Jay Lynn Gomez brings a captivating experience to the narratives of love, intimacy, and work through irreverence and empowerment. The artist makes visible the invisible labor of caretaking, housekeeping, and landscaping. This exhibition considers social reflection on the symbolic and material realities of the immigrant workforce and its stereotypical representations. Through intertextuality with iconic works by Hockney, Matisse, and Manet, the images speak to and about the perceptions of class, gender, and belonging intersections.

Jay Lynn Gomez was born in 1986 in San Bernardino, California to undocumented Mexican immigrant parents who have since become U.S. citizens. She briefly attended the California Institute for the Arts before leaving to work as a live-in nanny, an experience that informed her subsequent artistic practice. Gomez’s work is known for addressing issues of immigration and showing a different perspective on labor forces that keep our homes, yards, and pools in pristine condition.

Gomez’s artwork has been shown at MCA Chicago, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Denver Art Museum, MFA Houston, and Museum of Latin American Art among others.

Organized by the University of Richmond Museums, the exhibition was curated by Karina Vazquez, Director of Spanish Community-Based Learning Program, Department of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies, University of Richmond, and Martha Wright, Assistant Curator of Academic and Public Engagement, University Museums. The exhibition and programs are made possible in part with support from the Tucker Boatwright Festival Nuestra America/Our America.