Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán is a first-year MFA student from South Berkeley. Captivated by art at an early age, he strives to represent his immigrant family and community in the world of fine art. UC Berkeley writer Alexander Rony interviewed Muñoz-Guzmán at an open studio event where he displayed his paintings from the past year.
I grew up in Berkeley, and I had an amazing art teacher. Following high school, I went to art school, and I just kept making artwork.
My work is about people from Berkeley. My family immigrated from Mexico, and our roots are connected here. A lot of my family worked for UC Berkeley in the cafes and shops. UC Berkeley was my personal playground, so I felt like it was right for me to continue my studies where my artwork is really about.
For me, it's more about bringing my family into these art spaces, having them be represented, and when we're in those spaces, making sure their voices are heard and they're the center of attention.
For the MFA show, it was the first time my family was able to come to one of my shows. That's really cool. Outside of that, they wouldn't have attended any UC Berkeley art events.
The original image was from when my uncles first immigrated from Mexico to South Berkeley. It is them giving each other haircuts in their one-bedroom apartment kitchen. This apartment ended up being my childhood apartment. I thought it was a very intimate moment between brothers and a lovely image that was in my family archives.
The two outside figures are actually references to two artists who I look up to a lot stylistically. The top jaguar is an indigenous warrior by Diego Rivera, and then what the jaguar is killing is a police pig, and that's a reference to Emory Douglas, an illustrator from the Black Panthers who's from Oakland.
I like to pay homage to contemporary and modern artists who influence my work and I look up to, infusing it with my personal histories and iconographies. The person on the top right is my grandfather, who passed away in 2017. He also had a lot of roots in Berkeley and UC Berkeley. It's important for me to bring my people and their images to this institution because they're as much a part of Berkeley as anyone else.
Honestly, I love it here. Before, I was working in my apartment, so I wasn't able to get paint on the floor. It was a very limited space. It was amazing to have a space that's dedicated to work. And I love how quiet it is. You can hear the birds chirping, and it's by the water. I enjoy it a lot.
I come here with a purpose: to paint for hours. I like to work like it's like a nine-to-five job when I'm painting.
Yeah, I'm studying under Luanne Redeye. She's the figurative painter in the painting department, and I thought our work had a lot of similarities. We both paint people in our community. We have regular studio visits, and I'm also taking her painting class. I haven't taken many painting classes, so it's been great to get that experience.
I want the footprint of my family to live on through my artwork. A lot of the time, immigrants live in the shadows because of their status or financial situation. I want to bring my world into the fine art world.
You can follow Héctor on Instagram at @hectorfmunoz.
