Check out Cesar Conde’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cesar Conde.

Cesar, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I am first generation immigrant and came to Chicago in 1975 then moved to Seattle and became part of the school desegregation program. I grew up in a white neighborhood with few people of color in my middle and junior high school. I was sent to a race camp early on along with the only minorities in the school. We were empowered that summer and was taught the politics of race. As a young immigrant, it became clear that we were in a special place in history of Seattle’s race integration program in public schools. We went to listen to the Rev. Jesse Jackson. These early years politicized me and raised awareness that race mattered in this country and armed me with survival skills. I’ve been bullied, peed on and I still tried to assimilate with the white kids. But I always stood up for myself if it was wrong. Even with a black eye, I continued to fight. Then the blacks and Asians were bused to my high school. I remember my racist history and gym teacher saying “There goes the school.” White flight ensued. A sign place in the high school saying “Hunting Season Open.” Some kids who were then suspended wore KKK hoods. But the black and Asian kids stood their ground and I saw my future friends who to this day, I still are in contact with. These are early events which would shape me as a person and as an artist.

These experiences lead me to activism in college and I was more politicized when I studied Latin American politics in La Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico where I learned politics from a progressive point of view and with true revolutionaries. The exploitation of Latin America’s and dictatorial government supported and inserted by the United States government. In college, we protested against Apartheid and had a teleconference with then Rev. Desmond Tutu from South Africa regarding the struggle.

The as a gay man and the AIDS epidemic began and was ignored by the Reagan Administration, I volunteered at a hospice at Illinois Masonic where I serve dying men their dinner, help a young man light his cigarette, told them stories, kept them company by watching t.v.. I saw the changing demographics of AIDS in that hospice. From white men, Latinos and blacks, then straight women started coming in to die. The saddest part for me while I volunteered there was to turn an undocumented, young attractive young men in his late teens that we could not treat him because he had no insurance. I had to tell him because I was the only one who spoke Spanish.

Life, death, immigration, racism, AIDS, being gay all impacted every single aspect of my inner and outer life. It definitely influenced my art.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Art for Social Movement is where my foundation was built upon. I joined an awesome young group of theater artists whose mission was to use art for social justice. We lived the Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed and adopted plays and commissioned plays which dealt with Racism, Sexism, LGBTQ struggles, undocumented immigrants’ issues and abuses. All the ISM”S transformed into plays staged from main stages to a small spaces. The dedication of each artists were the driving force of this unique Filipino American theater company.

I started painting over 20 years ago because I found freedom in how I can use my time and express my inner world and translate them to canvas. I am heavily influenced by Caravaggio, Goya, Nerdrum and Chagall. I wanted to be an expert in my craft so I studied in Florence at the once called Angel Academy of Art and soon after found a French master of Technique Mixte Master Betaudier, I would call him. He has thought me that patience and spirituality in art. He would say the sign of the cross in Latin before he would apply the imprematura on the canvas. Till this day, I do that. I could not afford to go art school so I found Masters in their technique and studied with them instead.

My works are social and political reflections of our current reality. My recent series “AmeriKKKa – Reflection of a Divided Nation” was banned last year because of its content. These are works which I made and showed 5 years ago where I painted people from all over the world. The title was once called “Celebrating Humanity – a Tea party. It was a time in which I felt that we were coming together as one nation from different race, background. I was celebrating our diversity. Then Trump happened, the racists were emboldened and started writing racist epithets on walls and people’s properties. The painting from “Celebrating Humanity” started talking to me. They cried out and said, “Take us out of the storage and use us! Spray paint all the ugly words on our canvas and show the world how decades long of hard work towards equality can be destroyed in less than a minute.” The paintings wanted me to do these to them. What took me a 5 months to paint, sometimes a year, took 5 seconds to destroy with a spray paint. So hurtful words such as “No Musilim”,”Go Home”, “No, Japs,” the”N” word were spray painted on them. This is what’s happening in our country now. We have something beautiful and now being destroyed by hate encouraged by the Trump regime.

Other series which I have dedicated my life to are “The Bang Bang Project’. It’s about lives lost due to racial profiling and police brutality. Young black and brown lives taken by those who are sworn to Serve and Protect. This series was done after Michael Brown was shot and killed by cops.

“In The Hood – Portraits of African American Professionals Wearing a Hoodie” was created after Trayvon Martin was hunted down and killed by George Zimmerman. It enraged me so much. The project was about “Perception” vs. “Reality”. My collaborators who are lawyers, pilots, educators, artists, donned a hoodie and I took a portrait of them which I used as a reference for the paintings. The models used for these series were all collaborators. We believe in social justice and equality.

My work is to celebrate humanity. It’s about us. How the only difference which separates us from each other is fear. Acceptance and tolerance dissolves fear. Sometimes we must take a critical look into the soul of society and comment on it so we can make it better. The work is for our survival as humans and co-takers of this planet. My current series is called “Of Human Survival”. It’s about us and all the animals endangered of dying off within 2 decades. Imagine our grandchildren not ever seeing an elephant or a tiger. Soon they will be gone. Again this is a work of collaboration with the models where we examine our fate and our guardianship with mother earth and her inhabitants.

Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
I see more artists as activists. I see more artist involved in creating a safe space. Many are genuinely reflecting on what is happening around us politically and socially and are commenting on it. These times are best times to be brave, be out and “love”. So excited. Again, I am an artist who deals with social justice. I have to keep a balance between beauty and strife. I was depressed for 6 months after doing each series that I have done. I am constantly watching and reading world events and current issues. I feel that as an artist, I have to keep up with the current realities so that I can be informed and not be blindsided. We, the people, still holds the power. I wished that more people used their power to vote. It’s a privilege. I keep as many animals around me, because they are pure and give me unconditional love. Of course they want their food also.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My studio is located in the hidden corner at the Zhou B Art Center in Bridgeport. I also have a dry studio in my loft in the West loop where I do all my drawings. My website is http://www.cesarcondeart.com. Please feel free to contact me and let’s have wine, coffee, beer together. I love a good laugh and conversation. Did I tell you I also love Prada and thrift shopping. Support my work by also supporting other Chicago artists. Also, I am making my work more accessible by creating framed prints and some are already framed and ready to hang. 

I have exhibited from the smallest coffee house, basements, pop-up, to the Field Museum, galleries nationally, internationally, Freeport Art Museum, Museo Naturali Di Scienze Naturali,, Museo Regionale Di Scienze Naturali, Art Taipei, Blue Ryder Art Gallery, Taipei Taiwan. Miami Art Basel, Spectrum, 33 Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL. And striving for more. Mad love world.

Contact Info:

• Address: Cesar Conde
  1029 W. 35th St.
  Chicago, IL 60629
• Website: www.cesarcondeart.com
• Phone: 773-412-7609
• Email: cesarcondeart@gmail.com
• Instagram: cesarcondeart
• Facebook: cesar conde
• Twitter: cesarcondeart

Image Credit:
Kenji Gunderson Photographer, Detroit , Michigan.

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