WBEZ Chicago Highlights Alum Yvette Mayorga’s Latest Solo Exhibition
WBEZ Chicago highlighted School of the Art Institute of Chicago alum Yvette Mayorga’s (MFA 2016) latest solo exhibition, Pu$h Thru, now on view at Monique Meloche Gallery. Drawing on 17th- and 18th-century Rococo influences, Mayorga reclaims pastel excess through a distinctly Latinx lens she calls “Latinx-oco.” The show features 14 new works blending childhood memories, immigrant narratives, and Midwest labor histories—all filtered through her signature pink palette. Paintings like She’s in the cake/Put out the fire juxtapose lush family scenes with subtle tensions, reflecting the joy and complexity in first-generation life. Mayorga’s multilayered canvases honor her family’s labor while challenging traditional American narratives of beauty and belonging.
SAIC alum Kunié Sugiura featured in the New York Times for her hybrid photo practice.
Photo courtesy of Kunié Sugiura Studio / The New York Times Credit...Sara Messinger for The New York Times
Sugiura moved to the United States to become an artist, but didn’t know at first exactly what that would look like. “I wasn’t sure I could be a painter,” she said. Credit...Sara Messinger for The New York Times