Caleb Duarte (2020)
Caleb Duarte: Chuchería
March 5 - April 9th
Art Hop Reception March 5, 5-8PM
Art Space Gallery at Fresno City College is thrilled to announce the opening of Chuchería, a new sculptural installation by interdisciplinary artist and FCC sculpture instructor (and alumnus) Caleb Duarte, on view from March 5—April 9.
Caleb Duarte’s work encompasses public sculpture, community performance, and painting. He uses ordinary construction materials to create structures that suggest vernacular architecture and temporary shelter; these objects and structures often serve as sites for public performances. His practice often includes direct political action and working with communities in movement, most recently working with unaccompanied minors seeking asylum.
In Chuchería (loosely translated as a thing of little value), Duarte uses drywall, lumber, packed earth, cement, and plaster to construct a temporary architectural intervention in the gallery, accompanied by several new sculpture and multimedia works. This immersive installation will alter the space of the gallery, shifting the viewer’s experience and perspective, building on Duarte’s previous projects to address migration, global trade, border atrocities, and the meaning of home.
Caleb Duarte (1977, El Paso, Texas, lives and works in Fresno, CA) grew up in both Mexico and the U.S. after his family settled in the small farming community of Corcoran, in California’s Central Valley. He has created public works and community performances at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India; Santiago de Cuba, Cuba; El Pital, Honduras, and throughout Mexico and the United States. Duarte’s projects include the ongoing traveling exhibition and publication Zapantera Negra: An Artistic Encounter Between Black Panthers and Zapatistas with Rigo 23, Emory Douglas and Mia Eve Rollow, and EDELO (Where the United Nations Used to Be), an artist residency program in Chiapas, Mexico. His work has been included in exhibitions at the University Art Gallery at CSU Stanislaus (Turlock, CA); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; SOMARTS (both San Francisco); Los Angeles Contemporary Projects; Paço das Artes (Sao Paulo, Brazil); Center for Creative Arts at CSU Fresno; and Vincent Price Art Museum (East Los Angeles); among others. He is a 2018 Creative Capital Fellowship awardee. Duarte earned an MFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago in 2009. He studied at Fresno City College from 1997–1999 before transferring to the San Francisco Art Institute where he earned his BFA in 2003. Duarte teaches Sculpture at Fresno City College.
