Luis Genaro-Garcia
Cultural Pedagogy and Our Time Was Being Wasted (diptych), 2019
Serigraph, ed. 60
15”x11” - each

From the Utopia/Dystopia Portfolio Project

Individual print: $250
Pair of prints: $400

Luis Genaro-Garcia’s Cultural Pedagogy and Our Time Was Being Wasted were made as part of the “Utopia/Dystopia” portfolio, curated by artist Miyo Stevens-Gandara. Miyo invited 26 artists to each pick two cards from a full deck, incorporating a diverse range of interpretations and ideas into a single, unified collection. Here, Luis’ diptych explains, “Rather than teaching students how to improve their artistic skills and abilities, a meaningful art education should teach students to use the arts as forms of resistance to current institutional barriers that exist in working class environments."

Luis uses his personal schooling experiences to encourage students and communities to challenge traditional schooling and use it as a form of resistance and change. These experiences have influenced him to teach at his alma mater, Thomas Jefferson High School. With a "Social Surrealist" style, Luis’ works feature the working class as the subject. Therefore, as a teacher he uses a  social justice curriculum that celebrates the personal, ethnic, and historical backgrounds of working class students.

Through his teaching, Luis has been very active in combining art and non-violent protest within the community, including participation in May Day learning projects and the Cesar Chavez walk.  He received his Bachelor’s degree in Arts Education from Cal State LA, followed by a Masters in Public Art from the University of Southern California, and lastly his Ph.D. in education from Claremont Graduate University.