Jesus Santa Cruz is a Mexican-American queer artist whose art utilizes abstract forms and shapes to explore queer identity, queer narratives, and intersections of race and gender. His works include lithographs, silkscreen prints, ceramics, drawings, and mixed media. The glitter prints series includes make-up and glitters from drag queens Kim Chi and Trixie Mattel. These materials from queer sources imbue pieces with an inherent queerness that allow for an abstraction of meaning. Memories and events of pivotal queer identity form the basis of inspiration for the work and are abstracted to create a language of signs and symbols that can be understood by other LGBTQ people. The rudimentary shapes and colors explore the themes of building and rearranging queer identity from childhood to adulthood. The use of various color combinations work as symbols for gender and gender identity. Moments of chaos and order in the work symbolize the political and social climate of LGBTQ and Latin peoples in America.
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1992, Jesus Santa Cruz is a first generation Mexican-American queer artist. He grew up in Ivanhoe, California and Rockford, Illinois. Jesus studied art at College of the Sequoias in Visalia where he learned printmaking and lithography. He then studied at Kansas City Art Institute before enrolling at California State University, Fresno, where he is currently finishing his Bachelors in Studio Arts with an emphasis in Photography and Printmaking. Jesus’ lithography research is published in Richard Peterson’s Voodoo Lithography: A Lithoholic’s Guide to Drawing on Rocks.
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