Ernesto Yerena Montejano “Ganas Talavera,” 2015 — Mixed Media on Wood Panel

Details

Description

Ganas Talavera, a 2015 mixed-media work by Ernesto Yerena Montejano on a cradled wood panel. A symmetrical floral design in … Read more Ganas Talavera, a 2015 mixed-media work by Ernesto Yerena Montejano on a cradled wood panel. A symmetrical floral design in orange, teal, and black overlays a densely layered background of printed imagery. The composition draws on the ornamental patterns of Mexican Talavera ceramics, interpreted through Yerena’s graphic and collage vocabulary.
Signed lower right; signed and dated on the reverse.
Artist: Ernesto Yerena Montejano
Title: Ganas Talavera
Date: 2015
Medium: Mixed media on cradled wood panel
Dimensions: 8 × 8 inches
About the artist
Ernesto Yerena Montejano is a Chicano artist and graphic designer born in El Centro, California. Raised between California’s Imperial Valley and Mexicali, Mexico, he draws on his cross-border upbringing and Indigenous identity to explore cultural heritage, immigration, labor, and community resistance. His practice includes screenprinting, murals, stenciling, and mixed-media collage.
Yerena earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the Art Institute of California–Los Angeles. He began working with Shepard Fairey in 2006, first as an intern and later as a studio assistant and collaborator. In 2008, he founded Hecho Con Ganas, a publishing project producing socially engaged limited-edition prints. His collaborators have included Zack de la Rocha, Manu Chao, Ana Tijoux, Chuck D, and photographer Aaron Huey.
A founding member of the We Are Human campaign in 2009, Yerena also founded and curated the Alto Arizona Art campaign in 2010. He contributed to Honor the Treaties and created We the Resilient for Amplifier’s nationally distributed We the People campaign in 2017.
His work is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Cooper Hewitt, the National Museum of the American Indian’s archival collections, the McNay Art Museum, Mexic-Arte Museum, and the National Museum of Mexican Art. Selected exhibitions include his debut solo presentation, GANAS 2020, at White Walls in San Francisco; Estampas de la Raza; and the Smithsonian’s touring exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now. His practice has also been featured in PBS SoCal’s Artbound.

Condition

Textured, distressed surface with scattered marks and minor edge irregularities, as shown in the photographs. Signed lower right; signed and dated on the reverse. See less