Traffic is Murder

Artist: Torry Mendoza
Title: Traffic Is Murder
Date: April 5 – May 11, 2019
Location: Main Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, April 5 at 8 pm
(open to the public for First Fridays in the Exchange at 5pm)

Artist Talk on Wednesday, April 3, 7pm at The Output at Video Pool Media Arts Centre, 2nd flr, #218 - 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, MB

Artist Statement
As an Indigenous artist, much of his work interrupts the long-accepted social conventions governing the interpretations of Native Americans in US mass media calling attention to issues of identity and the commodification of indigeneity and spirituality. In his work, he deconstructs these re-appropriated images to challenge and contest the original depictions while examining their original contexts through various digital media editing conventions, re-presentations and satirical juxtapositions. Torry continues to utilize varying editing techniques from datamoshing, digital glitching, to montage repetition (à la Martin Arnold) in his re-appropriated video works, which directly address Indigenous issues. His experimental works combine light, layering, various special effects and focus styles, and music or sound landscapes to explore various subject matters.

Biography
Born 1970—Rome, NY, USA. Torry Mendoza is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary artist and is a mixed-blood Mescalero Apache.  He received his formal art training in 1991 from Munson-Williams-Proctor School of Art (now PrattMWP) in Utica, NY. Torry received a BFA in film production and BA in Studio Arts (photography) from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2002. Mr. Mendoza continued to pursue film production on a full scholarship at Syracuse University (NY) where he graduated in 2007 with his MFA in film production. Since 2007, Mr. Mendoza has shown internationally in film festivals, as a solo artist and in group shows, and his works are part of various private and academic collections.
http://torrymendoza.com/

Special thanks for our friends at Video Pool Media Arts Centre/ the Output, for hosting the artists talk.

Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery acknowledges the support, throughout the year, of our friends, volunteers, community and all our relations, NCI FM, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts. 
~Miigwetch/ Hai Hai/ Ekosi