CLAREMONT, California — Getting into the Lenzner Gallery at Pitzer School seems like getting into Carmen Argote’s walk-in closet. On this part of her two-part solo exhibition, gajes del oficio, the multidisciplinary artist has hung 22 jumpsuits alongside a prolonged curtain rod. Guests should shuffle across the clothes alongside a slender path to get a superb look. Every article of clothes is comprised of the identical stitching sample, however they acquire their very own personalities by way of classic materials, hodgepodge buttons, and any variety of pockets. This capsule wardrobe, elevated to maximalist absurdity, is the artist’s tribute to her household matriarchs.
Argote was born in Mexico; within the Eighties, her family members immigrated to Los Angeles, the place her grandmother started to work as a seamstress. That talent was handed all the way down to Argote’s mom, Carmen Vargas, after which to the artist herself. Earlier than this exhibition, Argote wasn’t but a proficient sewer, so she sought her mom’s mentorship to rework generational data into an artwork kind.
Set up view of Jumpsuits/Carmen Argote Wardrobe sequence (2025) in Lenzner Gallery at Pitzer School
Not like the monotonous clothes that her family members needed to manufacture for his or her jobs, Argote chooses individuality, and distinguishes every merchandise in her Jumpsuits/Carmen Argote Wardrobe sequence (2025) via materials that characteristic motifs like ditsy florals, painterly dragonfruit, and colourful crops, rendered in conventional Mexican embroidery methods. Although Argote made these for herself, they really feel like an try to humanize the meeting line. Maybe that is how clothes would look if garment staff might imbue every product with their persona.
Alongside the clothes, the gallery showcases the jumpsuit sample that spawned the others, and reducing tables crammed with Carmen Vargas’s stitching provides and knickknacks. The set up “partially finished garment: top” (2025), which showcases a jumpsuit’s striped material minimize lined up towards the sample’s collar segments, seems freshly touched, as if Argote and her mom merely stepped away to take a break throughout their stitching frenzy.
Within the nook of the house is “overcast mounted jumpsuit” (2025), a size of muted grey canvas that spills down the wall and onto the ground. The back and front of the jumpsuit are appliqued onto it, break up from the neck like a banana peel. The shared collar protrudes, as if a physique was rising from the floor.
Carmen Argote, “Overcast mounted jumpsuit” (2025), canvas material
This eerie work is the premise for the present’s different half, situated throughout campus within the Nichols Gallery. On this room, Argote focuses extra broadly on the jumpsuit’s position as a working class uniform. “Gajes del oficio” (2025) unfolds from the ceiling like a scroll. An abstracted variation of this outfit, now comprised of a semi-sheer peach polyester organza, marches in an enormous daisy chain throughout the gallery ground. Argote has tucked lemons into a number of the pockets, which she harvested from Pitzer’s campus and farms across the Inland Empire. Because the fruit decomposes, it leaks its acidic juice onto a hand-dyed paper positioned beneath the jumpsuits. A chemical response causes the dye to alter coloration, matching the pink material.
Even when laid flat, the collars bob up. It’s like a magician went out to an orchard and carried out an enormous vanishing act — poof! — and every laborer left their uniforms behind. Besides now, the magicians are ICE brokers, and the employees may by no means return to raucous viewers applause.
The lemon stains add to the oil paper’s texture and complexity, making a extra fascinating paintings. With out it, the paper feels boring and unfinished. This turns into a metaphor for the imprint that undocumented individuals have left on our communities. They enrich the lives, tradition, and economic system of others, and we’re much less cultivated with out them.
Carmen Argote, “gajes del oficio” (2025), polyester organza, lemon juice, pure dye on oil paper, and copper rod
Carmen Argote, “Pattern with drawing,” element (2025), manila paper, sample hook
Carmen Argote, “gajes del oficio,” element (2025)
Carmen Argote, “hangers dripping” (2025), polyester organza, lemon juice, and pure dye on oil paper
Carmen Argote, “lemon puddle,” element (2025), pure dye on oil paper
Carmen Argote, “jumpsuits leaking” (2024), polyester organza, lemon juice, and pure dye on oil paper
Carmen Argote: gajes del oficio continues on the Pitzer School Artwork Galleries (1050 North Mills Avenue, Claremont, California) via December 6. The exhibition was organized by the establishment.
