La Gente

Jonathan Christensen Caballero

Degree: MFA

Area: Ceramics

Thesis Statement

The personal is political and I feel a moral imperative to create art that critiques the oppression of Latin American laborers in the United States. My art is based on my personal identity growing up with parents who supported our family through labor jobs and my mother who is a Central American immigrant. My figures give representation to people who contribute to society at the cost of their physical bodies. For this reason, my sculpture is rooted in Latin American identity and socio-economic status. My artwork is able to narrate enduring questions of identity through the use of the human figure, pre-Columbian iconography, and mixed media sculpture. The figurative sculpture I make is driven by questions of inclusion vs exclusion. Who benefits from the American dream? Who is allowed representation, visibility and to feel a sense of belonging? Why is the Latin American community forced to remain invisible and to always be perceived as the outsider? My figurative sculpture critiques the oppression of Latin American laborers in this country and advocates for my community’s representation by revealing both the plight of the proletariat as well as the resilience of immigrants.