Yvette Mayorga

Yvette Mayorga (b. 1991 in Moline, Illinois) is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, mixed media, and painting. A first generation Mexican-American, Mayorga uses pastiche and confectionary aesthetics to address the violence of U.S. immigration policies, the militarization of the U.S./Mexico border, and the Eurocentric canon of art history. Mayorga is a MFA graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 
== Life ==
Raised by Mexican immigrants in the majority-white, small city of Moline, Illinois, Mayorga has described her experience as one of disconnection and difficulty in navigating her familial Mexican identity and the surrounding American culture. The youngest of five children in a home where creativity was encouraged, she knew from an early age she wanted to be an artist.
== Work ==
Mayorga's work appropriates and instrumentalizes the rich, excessive aesthetics of the colonizing countries that form the art historical canon. Using gilding, pastel colors, and a lush, painterly technique, her Rococo style playfully draws attention to her powerful critiques of the U.S.'s treatment of immigrants, exploitation of workers, and prolific police brutality. Incorporating found objects that evoke her 90s childhood, Mayorga utilizes toys like miniature soldiers and Hello Kitty faces, rhinestones, acrylic nails, and more to offer an intersectional feminist view.
Inspired by her mother's job as a cake-decorator in the 70s, Mayorga began to create tableaux in real icing before transitioning to acrylic paint. She now uses piping bags to maintain the appearance of rich cake design, continuing to honor the role of cakes and panaderias in Latinx culture. Her work follows the lineage of Rasquachismo|rasquache (“leftover” or “underdog”) aesthetics to "critique US xenophobia, while celebrating her Mexican-American heritage."
== Selected Works ==
=== The Procession (After 17th-century Vanitas) – In loving memory of MM, 2020. Acrylic nails, decals, collage, piteado, rhinestones and acrylic piped on canvas, 72” × 72”. ===
This bright pink painting, in Mayorga's trademark piped paint style, commemorates the COVID-19 pandemic. A woman reaching toward a laptop, a phone, mid-Google of COVID, on 20% battery, and a table overflowing with items "reflects on isolation and overconsumption" amid the pandemic, as well as its toll.
=== Monuments series, 2014-2015, Acrylic, plaster, glitter, frosting, and wood. ===
The series of six-foot sculptures look like crumbling cakes, decorated with toys, figurines, plastic handcuffs, cake toppers, and more. The works variously reference youth, U.S. War on drugs|War on Drugs, and the Mexican-American icon, Selena.
=== Through the Gate, 2019, acrylic piped on canvas, 48”x 60”. ===
Through the outline of a wrought iron gate, 90s and 2000s pop culture symbols and aesthetics form a collage of "sugary detritus." Emojis and Cool S|Cool S's float near a truck that says "F*** ICE," while above a soldier's boots and camo pants ominously peek through.
== Selected Exhibitions ==
=== 2020 ===
Estamos Bien: La Trienal 20/21, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY 
Exotify Elsewhere, Marthas Contemporary, Austin, TX 
LatinX American, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL 
Monochromatic Dreams, MASS Gallery, Austin, TX 
=== 2019 ===
A Part of US, GEARY Contemporary, New York, NY 
=== 2017 ===
High Maintenance, EXPO Chicago, Chicago, IL 
Category:1991 births
Category:Interdisciplinary artists
Category:People from Moline, Illinois