Miyo Stevens-Gandara
Chavez Ravine, 2016
Serigraph, Ed. 150
11'“x15”

This print depicts Dodger’s Stadium, a triumphant icon of Los Angeles pride and identity, with the bulldozed phantom of the Chavez Ravine community that existed in its place before the stadium’s construction. Stevens-Gandara draws parallels between the historical accounts and testimonies of the Chavez Ravine community’s displacement and the present issue of gentrification and displacement facing communities everywhere. “I’m not a huge baseball fan but I always wondered about that [Chavez Ravine] story, that landscape, that narrative. Every time I heard them talk about Chavez Ravine or a Dodger game or something, that had such weight to me, that name, that I always thought of the story. I wanted to create something that reminded us of displacement because it’s happening all over LA. So I thought I’d take something that everybody really loves, like the Dodgers; and use that as an entry point to talk about the history of that area, what happened, and how we shouldn’t do that [displace people] anymore,” says Miyo.

Miyo Stevens-Gandara is a Los Angeles based artist working in a variety of media which include photography, drawing, embroidery, and various printmaking mediums. Her imagery explores issues of ancestry, migration, feminism, cultural identity, and environmental degradation. She received her BFA from the California College of the Arts, and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Miyo Stevens-Gandara has work in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) Riverside Art Museum, and various private collections. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and internationally.

Miyo has a strong commitment to her community as part of her art practice and has been involved in nonprofit arts outreach programs throughout her career. She currently teaches photography at Rio Hondo College.