Jacqueline Valenzuela

Jacqueline Valenzuela (b. 1997 East Los Angeles, CA) received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach (2019). Her work has been exhibited nationally, including the South Gate Museum, Mexic-Arte Museum, Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, The Mexican Center for Culture and Cinematic Arts of the Mexican Consulate, The Cheech – Riverside Art Museum, the Brand Library & Art Center, and Muzeo Museum. In 2023 she participated in the inaugural cohort of the Ellsworth Residency at ArtShare L.A. and has now served on the judges panel for the residency for the third and fourth cohorts. She is a 2023-2024 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Awardee for Los Angeles County. As well as one of the 2024-2025 Professional Artists Fellowship Awardees for Long Beach City Arts Council. Valenzuela is currently an artist in residence at Arts at Blue Roof in Los Angeles. In Fall of 2024 Jacqueline will have a solo show, “Con Safos, Con Fuerzas”, with the Bakersfield Museum of Art (BMoA).

Valenzuela is a multi-media artist whose practice is centered around depicting her personal experiences as well as the storytelling of other women who like her are in the Chicano world of lowriding.  Her art practice reflects the deep roots she has planted in the lowrider community by bridging the gap between fine art and this underrepresented community.

For “Perdóname Madre, Por mi Desmadre”, Valenzuela was inspired by a studio visit from Mario Ayala. Ayala saw Valenzuela’s lowrider, a 1975 Cadillac El Dorado named “La Playgirl”. He commented on how the stained glass customizations and the meshed grill reminded him of a church. Essentially, the lowrider functioned as a rolling church. That conversation led Valenzuela down a rabbit hole of ideas regarding religion and lowriding. The aesthetics between the two seemed to merge and constantly intersect, and so the lowrider confessional was born.