleries such as the Fowler Museum in the University of California Los Angeles, the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art in the University of Texas, Austin, and the University Art Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her recent body of work uses a diverse media that explores race, gender, politics and spirituality. Her work is a journal, a self portrait of her own life experiences that embody a spiral of elements throughout building a complex, layered identity of subject matter that explore the heart of healing processes in the mind, body and spirit.
Goddess of the Americas,
1997
aquatint etching
by
Margaret "Quica" Alarcon
"Bringing together imagery from pre-Columbian codices with the conquest- period Virgin,
Margaret Alarcon has created a new being for contemplative contemporary women to ponder."
-Holly Barnet-Sanchez
excerpt from "Where are the Chicana Printmakers? Presence and Absence in the Work of Chicana Artists of the Movimiento."
Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California, Edited by Chon A. Noriega, pp 142-144
EDUCATION
Master of Arts, Education
National University School of Education
Sherman Oaks, California
2004-present
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Illustration
Art Center College of Design
Pasadena, California
1995-1997
EXHIBITIONS
Regenerations:
The 13th Annual Women of Color Film and Arts Festival
Porter College, University of Californa, 2006
Santa Cruz, Ca
Reflections of 8 Natural Women
LáFIA HOUSE Gallery, 2006
Brewery Arts Complex,
642 Moulton Ave., W13,
Los Angeles, Ca
Iztapapalotl: Continous Transformation
Antigua Gallery Space, 2006
El Sereno, Ca
Toltecayotl: Sacred Heart
(Solo Exhibit)
Antigua Gallery Space, 2006
El Sereno, Ca
Three Women
Imix Bookstore Gallery, 2005
Eagle Rock, Ca
Ofrendas 2004, Dia de los Muertos
Tropico de Nopal, 2004
Los Angeles, Ca
Tres Mujeres, Un Camino
Tia Chucha’s Café Cultural, 2003
Sylmar, Ca
Danzando Con el Fuego/Dancing With Fire
Self Help Graphics, 2003
East Los Angeles, Ca
Celebracion del Dia de los Muertos
Snite Museum of Art, Mestrovic Gallery, 2002
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana
3 Generations of Chicana Art:
30 Years of Contemporary Chicano and American Art Traditions
Rike Gallery, University of Dayton, Ohio, 2002
Just Another Poster?
Chicano Graphic Arts in California
University of Texas, Austin & University of California, Santa Barbara, 2000-2003
US National Art Tour:
- September 14, 2003
Crocker Art Museum and La Raza/Galería Posada,
Sacramento California. - March 14-May 31, 2003
Jersey City Museum
New Jersey - May 4-August 18, 2002
Oakland Museum of California - June 16- December 9, 2001
Fowler Museum
University of California Los Angeles - January 12-March 4, 2001
University Art Museum
University of California, Santa Barbara - June 2-August 13, 2000
The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art
University of Texas, Austin
Carpa Tezcatlipoca: Introspection, Liberation, Carnivalesque
Self Help Graphics/Galeria Otra Vez & Galleria Boccaler @ Olvera Street, 1998
East Los Angeles, Ca
Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos Annual Exhibition Celebration
Self Help Graphics/Galeria Otra Vez, 1995-2000
East Los Angeles, Ca
PUBLICATIONS, PRESS, AND MEDIA
Spectator
University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Criticism
Chicana Spectators and Media Makers Imagining Transcultural Diversity
Vol 26, no. 1, Spring 2006, pp. 88, 20
"Borderlands Critical Subjectivity in Recent Chicana Art"
Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies -
Volume 24, Number 2 & 3, 2003, pp. 104-121
University of Nebraska Press
Horizons
Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame- Summer 2003, No.2, pp. 13 & 26
"Day of the Dead, A Day for Remembering"
by Joseph Dits, South Bend Tribune- Nov 10, 2002
Southbend, Indiana
"A Spirit Reborn: Chicana Artist Finds Redemption and Renewal in Ofrenda"
by Julie York Coppens, South Bend Tribune- Nov 10, 2002
Southbend, Indiana
Just Another Poster?
Chicano Graphic Arts in California
University of Texas, Austin
University of California, Santa Barbara, 2001, pp. 142, 144
"Mujeres de Maiz"
La Gente de Aztlan, February 1998
UCLA
"Art Center: Becas y Oportunidades en la Mejor Escuela de Arte y Diseno"
Vida Nueva:Culturales- July 14-27 issue, 1995
AFFILIATIONS/ COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
Member, National Art Education Association
2006-Present
Member, La RED Xicana Indigena
Indigenous woman’s international network, Los Angeles Chapter, 2002-2007
Co-Founder, Publication Coordinator, Mujeres de Maiz
Los Angeles creative women’s organization, 1997- Present
Member, Quetzalitztli
East Los Angeles aztec dance group, 2001-Present
