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Tomas Villalobos Moreno (b. 1983 San Antonio, Texas). Earned his BFA from CalArts and his MFA from the University of California, San Diego. He was a SOMA Summer 2012 resident, Mexico City. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally at venues including the 1st Festival Del Bosque Germinal, Casa del Lago, Mexico City, Lugar a Dudas, Cali Colombia, and The Vincent Price Museum, Los Angeles, CA. He is the recipient of UCIRA and UC MEXUS awards. Moreno currently lives and works in San Antonio, TX.
Resume (PDF)
Work Samples (PDF)
MORE ABOUT THIS ARTIST
Artist Style: Literary: Fiction, History, Non-Fiction, Science Fiction; Music: Americana, Big Band, Bluegrass, Blues, Conjunto, Country, Experimental, Folk, Funk, Gospel, Hip-Hop/Rap, Jazz, Soul/R&B, Tejano, World; Teaching Artist/Instructor: Instruction for Adults, Workshop Presenter; Theatre: Drama; Visual Art: Assemblage, Conceptual, Contemporary, Documentary, Experimental, Formalism, Functional, Minimalism, Narrative/Historical, Photo Realistic, Political, Pop, Sacred/Liturgical Art, Site-Specific, Social Commentary
Artist Statement of Work
Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):
As a multi-media artist, I delve into historical traces and fragments as a fluid narrative, unveiling connections and interrogating spaces of duality within music, language, architecture and film. My work takes shape through installations encompassing sculpture, drawing, music, video, and archives. My artwork is deeply rooted by the friction of my own cultural heritage, personal history, and archival research. I approach making as a composer-archaeologist and through this lens deconstruct cultural and collective memory to highlight and challenge dominant narratives, materials, and their utility. My interests in examining sonic, linguistic, and bodily residues is to construct spaces of dialogue that question our understanding of past, present and future.
VIDEOS
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Multiplication Condensation and Displacement, 2014, 2 channel video - Beginning credits from - Minnie the Moocher 1932 and clips from Betty Boop in Snow-White, 1933 Fleischer Studios. Both videos are Cab Calloway and his band performing and singing. This was the first documented footage using rotoscoping technology invented by the Fleischer brothers. Cab Calloway was shot dancing in front of his band, and then rotoscoped into a popular Betty Boop film animation becoming a ghostly figure singing St James Infirmary Blues aka An Unforuntate Rake a 18th century ballad that has evolved over the course of history. The song narrative is summarized by a young man or woman dying a young age thus a person \"cut down in his/her prime\". Some song lyrics recounts the last memories of the young person chronicling an amoral life gone wrong. The song has been made popular by Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Blind Willie McTell, The White Stripes , Allen Toussaint and countless others. The song has become un-tracelable due to it\'s many renditions. This video was commissioned by Juan Jose Arreola Casa del Lago, Mexico City as part of the 1st Festival Del Bosque Germinal in 2014: http://www.fdbgerminal.mx/