Music by Mesa Jazz Ensemble

From: Alessandra Moctezuma
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2018 11:04 AM
To: Alessandra Moctezuma
Subject: THIS THURSDAY! February 15, 3 - 6:30 pm Reception and Panel discussion at 12:45 pm By(default) poetry and art exhibition challenges racial codings - Mesa College Art Gallery

All invited to the reception this Thursday, February 15, 3 - 6:30 pm. Panel discussion 12:45 - 2:00 pm in G102

Music by Mesa Jazz Ensemble

Join us for our February exhibition which is part of the Black History Month 2018 Events.

I will be happy to do individual tours for classes. Check with me if you are interested. Exhibition ends February 28!

Poems and artworks present issues of white privilege, racial codings, police brutality.Both bold and intimate statements they open our eyes

to issues of inequality and discrimination. Because art can be a way to aspire for a better society and a an understanding of historical perspectives.

Already had great conversation with my classes.

Click on link for details. Reception on Thursday February 15.

Album with more pictures on FB:

Alessandra Moctezuma, M.F.A., Gallery Director, Professor Fine Art

San Diego Mesa College
Art Gallery - D101
7250 Mesa College Dr.
San Diego, CA, 92111
Gallery Director: Alessandra Moctezuma

(619) 388-2829



SuzanneBroughel,99 and 44/100ths Percent Pure, 2004, Ivory & African Black Soap.
Above image: JCLenochan,Guess this is what happens when food becomes thought, 2011.
By(e) Default
Curated by andrea Chung
February 5 – 28, 2018
Reception: Thursday, February 15, 3:00 – 6:30 pm, Art Gallery D101
Artists’ Panel prior to reception: 12:45 – 2:00 pm, G102
Light refreshments. FREE parking on reception night ONLY in Lot 10 across from the flagpole. Gallery is located in D101 next to the LRC. (see map)

San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery presents By(e) Default, curated by San Diego artist Andrea Chung. Through the works of five contemporary artists and three poets, this exhibit challenges racial codings and engages in both the revision and celebration of Black History.
Featuring (link to the artists and poets websites):
ElizabethAxtman
SuzanneBroughel
CortneyLamar Charleston
LissaCorona
JCLenochan
Jason Patterson
ClaudiaRankine
NicoleSealey
Chung states:By(e) Default aims to highlight an unconscious and contradictory thought, whiteness is the default, but it denies that it is privileged, all while fearing the loss of its position as the “default.” Whiteness is the standard for how we (and others) measure ourselves (and others). It goes unnoticed until it is deposed from its pedestal. White history is posited as American history, ignoring the full citizenship and contributions (voluntary or involuntary) of people of color in this country and the full context of their stories. It also dictates when we can acknowledge our history and when our opinions and expertise “matter.”
During panel discussion, the artists will present images and talk about their work, process and concepts. Q & A will follow. The panel is moderated by Professor Denise Rogers, Ph.D.
Brief Bios about curator and eachartist/poet:
Andrea Chung is a visual artists whose artwork explores the history and narratives of post-colonial island nations such as Jamaica and Trinidad, where her family is originally from. Chung addresses issues of colonialism, gender and representation.
Elizabeth Axtman is a multidisciplinary artist who creates works on the complexities of race and humor. As the daughter of an Afro-Panamanian mother and German American father, she plays with representations of both. Her work presents the spectrum of emotions of the African American experience. She completed her MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. She has participated in exhibitions at the The Studio Museum of Harlem, NYC, The Contemporary Art Museum, Houston and The Kitchen, NYC among many others.
Suzanne Broughel is a multi-disciplinary artist based in New York. In her work, she explores issues of race – particularly the construct of whiteness and its implications towards being a raced individual. She has exhibited at P.S.1/MOMA, Marlborough Gallery, Columbia University, and Longwood Gallery, among other spaces. Broughel is a member of the tART Collective.
Cortney Lamar Charleston’s academic background, coupled with his upbringing in Chicago’s South Side and its South and West suburbs influence his written work. Charleston’s poems grapple with race, masculinity, heteronormativity, class, family, faith and how identity is, functionally, a transition zone between all of these competing markers. His poetry is a marriage between art and activism, a call for a more involved and empathetic understanding of the diversity of the human experience. He is Poetry Editor at The Rumpus.
Lissa Corona was born on a military base in California. She currently works and resides in Oceanside, Ca. She received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. She has twin children with unusual names, and a best friend life partner co-parent who happens to be male.
JC Lenochan’s work deconstructs objects and de-circulating institutional relics, reconfiguring these commodities to show the transformative function of art. Through investigative research, drawing, riffs on traditional sculpture and performance-based installations, Lenochan pursues ideas of re-appropriation and mis-representation of images, text or forms that already exist, and imbues them with personal/historical narratives.
Jason Patterson’s work focuses on African American history and underscores the role the past in the cultivation of current political and social conditions in the United States. His drawings are based on archival materials where the images' original sources (tintypes, film, newspaper clippings, digital photo/video, etc.) are evident. Patterson investigates the ways they shape the understanding of our history and define our present. He lives and works in Urbana, Illinois.
Claudia Rankine is a poet, essayist, playwright and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, poet Claudia Rankine earned a BA at Williams College and an MFA at Columbia University. Her work “Citizen: An American Lyric” is a poem dealing with race and the imagination. It explores realities such as everyday racist gestures that still exist in a society where acts of discrimination are supposedly outlawed.
Nicole Sealey was born in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. and raised in Apopka, Florida, Nicole Sealey is the author of Ordinary Beast and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, winner of the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. Her other honors include an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from The American Poetry Review, a Daniel Varoujan Award and the Poetry International Prize, as well as fellowships from CantoMundo, Cave Canem, MacDowell Colony and the Poetry Project. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and elsewhere. Nicole holds an MLA in Africana studies from the University of South Florida and an MFA in creative writing from New York University. She is the executive director at Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.




San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery
San Diego Mesa College
Art Gallery - D101
7250 Mesa College Dr.
San Diego, CA, 92111
NEW Gallery Hours: MTW 11 am - 4 pm, TH 11 am – 7 pm.
Closed Fridays, Weekends and School Holidays
Gallery Director: Alessandra Moctezuma


(619) 388-2829
Parking info:During regular gallery hours, from the Marlesta entrance purchase a $1.00 per hour permit from the machine at the information booth, to be used only in the student lots. Or use the visitors’ 1 hour diagonal spaces in the upper parking area across from the flagpole. (Find additional parking info at