Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Kathy Vargas |
Title |
Frog Plate Lunch |
Date |
1990 |
Medium |
Hand colored gelatin silver print |
Technique |
N/A |
Dimensions |
23" x 17 1/2" |
Description |
Kathy Vargas Frog Plate Lunch, 1990 Hand colored gelatin silver print, 24¼" x 30¼" Frog Plate Lunch by San Antonio-based photographer Kathy Vargas depicts a plate of frog legs, with a fork and knife. Frog legs are delicacies of French and Chinese cuisine, and are eaten throughout the world, including Mexico and the Southern U.S. Using her technique of overlayering images, Vargas creates a montage, a new composition made from fragments of pictures. White circles float over the plate of frog legs, and in the background appear slide transparencies or framed photos. Due to overlayering, some of the visual images appear indistinct. The effect reflects a dream-like tableau, which invites the viewer to interpret the photograph from a personal perspective. Kathy Vargas lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she was born in 1950. A Chicana proud of her Mexican heritage, Vargas is a famous photographer who first documented her family and their history: "My father's family was in Texas since it was ‘Tejas,’ and they came around 1830. My mother's family comes from Zacatecas, and they came over in 1910 to 1920, around the time of the Mexican Revolution." Early Chicano painter Mel Casas encouraged her to become a Chicana artist; although the Chicano Art Movement in the 1970s was male-dominated, she persevered. Vargas explains, "If you look over the history of the Chicano Art Movement, there were a lot more men than women in the Art Movement." She received both her BFA in 1981 and MFA in 1984 from The University of Texas, San Antonio. Early on, she was influenced by her Catholic faith, her grandmother's ghost stories, and her father's retelling of ancient Mexican history. Much of her hand-colored photographs feature multiple exposures, involving dark room technique. She describes her work as "magic realism," and she explores themes of life, death, and rebirth. Kathy Vargas currently teaches in the art department at The University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. She has lectured throughout the United States and Mexico. She has had numerous solo exhibitions at art spaces including Sala Uno in Rome; Galeria Juan Martin in Mexico City; the Women’s Center at The University of Santa Barbara; a retrospective in Erlangen, Germany; and Tiempo en Capas exhibition at South Texas College. Her work was included in the groundbreaking touring exhibition Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (CARA). Kathy Vargas is featured in numerous publications, including Kathy Vargas: Photographs, 1971 – 2000 by Lucy Lippard. |
Object Name |
Photograph |
Search Terms |
Animals Kathy Vargas |
Object Number |
2020.2.258.1 |
Collection |
Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr. Collection |