VCUarts professor blends protests, mystical stories for art exhibition

Natalie Barr, Contributing Writer

VCU’s contemporary art gallery welcomed a new installment to guests through the use of natural materials, worn textures and faded colors.

The Anderson is displaying Larissa Garcia’s new exhibition Zero Loss Peak after it was chosen as the 2022 recipient for the Excellence in Adjunct Research Award. 

The application included a show proposal, description of work, an overall budget and initial sketches of the collection, if the pieces were not yet made. The final winner of the grant was selected by various deans of VCUarts, Garcia said.

The Zero Loss Peak exhibition showcases the 1959 to 1960 Dominican Republic Fourteenth of June Movement, known as J14. The movement signifies the opposition of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo, which led to his assassination in 1961, according to the Global Nonviolent Action Database. 

Garcia said Trujillo’s regime was bloody and oppressive which left people in the Dominican Republic unable to navigate their lives. Research about the movement and “intuition” led to the creation of the exhibition pieces about six months ago, according to Garcia.

 “My grandparents and my parents grew up during that [Trujillo] regime,” Garcia said. “It still affects the country [Dominican Republic] to this day.”

 Protests and stories during the movement were coded with spiritual and mystical messages, and this provided further inspiration for the exhibition, Garcia said. 

“A lot of it is found materials because a lot of the work I make has to do with mutated tools and techniques used for survival,” Garcia said. “The mutation comes from not having access to materials I would have if I still lived in the Dominican Republic.”

 Garcia said they wanted the collection to encompass the overall meaning of the J14 movement. The materials used within the sculptures show indications of passing time, such as rust, but also used wood, agricultural material or animal remains. 

Some pieces in the exhibition have a feeling of “absence” to them to showcase how the movement is unknown to people and how events and certain parts of the movement fade away over the years, according to Garcia.

 “I want people to take away the enjoyment of my work, but also how things can disappear,” Garcia said.

 Miami, Florida was a budding art scene in the late ‘90s to early 2000s when they were growing up, Garcia said. Both public and private school children in South Florida were exposed to international art, they said. 

 “This all led me to start teaching. I never had teaching experience before coming here [VCU], and then starting to have teaching experience, I stayed with the university,” Garcia said.

Monica Kinsey, The Anderson’s administrative coordinator, has been working at the gallery for three years and said there is always a wide range of topics and materials displayed at the gallery. 

Kinsey said The Anderson offers financial support of up to $1,000 for the winner of the Excellence in Adjunct Research Award to use for exhibition production costs and installation of the exhibit.

 “It was great to work with Larissa again. We worked with Larissa during their senior thesis exhibition, which wasn’t too long ago,” Kinsey said.

Chase Westfall, The Anderson gallery curator of student exhibitions and programs, said the faculty advisory committee for the Excellence in Adjunct Research Award is made up of faculty members from different studio disciplines, training and expertise within VCUarts.

 “All of them bring their knowledge of contemporary art and think about, ‘how do we get our students up to speed and help them be informed as makers within contemporary art?’” Westfall said.

Westfall said working with Garcia was easy since many of the pieces for the exhibition were made off set, brought over to the gallery and installed into the gallery space by Garcia.

Westfall said he enjoys the curatorial process when he is able to showcase a variety of artists and exhibitions and hopes The Anderson will be a gallery where students can feel welcomed, have access to artists and be a part of conversations surrounding contemporary art.

 “If you go into an exhibition at a larger institution, oftentimes there are many degrees of separations between you and that artist,” Westfall said. “Exhibitions shown here are exhibitions made by fellow students or their graduate students in the same program.”

Freshman Arts Foundation student Sara Omer said she and some friends decided to go to The Anderson to view student artwork after seeing an Instagram post for Zero Loss Peak. Omer said she enjoyed how the artist used muted colors over bright colors.

“Bright colors are nice to see in art, but like muted colors, form and skill matter more and it draws more attention to it,” Omer said. 

Omer said she liked how the artist utilized the space they had for the exhibition.

“I like the juxtaposition of thread and little dainty things holding really large things,” Omer said. “It’s a feeling that words cannot describe.”

Zero Loss Peak can be viewed at The Anderson from now until Sept. 24. The Anderson is located at 907½ W. Franklin St., open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.