So I know a lot of you went to the Berkeley Art Museum Student Committee’s opening party for Enrique Chagoya’s Borderlandia, but let’s be real: amidst the huge crowds, free food, and “see and be seen” vibe, you probably didn’t get to view as much of the art as you would have liked. This is precisely why you should go back to BAM and immerse yourself in the artist’s provocative images of Mickey Mouse, cannibals, and biting-yet-hilarious social satire. Oh yeah, and Chagoya himself will appear at the museum a whopping three times before the exhibition ends– on February 17th, March 16th, and April 13th. Get excited!

If you didn’t get a sneak peek at the multi-media artist’s exhibition at the party, let me fill you in: Borderlandia presents a clash of cultures that results in a rich world of overlapping and imaginative images. The artist uses icons from both Mexican tradition and American pop culture, resulting in works like Crossing I, in which Superman meets an Aztec god at the US/Mexico border. Although Chagoya practiced art as a child —“I used to make cartoons of my teachers naked,” he jokes— he started out as a political economy student and didn’t officially enter the art world until moving from Mexico the United States in 1979. His beginnings in political economics are evident in his Borderlandia pieces, as they’re dripping with social and political satire– in one painting the artist uses a Philip Guston-like approach to comically present George W. Bush as Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Chagoya also comments upon the traditions of art history and colonialism, peppering Monet’s otherwise-serene gardens at Giverny with ravenous cannibals, and continuously referencing the gory, wartime etchings of Francisco Goya. The intermingling of so many artistic styles, cultures, and time periods make Chagoya an artist who’s hard to pin down, a fact that he enjoys: “I don’t like to be included in the Mexican/Chicano box,” he says, and adds that it’s only in the United States that people try so hard to categorize. Rather, Chagoya places himself in a larger tradition of social satirists—Honoré Daumier, Guston and Goya are some of his favorites— saying that he detests “preachy” art and that he “like[s] to laugh rather than cry.” Overall, Chagoya’s works are alternately chuckle-inducing and heartbreaking, but always visually stunning. Just like the swirling jumble of images that he presents, Chagoya stirs up mixed emotions in his viewers—and I think he likes it that way.

Borderlandia is on display at BAM until May 18th, with free guided tours Thursdays at 12:15pm and Sundays at 2pm. Admission is always free for Berkeley students. For more information on community events and Chagoya’s appearances, visit the BAM website.

Images courtesy: Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive.

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