Panel Discussion	Thursday, March 7, 2024 from 2:15 – 3:45pm
Closing Reception	Saturday, April 27, 2024 from 02:00 – 5:00pm

Please join us for the closing reception and artist panel discussions for the exhibition “Battle of the Saints” Curated by Natalie Godinez and Lulu Urdiales of Self Help Graphics and Art.  
The panel discussion will include artists Dewey Tafoya, Ernesto Vazquez and Jacqueline Valenzuela and will be moderated by Miguel Zavala-Lopez, LBCC Studio Art student.  

About the moderator

Miguel Zavala-Lopez

Miguel Zavala-Lopez is an undergraduate student in the Studio Arts program at Long Beach City College (LBCC). He has a certification from LA Trade Tech in Sign Graphics and has returned to education to focus on creating access to visual and performing arts programming, for BIPOC communities with a focus on Native & Indigenous, Chicanx & Latinx, and immigrant communities. At LBCC Miguel was the founding president of Siembra, Latinx Student Club, an active member of the Native American & Indigenous Student collaborative, a member of the Public Art Advisory Group, and has worked as an English Tutor and Peer Navigator. Most recently he has been an ongoing volunteer for an art project led by Jose M. Loza and ORALE (Organizing Rooted in Abolition, Liberation and Empowerment). This fall he will be applying to transfer to a 4 Year University after which he intends to return to education through community and academic organizations.

Ernesto Vazquez 

Born and raised in Boyle Heights, Ernesto Vazquez is an artist with a background in community organizing. He is based at Solidarity Ink in Los Angeles and his work has been exhibited in various galleries around the country. 

Ernesto utilizes a variety of printing techniques including linoleum block printing, woodblock printing and silkscreen to create works ranging in subject from political to mythic. Numerous influences can be identified in Ernesto’s art including family, his upbringing in East Los Angeles, street art, social justice, community empowerment issues, and his ties to Solidarity Ink.

Jacqueline Valenzuela 

Jacqueline Valenzuela (b. 1997 East Los Angeles, CA) received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach (2019). Her work has been exhibited nationally, including the South Gate Museum, Mexic-Arte Museum, Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, The Mexican Center for Culture and Cinematic Arts of the Mexican Consulate, The Cheech – Riverside Art Museum, the Brand Library & Art Center, and Muzeo Museum. In 2023 she participated in the inaugural cohort of the Ellsworth Residency at ArtShare L.A. and has now served on the judges panel for the residency for the third and fourth cohorts. She is a 2023-2024 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Awardee for Los Angeles County. Valenzuela is currently an artist in residence at Arts at Blue Roof in Los Angeles. In Fall of 2024 Jacqueline will have a solo show, “Con Safos, Con Fuerzas”, with the Bakersfield Museum of Art (BMoA). 

Valenzuela is a multi-media artist whose practice is centered around depicting her personal experiences as well as the storytelling of other women who like her are in the Chicano world of lowriding.  Her art practice reflects the deep roots she has planted in the lowrider community by bridging the gap between fine art and this underrepresented community. 

Dewey Tafoya 

Dewey Tafoya is an East Los Angeles based visual artist and teaching artist. He is currently the resident artist at Self-Help Graphics & Art where he leads a monthly screen-printing class as well as the Barrio Mobile Arts Studio workshop. As a printmaking and graphic design instructor, he has taught at local continuation schools as well as ArtworxLA and the City of Los Angeles’s Saturday Night Lights (SNL) parks and recreation program. Influenced by his local community, he uses symbols and imagery connected to the urban landscape, chicanx culture, and indigenous civilizations to critique, deconstruct, and rebuild historical narratives. His work has been exhibited throughout Southern California, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

About Self Help Graphics & Art

Self Help Graphics & Art fosters the creation and advancement of new art works by Chicana/o and Latinx artists through experimental and innovative printmaking techniques and other visual art forms. We are an organization rooted in community; and since 1973, have been at the intersection of arts and social justice, providing a home that fosters the creativity and development of local artists. We establish international collaborations and partnerships nation-wide and create world-wide cultural exchanges.