Artist Talks: 6:45 PM I Front Gallery
Art League Houston (ALH) is proud to present teenage cream, an exhibition of work by Artists Alex Guillen, based in Brooklyn, New York, and Dana Suleymanova, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Selected by ALH’s Artist Advisory Board during the Open Call process, teenage cream is a two-person exhibition featuring recent ceramic, sculpture and new media work by Guillen and Suleymanova.
Previously based in Texas, Guillen and Suleymanova both work primarily in drawing, sculpture, and new media. They combine crude textures and playful objects to create personal narratives that unpack presentations of femininity and its commercialization in an increasingly digital age. Using seemingly childish aesthetics, the artists create digital versions of the analog and analog versions of the digital to explore how those objects can exist in an in-between state.
Guillen’s work merges visual and anecdotal memories of adolescent years with current experiences and emotions of young adulthood as a method of self-reflection, drawing visual and conceptual parallels between the two. For Suleymanova, the childlike becomes a jumping off point to think about the perceived naivety of queerness and its rejection of “growing up.” Together, Guillen and Suleymanova probe the political discourse surrounding women’s bodies, as well as the historical patronization of women, as they look for ways to claim agency of their own narratives.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Alex Guillen was born in Chicago, Illinois, but moved to Texas at a young age. She currently works as an artist and illustrator in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated with a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas, Austin, Texas (2017). Guillen uses bright colors, humor, and nostalgic imagery to illustrate and reflect on girlhood, highlighting the uncomfortable stages between adolescence and adulthood. She utilizes simple and accessible media, like hand-drawn illustrations, papier-mâché, and cute, playful stylization to create contrast with mature and vulnerable content. Guillen was awarded a residency at the Ox-bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency program in Saugatuck, Michigan (2017).
Dana Suleymanova was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1996, and currently lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her artwork oscillates between sculpture, video, and performance. Suleymanova received her BFA from The University of Texas, Austin, Texas (2018) and has exhibited in the FringeArts Festival, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Fusebox Festival, Austin, Texas; The Visual Arts Center, Austin, Texas; The Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, Texas; BOX 13 ArtSpace, Houston, Texas; Private Eye Gallery, Houston, Texas; and Aurora Picture Show, Houston, Texas. Her practice is a playful dissection of power structures through objects, comedy, and performativity. Many of the themes in the work explore the intersection of capitalism and gender, while unpacking the often clunky navigation of being a queer immigrant.