First Later: Victor Yañez-Lazcano

Opening September 15, 7–10 pm

On view September 15–October 14, 2018

Event: (Same)(Difference), Saturday October 6, 2–4 pm. An artist-guided deep listening exercise and neighborhood walk, followed by an artist talk.

Royal NoneSuch presents First Later: Victor Yañez-Lazcano, an exhibition showcasing sculpture and video works by Bay Area-based artist, Victor Yañez-Lazcano. In his first solo exhibition in the Bay Area, Yañez-Lazcano considers how language and labor have shaped the formation of his and his family’s identities as first, second, and third generations of U.S. citizens.

Language is a tool for the construction of identity and it is a container for shared community and history. Yet, as much as language is used to build commonalities and hold personal history, it is also used to enact exclusion. In works such as French Kiss (2018) and Poder (2018), Yañez-Lazcano explores the ways the immigrant experience and perceptions of the immigrant experience are tied to language. His work invites us to consider the complex relationships between language, community, history, family, and identity.  In addition to considering how language is employed to mark identity, Yañez-Lazcano’s work explores the relationship between labor and Mexican-American immigrant identity in the United States. The artist presents Untitled (Palas) (2018) as an homage to immigrant labor and to the physical labor his grandfather endured as a Bracero. This work along with several others in the exhibition explore the material culture of labor.

With the works in First Later, Yañez-Lazcano explores language and labor as they relate to his personal, shared, and perceived identities. Inspired and informed by personal experience, conversations with family members, and ongoing research into the fields of raciolinguistics, Chicanx, and performance studies. Yañez-Lazcano is interested in both language and labor as vehicles for exploring narratives of assimilation as they relate to Mexican-immigrant and Mexican-American experiences in the United States.

Special Event: (Same) Difference), Saturday October 6, 2–4 pm: Please join us for an artist-guided deep listening exercise and neighborhood walk, followed by an artist talk in the gallery. This event occurs in conjunction with First Later: Victor Yañez-Lazcano on view at Royal NoneSuch Gallery through October 14, 2018.

Artist Bio: Victor Yañez-Lazcano holds a BFA degree from Columbia College Chicago (2008) and an MFA degree from Stanford University (2018). His work has been exhibited at numerous spaces including Citlalin Gallery, Chicago; Harrington College of Design, Chicago; A+D Gallery at Columbia College Chicago; Riverside Arts Center, Chicago; Mind/Matter Gallery, Rochester; Aviary Gallery, Boston; and South Haven Center for the Arts, South Haven, MI. Past residencies include the SOMA Summer in Mexico City, Industry of the Ordinary’s Summer School Residency, ACRE, and Ox-Bow.