Photo Courtesy of Michael Fee

statement

Jacquelene Cristina Verna is an Argentine-American interdisciplinary artist focusing on the North American separation of death in the 70s and its relationship with the Latin American political turmoil and atrocities of the same time period.

My work is heavily research-based and concerns a historical relationship and convergence between North and South America during a time of the US’ political funding of right-wing parties, military coups and the Dirty War of Argentina. While death, kidnappings, and torture became a reality for many Latin American countries in the late 60s and early 70s, the United States experienced a separation from death; with people passing away outside of the home—in hospitals, —the rising popularity of cremation, and the mass-production of headstones. Following the Golden Age of US capitalism, automobiles, plastic commodities, and commercialized goods became less personalized and the rise of popular culture aided in further polarizing the two sheltered hemispheres. Previously one of the top seven wealthiest countries, Argentina regressed into a state of underdevelopment in the 1970s—stifling its progression beyond the time period.

Through means of craftsmanship and machine-like production, I create functional commodities that may be seemingly mass-produced and marketed in an alternate fictional reality, calling upon kitsch, working-class culture, and nostalgia. I am heavily inspired by Latin American conceptual artists of the time period, including Graciela Carnevale, León Ferrari, and Oscar Bony. My aim is to reference and critique the symbols, ideas, and means of production of the early conceptual movement—through varying degrees of difference and separation—in the educational environment of a gallery space.

bio

Jacquelene Cristina Verna was born in 1998 in Corona, California and has annually stayed in Rosario, Argentina for extended periods of time. In 2019, she received her BA in Visual Arts- Studio and minor in Art History at University of California San Diego and graduated with University Honors Summa Cum Laude. Verna currently lives and works in San Diego and Los Angeles and is the Digital Marketing Assistant / Translator for the San Diego Museum of Art, having interned for the Museum’s Associate Curator of European Art from Jul 2017- Sept 2018. Awards include Emerging Artist Award at the Dreams, Daydreaming & Dreamers exhibition at San Ysidro’s The FRONT and the William H. Stout Scholarship for Arts and Humanities , Studio Honors, and the Russell Foundation Grant. Past shows include  "27th Juried Exhibition" at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla, CA and "A Ship In The Woods Music and Art Festival" at Felicita County Park, Escondido, CA, and 1805 Gallery’s Material Zones Vend Art Exhibition. Her most recent major exhibition was “Under 25 Contest Showcase,” a group show at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Other recent exhibitions include Insurgencies, 13th Annual Día de la Mujer Exhibition at The FRONT, San Ysidro, CA, World Series SD, virtual exhibition and art sale, and SDMA Staff Exhibition, Lotus Tax Gallery North Park, San Diego, CA.