Monochromatic Dreams | Yvette Mayorga

Stigmatized as hyper-feminine and associated with decoration, Barbies, and high-maintenance, the color pink carries a burden of misrepresentation. 

In Yvette Mayorga’s practice, pink is not fragile. Pink is a political material; pink is a weapon. 

Drawing on her own family history—including the aesthetics of cake decorating and the opulence of church interiors—and art-historical references from Rococo paintings, vases, and urns, Mayorga creates lush paintings that seduce her viewer then confront them with the grave consequences of consumerist dreaming. 

By layering symbology from the consumerist ideals of the American Dream with Latinx iconography she offers not a singular Latinx experience, but one that is nuanced, complex, and politicized. Throughout her paintings and ceramic works, we see symbols from her own experience growing up as a first-generation Latinx in the United States in the 1990s alongside signifiers of present-day surveillance. Swans, roses, nails, and flip-phones intermingle with the tuna cans, shoes, smiley faces, and toy soldiers. Piped in gobs of pink paint and frosting, these images offer allegories of belonging and intentionally subvert gender stereotypes unique to the artist’s experience as a woman of color.

Monochromatic Dreams is a collection of recent paintings and an installation, Monuments of the Forgotten (2020), a crowd-sourced project that Yvette expanded on during her remote residency through the Law Warschaw Gallery in Fall of 2020.

Opening Reception
Gallery and Janet Wallace North Entrance
Friday, September 24, 2021
6–8 pm
Open to the Macalester campus community and the public; masks required indoors.
 

GALLERY HOURS
The Law Warschaw Gallery is currently open daily without reservation for the Macalester community (students, faculty, and staff), and open daily to the public by reservation only. Hours for both the public and the Macalester community are below. Masks are required for all visitors. 

Monday 12–4 pm
Tuesday 10–4 pm
Wednesday 10–4 pm
Thursday 10–4 pm
Friday 10–4 pm
Saturday 12–4 pm
Sunday 12–4 pm

Image: Pinknologic Anxiety (After Francois Boucher, Madame de Pompadour, c. 1755), 2020, acrylic piping and collage on canvas, 30” x 40” triptych