Cognate Collective: Regionalia

February 1, 2020 from 6 – 7PM

Grand Central Art Center (GCAC), a unit of Cal State Fullerton College of the Arts, and X Artists’ Books, a small press focusing on artists’ books and collaborations, are pleased to announce the publication of Regionalia, the first significant monograph of the work of Cognate Collective (Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz).Regionalia, a bilingual catalogue, documents the research, projects, and culminating exhibition generated during Cognate Collective’s artist residency at GCAC.  The 128-page catalogue includes an additional 32-page insert drawn from public conversations that took place throughout the exhibition.  Designed byStephen Serrato of Ella, the publication contains texts by Cognate Collective, Christian Zí­ºí­±iga, and a dialogue between the artists and Karen Stocker. 

A celebration to mark the publication of Regionalia will be held at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, CA, co-hosted by X Artists’ Books, on the evening of February 1, 2020, from 6-7 pm.

Cognate Collective develops research projects, public interventions, and experimental pedagogical programs in collaboration with communities across the US/Mexico border region. Founded in 2010, their work has interrogated the evolution of the border as it is simultaneously erased by neoliberal economic policies and bolstered through increased militarization – tracing the fallout of this incongruence for migrant communities on either side of the border.  As a result, their inter-disciplinary projects often address issues of citizenship, migration, informal economies, and popular culture, arguing for understanding the border not as a bifurcating line, but as a region that expands and contracts with the movement of people and objects.  They currently work between Tijuana, MX, Santa Ana, CA, and Los Angeles, CA.

Karen Stocker is a Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. As a cultural anthropologist specializing in Costa Rica, her research subjects have included Chorotega indigenous narrative tradition, women’s civic and cultural engagement, ethnic identity and schooling, tourism and cultural change, and youth-led social movements. 

Christian Zí­ºí­±iga is the director of the undergraduate Fine Art program at the Art School of the UABC. He is also a member of the arts and culture collective Taltecan, author of the book Downtown Tijuana: Urban Landscape and Imaginary, and editor of the anthology Stories of the border and other customs: A Young Chronicle of Tijuana.  He develops community-based art projects that focus on the cultural impact of socioeconomic processes in urban territories, addressing topics that include lived spaces, violence, migrations, and the border.


ELLA is a Los Angeles-based design studio founded by River Jukes-Hudson, Stephen Serrato, and Dante Carlos. The ELLA team has worked with artists, cultural institutions, writers, architects, performers, educators, and other designers for over 15 years. ELLA specializes in printed matter (mainly books) and design for exhibitions. Priorities of the studio include: representing multiple perspectives, translation, play, learning, disruption and justice. Clients include: Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena), Bloomberg, Bom Dia Books, Carnegie Museum of Art, Craft Contemporary, Grand Central Art Center, Hammer Museum, Harvard GSD, ICA Philadelphia, kurimanzutto, L.A. Forum, Logan Center for the Arts, Little Big Man Books, The Luckman Gallery, M+, powerHouse Books, The Power Plant, UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative, and Vincent Price Art Museum among others.

Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) is committed to the open exploration of contemporary art and visual cultural through socially engaged collaborations among artists and communities.  GCAC is a unit of California State University – College of the Arts in partnership with the City of Santa Ana.

X Artists’ Books, established in 2017, is a small publisher of thoughtful, high-quality, artist-centered books that fit within and between genres.  XAB’s books are works of art; portals to imagined worlds; treasured companions; the fabric of a community.

ISBN: 978-1-7331888-0-7
$30.00 USD

Contacts:
Grand Central Art Center
Email: grandcentral@fullerton.edu
Website: www.grandcentralartcenter.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/grandcentralartcenter/
Instagram: @grandcentralart

X Artists’ Books
Email: info@xartistsbooks.com
Website: www.xartistsbooks.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/xartistsbooks/
Instagram: @xartistsbooks