ARTISTS TO KNOW: VANEZZA CRUZ
VANEZZA CRUZ
Vanezza Cruz is an Afro Latina visual artist and designer based in NYC and of Dominican descent. Vanezza’s work centers her experience as a darker-skinned Latina who is challenging the Eurocentric standards of not only beauty but the fine arts world that disempowers the BIPOC community and in particular, black women. Through various mediums such as prints, collages, paintings, illustrations and murals, Vanezza’s art uplifts those who are often unheard and unseen in the mainstream art world.
SHEER: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
VANEZZA CRUZ: I am a first generation AfroLatina born in New York City to Dominican immigrants. I was raised in the South Bronx until I was 10 years old or so and then we moved to the other parts of the Bronx from then on. Growing up in a household where my mother was a faired skinned latina and my father was a dark skinned latino, created a sense of harmony that shielded me from racism and colorism. It wasn’t until I started going to school when my education in how my skin, also then being solely a Spanish speaker, was somehow problematic.
My upbringing was rich in color and imagination as I was allowed to experiment and express myself however art was never a career path, as my parents did not think that would be a viable way of life. I was projected to be a doctor or a teacher or an engineer as seen with my past reading, science and math awards and high grades I attained throughout my years in school. However my introduction into the arts was a serendipitous one. When I was in 8th grade and had to select a high school, my zoned school wasn't the ideal place for me to go, so a fellow classmate whose mother happened to be an interior designer and she herself was artistically inclined, started giving me assignments and was coaching me to build the necessary portfolio I needed to apply to art high schools. This is how I started my art education career by attending the High School of Fashion Industries in NewYork City- that was in the early 90’s.
Being a girl from the Bronx, going to a school in the city was a major culture shock to me. During these years, I also attended music school during the weekends where I played the cello from age 12 to 21. I so do treasure those years of discovery. After high school, I graduated Cum Laude from FIT with a BFA in Graphic Design. After working as a graphic designer, I missed creating art with my hands so I pursued my MFA in Printmaking at Lehman College. Before, during and after grad school I held many professional positions across a variety of industries but I have lived a life where I am a visual artist and designer 24/7. That has always been my life’s main focus in my professional development. I have always maintained a creative practice, making work in printmaking, painting, illustration, collages, murals, installation and graphic design.
SHEER: How would you say your upbringing and culture influenced your journey to becoming an artist?
VC: Absolutely. With regard to my upbringing my mother was a seamstress and knitter so our home was always adorned with beautiful thing she created either by hand or with her Singer sewing machine. I love things that make me smile and I think is directly associated to my mother decorating our home with things that reminded her of home [the Domnican Republic]. Peacock feathers, porcelain masks, wicker chairs, seashells, crystal chandeliers and other fanciful/ornate things were everywhere in our home. My mother loved fashion, make-up and jewelry of all kinds and this was definitely a major influence in the way I dress, the way I decorate my home, the things that I surround myself with that bring me joy, and the way in which I bring elements of beauty into my artwork.
But in all of these traits, I also highlight the struggles that I have endured in being AfroLatina. I focus on my experiences in being specifically a dark skinned AfroLatina living in the USA. I aim to extrapolate these experiences so I can dive deeper into creating and curating this narrative in my work. Although I generate a feeling of universality in my work, my voice and focus is very direct. I try to stay intentional in my work in using this voice as this keeps me authentic in the messages I want to convey artistically. A major reason why I strive for this authenticity is because in my art education career, I never had professors who were able to help navigate what I wanted to say in my work, so I focused on the aesthetics, making my voice heard in developing my aesthetic style as a visual artist and graphic/media designer. It wasn’t until my years as a grad student was when I was able to find my voice in my work and started creating work where my skills and the themes I wanted to explore began materializing in tandem.
“I focus on my experiences in being specifically a dark skinned AfroLatina living in the USA. I aim to extrapolate these experiences so I can dive deeper into creating and curating this narrative in my work. Although I generate a feeling of universality in my work, my voice and focus is very direct. I try to stay intentional in my work and in using this voice as this keeps me authentic in the messages I want to convey artistically.”
SHEER: How do you approach selecting the themes of your art?
VC: As mentioned, my work evolved from my experiences of being AfroLatina and how that has shaped the many aspects of my life from self perception, cultural identity, preoccupations with ideals of beauty to how stigmatized beauty standards based on my color of skin aided [or not] in the way I navigate[d] through life. Within this personal scope, my work is a constant investigation of these varying experiences. The relationship WOC have with their hair, the oversexualization of our bodies, cultural identity formed through objects and memories are all themes I explore under this overarching aforementioned thematic umbrella. In every piece I create, whether it be a monoprint, a painting, a collage or an illustration, I try to reveal invisible women; more so the woman within that I constantly try to rediscover and reconnect with while redefining my story as a disruptor and a storyteller— my existence that disrupts a normative visuality instituted on my Black body.
Introspection and analyzing connections is also very much a part of my approach in my creative practice. I think a lot about why I create art and have this tenacious need to want to tell my story. I think about my parents and being first generation Dominican-American and how my parents did not have the privilege that an American education has afforded me. I think of my mother who has much as she was much fairer skinned than I, I am sure she faced her own obstacles in being an immigrant in NYC and not knowing nor learned the language prior to death. I am sure many doors were not opened to her because of that, so I think of how because of them, and my ancestors [and parents who are now in the fold of my ancestors] have always guided and cared for me through my life.
In addition to these things, I have always had a spiritual practice that always looked towards mysticism, psychic intuition, nature based practices while venerating my ancestors. In the past decade, developing my connections to my ancestors has been a fixed anchor where I now see it’s essential in who I am, who I will become and who I always was without even knowing.
SHEER: What are some challenges you faced in finding your niche in the art world?
VC: I think a major issue is finding platforms and networks where my narrative can have faceroom. The art world has been so accustomed to seeing one particular narrative, at times I feel like people cannot see my work as it may be buried. Finding places where they value these stories and themes.
“In every piece I create, whether it be a monoprint, a painting, a collage or an illustration, I try to reveal invisible women; more so the woman within that I constantly try to rediscover and reconnect with while redefining my story as a disruptor and a storyteller— my existence that disrupts a normative visuality instituted on my Black body. Introspection and analyzing connections is also very much a part of my approach in my creative practice. I think a lot about why I create art and have this tenacious need to want to tell my story.”
SHEER: Tell us a little bit about your latest exhibit "Vanidades" and how it came to be?
VC: This installation stems from childhood trips of visiting beauty salons with my mother for the purpose of getting my hair relaxed. During these ritualized trips, they were filled with moments of disconnection and feelings of erasure as I was inundated with magazine images and oversized posters of women who not only did not look like me nor most women in these salons but represented this unattainable and idealized examples of feminine perfection. I think of the conditioning of the women in the salons and also of my mother being a fairer skinned AfroLatina. I'm sure she herself had her own battles and how this was also part of her conditioning.
I named the exhibit Vanidades being it translates from Spanish meaning Vanities. Additionally Vanidades was a widely popular Spanish fashion/beauty magazine in the 70’s and 80’s. These publications further along with posters that were frequently hung in hair salons, reinforced the lack of representation of Black women in the mainstream media versus the irrefutable dominance of European beauty standards which shaped my self-perception. The exhibit is a combination of installation and collage work where the collages represent images of women I would have wanted to have seen-more so the power and essence they exude, images conveying parts of my reclamation in my mended relationship with my hair and my own ideas of beauty.
Other messages in these images evoke part of that little girl who felt so small in those large salon chairs as my hair was being manipulated and toiled over to be “beautiful”. Found objects include store-bought hair from my protective hairstyles collected over 5 years- you can even see my dandruff and feel the oils from when they were braided in my hair- it’s pretty wild. I also use fabrics from my altar, packaging materials referencing hair textures, and reflective mirrors- being a major tool of salons but is also a vehicle in perpetuating obsessive tendencies with beauty- all add to the imagery and iconography that references salon culture through my personal lens. I divide the installation 2 parts- one representing the European beauty standards side and the other the AfroLatina side. One representing an otherworldly Black Girl Magic inherent in WOC, our history, our struggle, in our textured hair- where I feel so much power and strength resides and is derived from. The other side represents the coveted chemically processed hair yet there is a deadness to that side even in the bright jewelry and golden prayer hands that grace the wall- these hands praying to an unseen hair god asking for the relaxer to take. The jewels used on the darker side connected to ideas of being from the Earth, being primordial, the Black woman being the mother and creator of all. Under the collages is a small altar, wrapped with fabric from my personal altar, where I am praising hair relaxer, almost resembling pastries, filled with masonry nails, these nails representing all the chemical burns I have endured over the years prior to me becoming natural at the age of 19. The central elements in the installation represent me now- in my reclamation, me being settled in my skin and acknowledging how I have found a balance in this long standing relationship I have had with my hair.
“I named the exhibit Vanidades being it translates from Spanish meaning Vanities. Additionally Vanidades was a widely popular Spanish fashion/beauty magazine in the 70’s and 80’s. These publications further along with posters that were frequently hung in hair salons, reinforced the lack of representation of Black women in the mainstream media versus the irrefutable dominance of European beauty standards which shaped my self-perception. The exhibit is a combination of installation and collage work where the collages represent images of women I would have wanted to have seen-more so the power and essence they exude, images conveying parts of my reclamation in my mended relationship with my hair and my own ideas of beauty.”
SHEER: In what ways do you believe your creative expression has evolved over time?
VC: Over the years my artistic hand has developed in a myriad of ways. I am no longer obsessed with execution of each piece. I am more about the process which dictates how I arrive at the execution. In working this way, I am more intentional in my work and I believe it has directly affected the looseness of my hand, how I approach my work aesthetically and the way that I gather the ideas I want to convey visually. In including other creative disciplines to my skill set, I visually think of my themes via these different techniques.
I’m fascinated by the varied ways each technique echoes the voice in my story—my experience of being AfroLatina, and how that has shaped my worldview. Like when I want to talk about my experiences with my hair, I can look through my collection of ephemera and printed images. For pieces that are more ethereal and are connected to themes of memory, I tend to work in printmaking by creating monotypes. My paintings lends more to my “psychological portraiture” where I tend to paint figures that represent aspects of me. Throughout the years, my work has shifted in me being more experimental by merging pathways in integrating collage, painting and illustration while playing with scale and installation.
SHEER: How do you believe better representation in fine arts can be achieved for marginalized BIPOC and how has your work been an agent in that progress?
VC: A major aspect of better representation is I am a major advocate in BIPOC telling our stories on platforms that are for us and by us and supported by those who understand the value in these narratives having face room to do so. I think it is a great time to be alive in that all these burgeoning platforms are providing BIPOC access to have our stories told in ways that were never afforded to us before where representation matters.
Also, shifting from how art is presented is powerful in BIPOC creating our own pathways that allows work to be seen as it is so difficult to break into the established gallery/art/museum world. Also, more inclusion in academia, including more BIPOC artists and culture added to art history seminars, have more sections so students can take these courses, have it included in every syllabus, hire more teachers of color, hire people who have careers in art but may not have taken the BFA/MFA route or give people with BFAs/MFAs the opportunity to teach based on other things than their degrees. I can honestly say, it has not been an easy road for me who has an MFA to enter the road of teaching being Black.
These suggestions and thoughts are some of the ways we can start to level the playing field in so many dynamic ways and I am HERE FOR IT! In my practice, I constantly find ways to be authentic and unapologetic in how I flesh out my themes, in the images I use in my collages, in how personal my work is. I found my voice in making work that is more directly connected to my experience and in that it allows me to use said experiences as an investigatory tool where the work is kind of a mediator in me finding the balance in narrating visually as I do.
SHEER: What does liberation look like to you and how is your art a testament to that?
VC: To live in a world where I am no longer considered as “other” or seen by the preconceived ideas people have about me before I can open my mouth solely based on my skin. My artwork, in every iteration, whether it be collages, installations, monoprints or paintings, are my ways in being part of this narrative. I am inherently a story teller whether it be from experiences of the most joyous to the most traumatic of who I am. So I want to be part of this cosmology, be a chapter in the story that is finally being expressed and told by BIPOC.
SHEER: What advice would you give BIPOC artists coming up who are trying to find their way?
VC:
Strive for being authentic in relationships with other artists and creatives. Especially in our circles. There are already doors closed to us. Building community within our communities is so highly important. I also believe you build these relationships for the sake of staying true to you and your work.
It's a very good rule of thumb to know that every artist has their own journey. In that, I say never compare your work with others artists because every hand has its unique way of handling a tool to create. Plus comparing yourself to other artists is a waste of energy; energy you can pour back into yourself. There is nothing wrong with healthy competition to keep you on your toes but we each have our own artistic journeys and although this may be a hard one, we all have our unique perspectives to bring to the table and believe me, there are MANY tables.
Look for opportunities that take you out of your comfort zone, outside of where you live, or at opportunities from any and all open calls. You never know who will see or connect with your work.
Look at other artists who may not create like you because inspiration is everywhere. Look at art in other disciplines just so you can see how another creative thinks, how they come to an idea and in how they create systems that you can implement in your creative practice.
Keep as much of your old work as you can for posterity and look at it from time to time. You never know if one day you need a boost to see how much you’ve grown or how new ideas lay dormant in old tinkerings. In doing this, this can help you develop your voice- one that is authentically your own, that tells your story.
