Muralist and community activist Nanibah Chacon will discuss her art at Ithaca College on Tuesday, Nov. 13. Titled “Reclaiming Space,” her 6 p.m. presentation in the Handwerker Gallery is free and open to the public.
A Diné (Navajo) and Xicana artist, Chacon will discuss her current work, which is based upon the insertion of indigenous presence into the colonized urban landscape. She uses her art to place a spotlight on the injustices being brought on women of color, and in her presentation she will use imagery to provoke questions connecting the audience to landscape, traditions and people.
Chacon was raised in Arizona and New Mexico. She began as a graffiti artist at the age of 16 and now shows her work across the U.S. and internationally. She created the largest mural in New Mexico, called “Resilience,” which was two years in the making on a 6,000-square-foot wall in downtown Albuquerque. She holds a degree in art education from the University of New Mexico and has received numerous awards. She hopes to continue working on large-scale, site-specific murals in order to expand and diversify her audience and to build upon the social perspectives conveyed through her art.
Her presentation is part of the Ithaca College Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity (CSCRE) Discussion Series. For more information, visit www.ithaca.edu/cscre.