Join us for a two-part workshop with exhibiting artist Sofía Luz Pérez and Syracuse artist Cayetano Valenzuela.

In this workshop, Cayetano Valenzuela and Sofía Luz Pérez will share their own practices and processes in making a portrait/self-portrait and ask participants to create a portrait or self-portrait. The emphasis of the portrait should be on identity and cultural background/ancestry, but they encourage everyone to delve into any part of themselves or the person they are drawn to portraying.

This is a free workshop with limited space available. Please register here. We ask that you attend both sessions. Art supplies will be provided and you are welcome to also bring your own.

Workshop #1
April 28 2-4pm
Week one will begin by detailing their approach to creating a portrait, which can include any research that needs to be done, any preliminary sketches and references, and then materials to be used.  They will present their art to demonstrate their processes.

Workshop #2
May 5 2-4pm
In the second workshop (Sunday May 5^th) , they will help guide everyone to use their materials and research to create their own portraits/self-portraits. Everyone is encouraged and welcomed to bring in materials to draw and/or collage. Materials can include colored pencil, pen, oil pastels, magazine cut-outs, any kind of paper/collage material that can be adhered to paper or canvas.

Cayetano Valenzuela is a Chicano artist and storyteller based in Syracuse. Cayetano is a painter and an illustrator, and he owns and operates the Black Rabbit Studio. His work can be seen throughout the city of Syracuse, including large-scale murals “Still I Rise” on the Westside and “Mighty Salt City” in Downtown Syracuse.

Sofía Luz Pérez is a Mexican American artist born in Austin, Texas and raised in central New York. She has shown her work in numerous juried shows including at Soho20 Gallery in New York, NY, ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse, NY, the Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse, NY, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, in Cazenovia, NY, the Art Association of Oswego, NY, and the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY. Her work was accepted into the Best of SUNY show 2022 and won Best in Show. She graduated with a BFA in Studio Art with a painting concentration in December 2021.