ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kuetzpal Vasquez is a home girl from San Anto, a multimedia XicanX feminist artivist. Observing the Chicano Movement through the lens of a child has shaped her life, work, and the creation of her cartoon character, Citlali, La XicanX Superhero. She comes from a long line of curanderas (native healers), but her method of healing is through her art. She has practiced art as healing for over 15 years.
Kuetzpal obtained a BA from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She studied painting at the School of the Chicago Art Institute and received a certificate in traditional culture from Universidad Nahuatl in Ocotepec, Mexico.
Kuetzpal’s artistic concentration and research remains in exploring the perception of cultural hybridity. Her research converges on three main foci:
(1) Postmodern and global approaches to contemporary art,
(2) Indigenous (i.e., Native American, Chicana and African Spirituality) process concerning ecological balance through traditional medium and,
(3) Xicanx feminist perspective in creating characters that contribute to academic tenacity through multi-generational relationships.
· She re-imagines patriarchal cultural myths that position womxn as unscrupulous characters through a Xicanx feminist lens and the lack of Xicanx and womxn of color representation in the arts and education.
· In 2019, she exhibited and presented her work Citlali: Cortando Nopales y Hechando Tortillas en Outer Space at the Queens Museum in Queens, New York and presented Arroz Con Pollo: The Influence of Basquiat on My Work at the Brandt Museum in New York City.
· In 2022, Kuetzpal presented her work at the exhibition XicanX Speaks at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. During her time Vancouver, she also presented in Diálogo: Conversation About Latin American Art in North America at VLACC Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre.
· The XicanX Exhibition will be on exhibit in San Antonio in June of this year 2024 at the Blue Star Art Complex and will move on to Guadalajara the following year.
· Kuetzpal has exhibited in over 100 exhibitions nationally and internationally. Even though she is in the process of retiring from the university setting, she will continue to be an educator while bringing her secondary career as a professional artist to the forefront.
Kuetzpal is a mujerista interested in a feminist economy. She believes a feminist economy is important to give students and community a more objective perspective to the inequity of the world, especially the art world, as well as penetrating the patriarchal system in place. She operates several businesses connected to the arts. In art school, rarely do they teach students how to make money from their art. She offers students and the community a XicanX feminist perspective and way to economic sustainability in the arts.
Kuetzpal will be initiating a series of paintings highlighting the cultural contributions of Mexican Americans to the City of Seguin while simultaneously conveying the torment they underwent at the hands of the Texas Rangers. This work is made possible through an arts grant funded by the NEA National Endowment for the Arts granted to El Teatro de Arte de Juan Seguin and the City of Seguin.
