PENUMBRA WORKSPACE PROGRAM | US-Based | 2023
William Camargo
– (2023 Jury)
Image © William Camargo. Courtesy of the artist.
“[…] As a visual artist, art advocate, community archivist, and educator who examines structures of erasure, I continue to negotiate with placemaking, belonging, and constructed borders. For this reason, I use my own brown body, one that was born and raised in Anaheim, to conduct these interventions. In the photographic body of work titled Damn I Can’t Go On This Side of the Park, I place myself in front of in a park with a sign that reads “This Park Used to Be Segregated.” Using historical texts and contemporary stories, I aim to establish a connection in which the same forms of injustices are repackaged through language and neoliberal policies. […]”
William Camargo is a photo-based artist and educator born and raised in Anaheim, California. He is a lecturer in photography at the University of California San Diego and Cal State Fullerton. He attained his M.F.A from Claremont Graduate University, a BFA from Cal State Fullerton, and an AA at Fullerton Community College. William is the founder and curator of Latinx Diaspora Archives, an archive Instagram page that elevates communities of color through family photos.
His work focuses on gentrification, police violence, and Chicanx/Latinx histories. William has had residencies at the Latinx Project at NYU, Light Work in Syracuse, NY, TILT Institute for Contemporary Image in Philadelphia, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY. He was a runner-up for the Aperture Portfolio Prize 2021 and was included in the Latinx edition of Aperture Magazine in the Winter of 2022. In addition, he has given lectures at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Gallery 400(Chicago), Brown University, Stanford University, Syracuse University, USC Roski School of Art, University of Houston, Mass Art, among others.
SPONSORS
This program is supported by Henry Nias Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, Jacques & Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, The Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and Roz Leibowitz.
Thanks to the following artists for their support to Penumbra Foundation and in particular to the 2023 Penumbra Workspace Program:
Cynthia Johnston, Dawn Kim, Donavon Smallwood, Dylan Hausthor, Emiliano Zuñiga, J Carrier, Jenia Fridlyand, Kate Ovaska, Ruth Lauer-Manenti, and Tim Carpenter.