With her dedication to documenting 90s Chicano life in Southern California, Guadalupe Rosales has drawn a large following. She also attracted the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which a week ago named her its first Instagram artist in residence. For the next few weeks, Rosales – who runs archival Instagram accounts Veteranas and Rucas and Map Pointz – will post the same throwback images she typically shares on her platforms and lead discussions about art.
According to Unframed, the collaboration began after Rosales exhibited a silent video that featured about 50 images from Veteranas and Rucas – a thriving account “dedicated to women raised in SoCal from 90s and earlier” – on a loop at the Vincent Price Art Museum. That led to her learning that LACMA wanted to initiate artist-in-residence programs for its Instagram account. Rosales was drawn to the project because it gave her a chance to talk about art in a way that’s not typically associated with these kinds of institutions.
“I will be using LACMA’s Instagram platform to show and talk about art in a different way, beginning with my personal take, then offering the platform to the public for an open discussion,” she told Unframed. “I want to have conversations about art with people from different backgrounds, and Instagram is an ideal place for that. It’s where we will all intersect and have dialogue around artworks inside and outside museums. This project will be educational and encourage casual conversations about art in Los Angeles. There is no right or wrong way of speaking about art. For instance, two people can be looking at the same sculpture or painting and have two different experiences. Both are just as valid. Whether someone studied art or not, all feeling and opinions are valid.”
And her accessible and relatable approach to art is why LACMA wanted to work with Rosales. Rita González, curator and acting head of contemporary art at the museum, praised Rosales’ ability to “[draw] out people’s experiences in a narrative way” and that she’s using Instagram in similar ways as museum curators. Through both of her accounts, but especially through Map Pointz (which documents the ditch parties Latino teens threw in the 90s), Rosales has provided a way for marginalized communities to own their own stories. She’s given them a space to shape their own narratives in a way that they couldn’t as teenagers.
So far, Rosales has posted 12 times onto LACMA’s Instagram, sharing a mix of her photos and art pieces that speak to her. She’ll continue posting until August 16, so follow along, because as Rosales has shown in the past, her work is extremely valuable.