Self-Portrait
BioGraphía / ABOUT:
Born in Downey, CA, Erick Jonathan Guzman is a graduate student at the Rhode Island School of Design, where they are pursuing an MFA in Photography. Due to COVID19, they have decided to take a year away from their MFA studies to focus on their current projects based around philanthropy, diversity and inclusion, and curation. They graduated from Brown University in 2016 with two degrees: a BA in Visual Arts with Honors and a BA in Health & Human Biology. They are most recently the recipient of the Rhode Island School of Design’s Graduate Commons Grant Fellowship and the Critical Mass MFA Scholarship presented by Photolucida, with their work currently on display at “Full House” at Local Host Gallery.
While at Brown, Guzman was awarded various scholarships, grants, and accolades for their commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship. Among these, they received the prestigious Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards, where they worked with two faculty to create two undergraduate courses that still operate today. These courses “Artist and Scientist as Partners” and “Artists and Scientists: Theory Into Practice” focus on the application of current research in neuroscience, education, narrative medicine, and best practices in the arts for persons with neurological disorders. Through site placements, students provide arts experiences (primarily dance and music) for persons with Parkinson’s Disease and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Accepted into the Program in Liberal Medical Education at eighteen, they went to medical school from 2016-2018, where he was accepted into the Scholarly Concentration program in Medical Humanities for their project “4.4% Latino Physicians in the US”. Feeling inspired after this photography project, they ultimately decided to leave their medical studies to pursue their art practice.
Often using their subjects allegorically, Guzman’s work navigates the intricacies of identity politics to ask questions about their selfhood as a first-generation, Chicano, Queer, and GenderQueer person. Their work borrows from various visual traditions ranging from photographic and figurative portraiture, queer aesthetics, and the vernacular surrounding spirituality. Guzman is visually inspired by the materiality of Chicano and Queer culture and its expression, as seen through the body in private and public environments. Flowers, leather, bodily fluids, blemished skin, transparent fabrics, and hair are examples of visual material that Guzman identifies and heightens in his pictures. Their most recent works and research are an exploration of the intersections between Queerness and Spirituality: mainly through the languages of desire, transcendence, love, and lust, which were tools used to colonize Latin America by the Catholic Church.
Guzman’s work has been featured in multiple magazines and online publications. Ranging from Somos, a Latino Literary Magazine, to that of the online publisher in contemporary photography, Lenscratch. Covering a broad base of interests, their work has been seen/exhibited by various organizations both on and off-campus. Guzman hopes to captivate people from across a broad set of passions, religions, ethnicities, genders, ages, identities, etc., they hope that their relation to the digital era will allow for their work to transcend the traditional gallery space.
He/They/She (All Pronouns With Respect/Love) currently lives and works in Providence, RI & New York, NY with their demon cat, Walter Mercado. Guzman describes themselves as an “Iridescent Pink Jaguar”: passionate about intersectional identity studies, education, visibility, and community.
Contact Me: jonathanerickguzman@gmail.com
“Art Hoe Hat” - Available At Nasty Twink
