Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz

Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz (born 1973), is an American interdisciplinary artist of Puerto Rican descent born in The Bronx, NY and based in Orlando, FL.[1][2][3]

Wanda Raimundi
Born1973
The Bronx, NY
NationalityAmerican
EducationFashion Institute of Technology, Rutgers University
Websitehttp://wandaraimundi-ortiz.com/

Early life and education

Raimundi-Ortiz was born to Puerto Rican immigrant parents near the Bronx River Projects. Growing up she was known as a bookworm, "artsy," "the new wave chick," "wanna-be white," and "from the 'hood" until graduating from the arts-target high school that she attended. That intersectionality grew to be reflected in the concepts she works with in her artwork.[4] She graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology in 1995 with an associate degree in illustration.[5] In 2002 she was an artist in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.[6] In 2005 she participated in Bronx AIM, a program that exposes and educates emerging artists.[7] She earned her MFA in 2008 from Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University.[8]

Career

Raimundi-Ortiz's early work often examined pop, hip-hop and comic culture, depicting famous people (like Celia Cruz) or her own epic characters (like Wepa Woman and Chuleta) in mural form.[9][10][11][12] But her most notable work is multi-disciplinary or performance-based such as RicanStruction that was featured in Performa '05 Biennial creating a pop-up stereotypically Nuyorican beauty parlor.[13][14] Another of her more interactive performance works was featured in "The Post Millennial Black Madonna," an exhibition at Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in 2007.[15] In 2011 Raimundi-Ortiz performed her Hush series in New York City and at Gyeongnam Art Museum in South Korea.[16] In response to the Pulse shooting, she held a calavera making workshop in Orlando that culminated in a Dia de los Muertos ofrenda. This shrine was exhibited in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago in 2016.[17][18] Raimundi-Ortiz had work in Silos, an exhibition at American University in 2016.[19] She was a 2016-17 recipient of a Franklin Furnace Fund.[20] Raimundi-Ortiz is a professor at University of Central Florida.[3]

Ask Chuleta
Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz Ask Chuleta, Biennial Culture, 2010 02

Raimundi-Ortiz's performative and political web series, Ask Chuleta, premiered in 2009. This series consists of short YouTube videos where her comical yet poignant Bronx-based Latina, doobie-wearing character, Chuleta, demystifies and critiques contemporary art and its context. She unpacks identity politics, access and stereotypes through this character. Some of the themes of these videos include, color field painting, post-modernism, Pollock and Kahlo, and Abstract Expressionism and the "white cube". Art critic Benjamin Genocchio says, "It is like a cross between Robert Hughes’s TV series “The Shock of the New” and a novel by Oscar Hijuelos." This work was shown at the Jersey City Museum, amongst other places.[2][21][22][23]

Reinas

In Raimundi-Ortiz's Reinas series, she explores the archetypical queen character by developing her own version, adorned in invented regalia inspired by personal fears and challenges including "Garbage Queen."[24][25] This series consisting mostly of performance ephemera and photographic portraits was exhibited in New Jersey at The Gateway Project as part of (em) POWER DYNAMICS: Exploring the Modes of Female Empowerment and Representation in America.[19]

Pietà

Raimundi-Ortiz's performance series Pietà centers around the concept of radical empathy. In these performances she embodies a character in the place of Michelangelo's Mary, but instead of holding the dying Jesus, she invites the public, one at a time, to be embraced by her in his place. She created this work to offer an exchange of mourning in response to contemporary global strife and identity-based violence. Through touch, she wants to reach empathy.[24] The first iteration of this performance took place in Knowles Chapel at Rollins College in 2017 where she held thirty-three visitors who identified as part of marginalized communities, each for thirty-three seconds.[26] For this first iteration she collaborated with the University of Central Florida gospel choir, designer Kristina Tollefson and local dj, DJ Stereo 77 to enrich the experience.[24] For the second iteration of her Pieta, Raimundi-Ortiz exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC later the same year, hosting Howard Gospel Choir, costume design by Kristina Tollefson and DJ Stereo 77 as her soundtrack.[27]

References
  1. Mather, Frank Jewett; Sherman, Frederic Fairchild (2008). Art in America. Brandt Art Publications.
  2. Dávila, Arlene (2012-04-16). Culture Works: Space, Value, and Mobility Across the Neoliberal Americas. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814744321.
  3. Fusco, Coco. "Coco Fusco: Artists help us understand turbulent times". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  4. "How an Artsy Girl from the Bronx Became a Transnational Reina | Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños". centropr.hunter.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  5. "UCF Professor Creates Latina Personality to Explain Art World". UCF News - University of Central Florida Articles - Orlando, FL News. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  6. Villarreal, Ignacio. "Artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz Tackles The Melodrama of Latina Stereotypes". artdaily.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  7. Nieves, Marysol (2011). Taking Aim!: The Business of Being an Artist Today. Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 9780823234134.
  8. "Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz Premieres Pietà - Metropoly - March 2017 - Orlando, FL". www.orlandomagazine.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  9. Opsahl, Carl Petter (2016-10-10). Dance To My Ministry: Exploring Hip-Hop Spirituality. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783647604541.
  10. Mieszkowski, Sylvia; Smith, Joy; Valck, Marijke de (2007-01-01). Sonic Interventions. BRILL. ISBN 9789401205092.
  11. V, Archiv der Jugendkulturen e; Hevelke, Monica; V, Gangway e (2008-11-04). HipHop in Berlin (in German). Archiv der Jugenkulturen. ISBN 9783940213471.
  12. Kunstforum international (in German). Kunstforum International. 2005.
  13. Contemporary. Contemporary Magazine. 2003.
  14. Goldberg, RoseLee (2007). Performa: new visual art performance. Performa.
  15. Ogunnaike, Lola (2007-03-28). "A Museum Grows in Brooklyn". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  16. "Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz: HUSH / Alejandro Guzman: [ ... ] LIES THE TRUTH - Taller Boricua - ArtCat". calendar.artcat.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  17. Sandler, Leah. "From high art to humble displays, visual representations and reactions to the Pulse tragedy are everywhere in Orlando". Orlando Weekly. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  18. Baca, Stacey (2016-09-30). "National Museum of Mexican Art celebrating 'Day of the Dead' with annual exhibition". ABC7 Chicago. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  19. "13 Artists Explore Female Empowerment in American Art". Creators. 2015-09-21. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  20. "Franklin Furnace Fund Recipients 2016-17". franklinfurnace.org. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  21. Genocchio, Benjamin (2009-02-13). "Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz Video Art, at Jersey City Museum". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  22. Smith, Cherise (2011-03-07). Enacting Others: Politics of Identity in Eleanor Antin, Nikki S. Lee, Adrian Piper, and Anna Deavere Smith. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822347997.
  23. Junk Jet 6 - Here and where. igmade.edition. 2012. ISBN 9783981474824.
  24. Sandler, Leah. "'Pieta,' a performance by Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, creates a space for radical empathy". Orlando Weekly. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  25. Reep, Jessica Bryce Young, Richard. "From neon to napalm, OMA's Florida Prize exhibition is loud, chaotic and totally gorgeous". Orlando Weekly. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  26. "CFAM: Durational Performance". Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  27. Express (2017-05-03). "11 things to do for free this month in D.C., Maryland and Virginia". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
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