BG Projects: Valentina Aproda Maurer on exhibit at CSUF Begovich Gallery.

BG Projects, located in the foyer of the Begovich Gallery, highlights premiere work by emerging artists from southern California. This season focuses on the work of Valentina Aproda Maurer, an MFA candidate in Creative Photography + Experimental Media ('22) at CSUF. Her large-scale self-portraits in Camouflage are a performance that employs the camera to demonstrate defense strategies of disguising oneself as an act of survival.

The artist states: "I constructed an environment to camouflage myself into. The use of torn black and white photographs represents the disconnect from my cultural background. These images represent an attempt to rid myself of the notion of feeling "not enough ____." The photos themselves contain imagery of environmental backgrounds absent of subjects and color. The process of camouflaging myself to an unbiased and neutral backdrop is a means of controlling and building my sense of identity while aiming to remove the need to relate externally to others."

IG: @aprodaart

BG Projects: Valentina Aproda Maurer is organized by CSUF Nicholas + Lee Begovich Gallery. Support for the exhibition and the gallery is made possible through the Art Alliance, Associated Students, Inc. Instructional Related Activities, the College of the Arts, the Department of Visual Arts, and the Creative Photography + Experimental Media program.

Image: "Camouflage 2" (Detail), 2021. Inkjet print, 50" x 40," Courtesy of the artist