YREINA CERVANTEZ

Yreina D. Cervantez, a Chicana artist, was born in 1952 in Garden City, Kansas, but grew up near San Diego, CA. She is an American painter, printmaker, muralist, and teacher. Yreina received her B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and later went on to earn her Masters in Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1989. She is also currently the multicultural coordinator at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Yreina’s other areas of main interest are visual arts, Chicana/o Art, and Xicana feminist art and aesthetics. Yreina Cervantez is currently an Associate Professor of Chicano/a Studies at the California State University, Northridge.

Drawing heavily from her cultural heritage, Yreina Cervantez has become prominent and well respected amongst other Chicana/o artists. She is particularly known for her various self-portraits of Chicana identity, as well as murals that depict struggles within the Chicano/a movement. Some of her most favorite artwork includes La Ofrenda, Homenaje a Frida Kahlo, and her 1995 Nepantla lithograph triptych. Yreina Cervantez has also been featured in art exhibitions, such as From El Corazon de East L.A , Just Another Poster?: Chicano Graphic Arts in California, and 30 Years of Chicano Printmaking & Social Justice.