In Conversation: Eamon Ore-Giron, C. Ondine Chavoya, and Florencia Portocarrero

Co-presented with Landmarks, the public art program at The University of Texas at Austin

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Brought together through past collaboration and friendship, exhibiting artist Eamon Ore-Giron is joined by art historian C. Ondine Chavoya and curator Florencia Portocarrero in a conversation about his work, currently featured at two Austin institutions. Eamon Ore-Giron: Competing with Lightning / Rivalizando con el relámpago is currently on view at The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center, and Tras los ojos (Behind the Eyes), can be seen at Landmarks, The University of Texas at Austin’s public art program.

C. Ondine Chavoya is an art historian with a focus on Chicanx avant-garde art and performance and is a leading figure in the field of Latinx art history and visual culture. He is also author of the essay, “Looking South with Eamon Ore-Giron,” in the accompanying exhibition catalogue published by MCA Denver, Eamon Ore-Giron: Competing with Lightning / Rivalizando con el relámpago.

Peruvian-based curator Florencia Portocarrero investigates art history from a feminist perspective and pursues politically engaged artistic projects through her work as co-director of Bisgara, an artist collective. Serving as curatorial contributor for Landmarks, Portocarrero provided an essay and audio guide that contextualize Tras los ojos (Behind the Eyes), Ore-Giron’s commission for Landmarks, as well as his broader creative practice.

Join us as we welcome these guests in conversation on the Rooftop of The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center, Thursday, April 27 at 6P. Doors and bar open at 5:30P. Tickets are free and open to the public.

ABOUT EAMON ORE-GIRON

Eamon Ore-Giron (b. 1973, Tucson, AZ; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) blends a wide range of visual styles and influences in the brightly colored abstract geometric paintings for which he is best known. Referencing indigenous and craft traditions as well as 20th-century avant-gardes, his paintings move between temporalities and resonate across cultural contexts. Ore-Giron also works in video and music, and his interdisciplinary projects explore the interrelationship of sound, color, rhythm, and pattern, and make manifest a history of transnational exchange. He has exhibited nationally and internationally as a solo practitioner and as part of collaborative endeavors and has been selected to realize major public commissions in New York and Los Angeles. Ore-Giron received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

ABOUT C. ONDINE CHAVOYA

Dr. C. Ondine Chavoya was appointed to the John D. Murchison Regents Professorship in Art in the Department of Art and Art History at UT Austin in 2023. A specialist in Chicanx and Latinx art, Chavoya is co-editor of Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology (Duke University Press, 2019) and has published widely in numerous journals and exhibition catalogues. He is the recipient of a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Chavoya’s curatorial projects have addressed issues of collaboration, experimentation, social justice, and archival practices in contemporary art. Recent exhibitions include Asco: Elite of the Obscure (with Rita Gonzalez, 2011), Robert Rauschenberg: Autobiography (with Lisa Dorin, 2017), and Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. (with David Evans Frantz, 2017). From 2018 to 2020, Chavoya served as the International Consulting Curator to the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) in Peru.

ABOUT FLORENCIA PORTOCARRERO

Florencia Portocarrero (Lima, 1981) is an interdependent curator. Within and outside of institutions, her cultural practice intertwines writing, lecturing, teaching, and the organization of both exhibitions and public programs. Her research interests are focused on how to rewrite art history from a feminist perspective and the questioning of hegemonic forms of knowledge. From 2012 to 2013, Portocarrero participated in the Curatorial Program of the Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam, and in 2015 she completed a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has participated in several international conferences and her writings on art and culture appear regularly in specialized magazines and publications. In Lima, she has worked as a Public Program Curator at Proyecto AMIL (2015–2019) and was a Curatorial Advisor of the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) Contemporary Art Acquisitions Committee (2018–2020). Since 2014 she has served as co-director of Bisagra; an art collective through which she has worked collaboratively with artists and professionals from different fields and backgrounds to pursue politically engaged and socially sensitive artistic projects.

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