Diane Gamboa

Diane Gamboa
Born	1957 Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Education	Otis College of Art and Design
Known for	Painting, Photography, Performance Art

Diane Gamboa (born 1957) has been producing, exhibiting and curating visual art in Southern California since the 1980s. She has also been involved art education, ranging from after-school programs to college and university teaching. Gamboa has been "one of the most active cultural producers in the Chicana art movement in Los Angeles." She actively developed the Chicano School of Painting.

Gamboa had been producing art most of her life. She learned early on that Los Angeles was a city that was "fragmented" and "segregated by race, class and power." Recognizing this as a young person has informed much of her body of work. In 1984 Gamboa received her degree from Otis College of Art and Design.

She is a recipient of a California Community Foundation Individual Artist Grant, and her solo exhibitions include “Bruja–Ha” at Tropico de Nopal Gallery and “Chica Chic” at Patricia Correia Gallery in Santa Monica. Her work is included in Cheech Marin's personal collection of Chicano art and has been shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

In the early ‘80s, she photographically documented the East Los Angeles punk rock scene. From 1980 to 1987, she was a member of ASCO, a conceptual multi-media performance art group. Gamboa appeared in performances and also created costumes and makeup concepts that "shaped the group's look."

Gamboa organized numerous site-specific "Hit and Run" paper fashion shows which were "created as easily disposable street wear." Her fascination with paper fashion can be traced to an ASCO fashion show organized by in 1982 by member Gronk, where he insisted all entries must be made of paper. Her paper fashion shows disrupted the activities of people on the street, blurring the lines between art and everyday life. Gamboa's creation of paper fashion is both the realization of childhood dreams of glamor and a commentary on the disposable nature of high fashion.

The "easily disposable streetwear" became quite popular and some designs were collected by museums. Gamboa created more than 75 different fashions, ranging from dresses, purses and cross-gender outfits. Her paper fashions make "clear that creativity is restricted only by the tools and the labor that are economically within reach...they exhibit longing for more fulfilling and creative social intercourse." However, while there is a desire to play out the glamorous nature of fashion, Gamboa's work also comments on the gendered nature of the fashion industry and the erotic norms of clothing.

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Wikipedia