Aliens on the BORDER

AN Antonio Armani León art exhibit & installation

SEP 2022

Antonio Armani León is a graduate from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he earned a BFA in Apparel Design, in addition to creating a senior thesis collection which debuted at New York Fashion Week 2020. His artistic vision is inspired by his upbringing in New Mexico, as well as his queer Mexican identity. Armani’s artistic talent began to develop at an early age, with fashion illustrations that later transformed into wearable works of art. He was mentored by a designer in an atelier, which enabled him to learn a multitude of foundational technical skills to apply to his own apparel design. As a RISD student, he had the opportunity to further his classroom educational experiences through collaboration with a diverse group of artists and designers including Comme des Garcons, Reebok and Adam Dalton Blake. His breadth of experience has allowed him to develop a multitude of artistic skills within fashion as well as fine arts. Post graduation Armani worked as a Style Consultant and Alterations Specialist at Delta Airlines. He also acted as a Visual Arts Research Assistant at the National Hispanic Cultural Center working directly under the curator. He recently finished a city commissioned project for the Historic Albuquerque Rail Yards, where he created site specific installations. His most recent apparel collection was published in Coeval Magazine, an international art and fashion digital magazine.

ALIENS ON THE BORDER: ARTIST STATEMENT

“Born out of a forfeiture of land more than a century and a half ago, Chicano/a and Mexican-American identity has long been put into question over its place in the fabricated American racial order, resulting in deeply embedded and embodied feelings of alienation, assimilation, invasion, otherness, and imaginary borders; all common and undeniable themes in science fiction. I propose that nearly all Chicano/a stories can be read through a sci-fi lens. When confronted by the underlying pull of U.S. assimilation, people of color lean on the resilience of their cultural identities to simultaneously pursue independent style while still honoring the aesthetics of their communities. Chicana futurist author, Gloria Anzaldua, references Chicanx people often feeling “alienated from their mother culture, and alienated from their dominant culture.” This exhibit explores these notions of Chicano/a’s as the alien/other, both adapting too and resisting the(ir) new world. I abstractly invoke various Mexican/Chicano/a subcultures and examine the cracks between worlds, race, gender, the linearity of time, and the societal/cultural boundaries of the human body. Through the use of sculpture and painting inspired by family portraits, a fictional alien race is manifested and observed. This exhibition is Raza-SciFi, reinterpreting the concept of the “alien,” and pushing for a sci-fi deconstruction of colonial imagery.”

-Antonio Armani León