The Exhibition, Double-Trouble: Enrique Chagoya and Kara Maria, Blew Us Away

Photo courtesy of anglimtrimble.com Belatina, latinx
Photo courtesy of anglimtrimble.com

Recently, BELatina News was invited to the launch of an exhibition that thrives off the unique Bay Area art scene, “Double-Trouble: Enrique Chagoya and Kara Maria.”

This installation is housed at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. 

Chagoya lets his activism speak through his art. He shares his art through different mediums, including mixed media, where he showcases various viewpoints on politics and advocacy; his art is available as prints and paintings. His work can be found in many public collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco among others. 

Maria is a visual artist who focuses on painting and mixed media. Feminism, war, and the environment are often topics that can be found throughout her pieces of artwork. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the United States at venues including the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno; the Cantor Center at Stanford University; the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas; the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art; and the Katonah Museum of Art in New York; among many others.

Unfortunately, it pained us to say that we weren’t able to attend. Nevertheless, based on the intrigue we felt for the artist-couple and each artist as an individual, we knew we had to take advantage of the next time the artists would be in town.

To our pleasure, we found out that the artist duo was giving a lecture depicting and analyzing each other’s art and themselves as artists. Mind you, both Chagoya and Maria are gifted but are often troubled by the political landscape in the communities around the globe and the deterioration of our climate. We attended this event.

This lecture was opened by Chagoya and Maria and they started by admitting that they had never painted a portrait of one another. The “Double Trouble: Enrique Chagoya and Kara Maria” stems from this realization among other factors; the exhibit card was revealed shortly after. 

Photo courtesy of Belatina.com Belatina, latinx
Photo courtesy of Belatina.com

A portrait of Enrique Chagoya by his wife Kara María and a portrait of Kara Maria by Enrique Chagoya were displayed. Each portrait shows a delicate portrayal of one another, where each brushstroke tried to highlight their essence. It was, without a doubt, two very different images that lent to acted as an awareness of how they see each other through their artistic lens.

Enjoy some of the pieces found at the exhibition, “Double-Trouble: Enrique Chagoya and Kara Maria,” below:

The Seven Deadly Sins: Anger By Enrique Chagoya

Photo courtesy of anglimtrimble.com Belatina, latinx
Photo courtesy of anglimtrimble.com/ Enrique Chagoya, The Seven Deadly Sins: Anger, acrylic and mixable oil, with glass eyes collaged on canvas, 2020

Earth-Shattering by Kara Maria

Photo courtesy of artsy.net Belatina, latinx
Kara Maria, Earth-Shattering (monarch butterfly, acrylic on canvas, 2019)

Illegal Alien’s Guide to the Theory of Everything By Enrique Chagoya

Photo courtesy of artsy.net belatina, latinx
Enrique Chagoya, Illegal Alien’s Guide to the Theory of Everything, acrylic and water based oil on canvas

Moondance By Kara Maria

Photo courtesy of lagaleriste.com Belatina, latinx
Kara Maria, Moondance (Mexican gray wolf), acrylic on canvas, 2017

With information from svma.org

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