The photography and installation-based art of Herron School of Art and Design alumni who work and live in the United States but share cultural and familial roots in Mexico will be featured in Made in Mexico, opening on Wednesday, September 30 with an artist’s talk, live performance and reception beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Gutierrez will present the visiting artist’s talk in the Basile Auditorium, to be immediately followed by Cortez’s live performance. 

Gutierrez went on from Herron to a tenure track as an award-winning professor of printmaking at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University-School of Art, Tempe. “I was extremely honored and grateful to be selected for the Herberger Institute School of Arts’ Endowed Professor of Art Award, which provides funding for research and travel,” he said. It allowed him to create the solo exhibition FARMAS, which debuted at Arts Visalia Visual Art Center in California and traveled to Casa Siglo XIX Museo-Sebastian in Chihuahua, Mexico. Its next stop is scheduled for the Slocomb Galleries at Middle Tennessee State University in spring 2016.

The California native studied at Herron because he “wanted to get out of my comfort zone in the West and see what the Midwest was all about; Indianapolis was the perfect place for that. Herron has a strong reputation in the academic print world and I was interested in the public aspect of the curriculum.”

His focus is on printmaking because “It is a democratic art form that is meant for the masses. Printmaking has a rich history of important Mexican printmakers like Leopoldo Mendez and Jose Guadalupe Posada who were a big part of the Mexican Revolution Movement. Printmakers and artists associated with that movement truly had an important message; they are some of my favorite artists and inspire me to make work that connects to a wide audience including your non-traditional art goer,” he said.

There is likely to be some lively political discussion during his talk, given the season: “Politics always make an impact in my work,” Gutierrez said. “As you know, I am in the ring of fire here in Arizona when it comes to immigration and Latino issues. I have a project that I am working on that is related to these issues; I will share it during my lecture.”