La Emperatriz De América Con Su Atención En Su Teléfono (The Empress of América With Her Attention On Her Phone) by Michael Menchaca
Starting Price:$700
Michael Menchaca
La Emperatriz De América Con Su Atención En Su Teléfono (The Empress of América With Her Attention On Her Phone), 2025
30 x 22 in.
Screenprint on Rives BFK paper
Edition of 37
Signed and numbered
About the Work
This 18 layer screen-print is printed with Speedball Acrylic inks as well as Lukas CRYL STUDIO acrylic paints printed onto heavyweight sheets of Rives BFK paper—complete with deckled edges. It features an image of La Madre Santa Maria De Guadalupe depicted with her attention directed at her phone.
What is she doing on her phone? Could she be taking a picture of the viewer — indirectly reversing the viewer's gaze back onto them? And how about Juan Diego dressed as an Amazon delivery person? Is the golden halo that frames the image connected to the same cloud that runs on Amazon Web Services? We may never find out the answers to these and other questions. Also, why did it take La Morenita so long to get her own phone? Everyone else has one :)
About the Artist
Michael Menchaca (they/them) is a Xicanx, Mexican-American, Mexica, Mestizx, Queer multidisciplinary visual artist from San Antonio, TX working at the intersection of print media and new media formats. Their vector-based digital imagery blends the framework of ancient Mesoamerican Codices, European Bestiaries, Catholic Baroque paintings, and Japanese Video Games with the seductive, attention-seeking interfaces of Big Data Technologies.
Menchaca exhibited in Behind the Cloud in 2023 at The Latinx Project.