Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, April 26, 2024: Jacqueline Valenzuela, aan American multi-media emerging artist (#2008)

Jacqueline Valenzuela (1997) is a multi-media artist whose practice is centered around depicting her personal experiences as well as the storytelling of other women who like her are in the Chicano world of lowriding. Her art practice reflects the deep roots she has planted in the lowrider community by bridging the gap between fine art and this underrepresented community

Jacqueline Valenzuela received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach (2019). Her work has been exhibited nationally, including the South Gate Museum, Mexic-Arte Museum, Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, The Mexican Center for Culture and Cinematic Arts of the Mexican Consulate, The Cheech – Riverside Art Museum, the Brand Library & Art Center, and Muzeo Museum. She recently had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural cohort of the Ellsworth Residency at ArtShare L.A. This year she was awarded a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship for the Emerging Artist Tier as a Los Ángeles County Awardee. Spring 2024 she will be an artists in residence at Arts at Blue Roof in Los Ángeles. And in Fall of 2024 she will have a solo show, “Con Safos, Con Fuerzas”, with the Bakersfield Museum of Art (BMoA).

My exposure to the car world heightened when my now fiancé gifted me "La Playgirl" – a hot pink 1975 Cadillac Eldorado. My body of work heavily focuses on lowrider culture, lowrider style paint jobs, and the imagery that catches the eye of spectators. My newest work expands on lowrider paint job techniques, assemblage, and traditional oil-painting techniques.

When I took a three-year hiatus to focus on painting lowriders in an auto shop full-time, I could not have predicted that I would incorporate the two seemingly distant worlds. During this time, I did not produce any personal work. Unpredictably, I gained insight into new painting approaches used by auto paint technicians. This experience redefined what art meant to me. Before this, my perspective on art honored a traditional practice– oil on canvas was all that made sense to me. Since then, my work has increasingly involved mixed media and non-traditional approaches. The auto shop influenced my art practice to become more intimate and patient, which was lacking in my original art practice. My earlier work is overwhelmed with busy compositions, thick paint, and overall less focused on realism. My approaches have become more refined due to the painting experience I gained while working on cars.

Through the use of bold colors, portraiture and the urban landscape I create compositions that emphasize femininity in this male-dominated world. I find beauty within locations that are often overlooked by others. This urban imagery gives a sense of "home" to many of the viewers from similar backgrounds as myself, especially to the women who are cruising the boulevard alongside me. My art practice reflects the deep roots I have planted in the lowrider community by bridging the gap between fine art and this underrepresented community.

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