Event Info

Hear from two artists featured in Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s to 2020s—Carmen Argote and Arleene Correa Valencia. Moderated by exhibition curators Zanna Gilbert and Elena Shtromberg, the conversation will focus on how the artists explore personal experiences with family separation in their work, transforming intimate correspondences into public documents.

Limited seating available. Please reserve your tickets in advance.

Artist Talk 1:00–2:00pm
Curator-led tour 2:00–3:00pm

Carmen Argote (b. 1981, Guadalajara, Mexico) lives and works in Los Angeles and received an MFA and BFA from University of California, Los Angeles (2007, 2004). Argote is a multidisciplinary artist who points to the body, class, and economic structures in relation to architecture and personal history. Argote’s practice draws upon their immediate environment and the networks of labor and consumption that mark these spaces. They manifest these connections through drawings, paintings, sculpture, installation, video and performance that directly reference the visual language of abstraction. Solo exhibitions have been held at: Pitzer College Galleries, Claremont (2025); Commonwealth and Council (2024, 2020, 2018); Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2022); Primary, Nottingham, UK (2021); Visual Arts Center, University of Texas, Austin (2020); New Museum, New York (2019); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2015); and Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2013). Argote is the recipient of City of L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs Independent Master Artist Award (2025); City of L.A. Cultural Trailblazer Award (2023); Fellows of Contemporary Art Award (2020); Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2019); Artadia Los Angeles Award (2019); Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant (2015); Nancy Graves Foundation Artist Grant (2018); and California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists Award (2013). They are represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, California, and serve as co-chair of the Artist Council at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Argote’s work is in the collections of Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, San DIego, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, Kadist International, and Mohn Art Collective (MAC3).

Arleene Correa Valencia (b. 1993, Michoacán, Mexico) is an inaugural recipient of the Bay Area Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts and received a regional Emmy award for her feature REPRESENT: Portraits of Napa Workers: Arleene Correa Valencia by KQED Arts. In 2023, Correa Valencia was named a Eureka Fellow by the Fleishhacker Foundation and a Finalist for the SECA Award through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Correa Valencia received her MFA from California College of the Arts. One of four children originally from Arteaga, Michoacán, Mexico, Correa Valencia is a beneficiary of DACA (Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals) and is on a path to becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States. The Correa Valencia family fled to the United States in 1997 and found home in California’s Napa Valley. Correa Valencia’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; Crocker Art Museum; Utah Museum of Fine Arts; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Grand Valley State University Museum of Art, Ulrich Museum of Art; and 21c Museum Hotels. Based in Napa Valley, California, Correa Valencia has been represented by Catharine Clark Gallery since 2022.

This program is supported by the Terra Foundation, the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UC Riverside, and by the City of Riverside.

Carmen Argote image credit (left): Kara Leigh Kirk
Arleene Correa Valencia image credit (right): Adrian Osnaya

Exhibitions On View