During Hispanic Heritage Month, ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ Today will share some of our studentsβ and faculty membersβ stories and how being Latino has shaped their lives.
Before she became a professor, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz had her work exhibited in galleries around the world.
Now, this assistant professor in ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs School of Visual Arts & Design serves as a self-styled ambassador for first-generation college students and any others who are intimidated by the culture of academia.
They need allies β this [ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½] is probably the only place theyβll be able to find allegiances.β
Her latest project, a tribute to the Pulse nightclub tragedy, will be at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago as part of its 30th annual DΓa de los Muertos exhibition . DΓa de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, is an annual holiday held in remembrance of dead family and friends. Raimundi-Ortiz has been collecting items of significance from people affected by the Pulse tragedy to craft a three-tiered altar that will debut at the event.
βI wanted to make sure that the feeling was authentic, that thereβs a conversation occurring about healing and transcendence, and maybe a bit educational, to acknowledge the Latino presence, because it was a Latino tragedy,β she said.
Raimundi-Ortizβs art β her paintings, drawings, photographs and performance-art pieces β are largely based upon self-examination. Her YouTube character Chuleta, for example, a tough-talking Latina personality who deconstructs the oftentimes abstruse elements of the art world, is based on her experience of disconnection between the art world and the communities with which itβs involved.
βThe bulk of my research is about otherness,β she said. βThe work that I make is all about me morphing and becoming different variations of myselfβ¦The creation of Chuleta teaching these crazy art lessons was because I personally got tired of feeling like art institutions pander to the community but donβt talk to the community; they talk at the community.β
Raimundi-Ortizβs journey began in the Bronx borough of New York City, where she lived with her parents, immigrants from Puerto Rico. They gave their daughter two choices after she graduated high school: get a job or go to school.
In 1995, she enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology, the State University of New Yorkβs college of art, business, design, mass communication and technology connected to the fashion industry, where she earned her associate degree in illustration. In 2002, she took a residency in the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine, which exposed her to the wider world of art.
Her work has been featured in exhibitions around the world, such as American Chambers, Hush #3 in Korea, Manifesta 8 in Spain, and Ni de Aqui, Ni de Alla: transcultura in El Salvador.
Despite her success as an artist, she never imagined that she would find her calling as a teacher.
βAcademia was never even part of my thought process. working-class city chick. The last thing I was thinking about was going to grad school and upper academia,β she said. βI was just trying to tuck my head, make my art. I never thought I would be showing internationally. I never thought I would be lauded enough to sit at this desk and teach other people.β
It wasnβt until she crossed paths with African-American postmodernist artist Emma Amos around 2005 that Raimundi-Ortiz gave academia serious consideration.
βI think she understood the value of a woman of color getting her education because she also understood all the doors that would never, ever open to me without a masterβs degree, especially as a visual artist,β she said.
At Amosβ insistence, Raimundi-Ortiz applied to Rutgers University, where she graduated with a masterβs degree in fine art in 2008. Two years later, she took a job at ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½, where she has taught ever since.
βI still think like that inner-city urban chick,β she said. βI havenβt forgotten where Iβve come from at all, but β¦ it [graduate school] forever changed the course of my life.β