REVIEWS

José Luis Meza Inda
Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, summer of 2005.

BIO

Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

The art of Erin Goodwin-Guerrero is the product of a curious and questioning mind, a restless hand, and the need to be heard, as much as seen.  Most of her painting is loaded with content that is accessible to the patient viewer.  The recent work is charged with aggressive color, yet the complex symbolism and layers of related imagery require attention and reflection to extract bits of sensible information.  The titles, as well, are often a clue to the thinking of this satirical social critic. Over the years, a number of themes recur in her art: boxing as metaphor for struggle of the underdog, death as an eternal actor in human drama, the sexual/sensual undercurrent of most human ritual, the search for and abuse of truth.  The current work revisits many of these themes with myth-making narratives and guest appearances by legendary figures from art and cultural history.

Although many works are dark and monochromatic, Goodwin-Guerrero’s bold colors are notably influenced by her adventures in México, and an extensive investigation into the archeology and anthropology of the Maya and pre-Cortezian México, which she began in the 1970’s. Her process frequently employs a contrast of the verity of the photograph (introduced through photo-silkscreen) with the expressive and idiosynchratic marks of free-flowing paint and the artist’s hand.  In a celebration of postmodern permission to eclectically throw everything into the mix, her styles in rendering form range from the cartoonish, to the obsessively detailed, to decorative, flat, pattern-like repetitions.

Recent exhibitions by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero include her major solo exhibition at Televisa of Guadalajara, accompanied by the book Explaining the Universe, in 2005. In 2003-2004, her exhibition Order in Nature, Power in Myth, opened at the Mazatlán Museum of Art and toured Museums and Cultural Centers throughout the State of Sinaloa.  In 2006, she is featured in the 12th Aniversary Exhibition of the Heritage Bank of Commerce, curated by Jane Salvin, and in a current Artreach, Albuquerque, exhibition curated by Lester Libo benefitting the New Mexico Cancer Center Foundation.

Erin Goodwin-Guerrero earned her master of fine arts degree in San José, California in 1990 and was honored as  ”Woman of Achievement  in the Arts” by the Women’s Fund of Santa Clara County in 1991.  Since that time, her extensive list of solo and group exhibitions ranges from Washington State to Argentina and from Japan to Israel. She has lectured widely in both Spanish and English on her own work and related topics.  She also has worked on the curatorial side as Director of the Euphrat Gallery at De Anza College, and as a guest curator for non-profit organizations. In the formative years of San José’s visual arts scene, she served on the San José City Fine Arts Commission.  She has contributed many hours to community organizations such as Word Works, the San José Institute of Contemporary Art and MACLA in Santa Clara County as a board member and serving on committees.

Erin Goodwin-Guerrero was born in Seattle, Washington, attended the University of Washington, the University of Puget Sound and San José State University. After receiving her master’s degree in fine arts, she taught full time for one year at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, for eleven years at the San Francisco Art Institute, eventually retiring early from her alma mater, San José State University as a full professor. She maintains residences in San José, California and Mazatlán, México.