“Reencuentros: allá nos vemos” Explores Memory, Identity, and Home

“Reencuentros: allá nos vemos,” which translates to “Reunions: see you there,” captures a multi-artist reflection on memory, traditions, land, and identity in a variety of art mediums. 

Presented by the San Diego State University School of Art and Design, the exhibition will be open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the University Art Gallery and will run until Dec. 5, 2025.

“It's inspiring to bring outside voices to campus,” said Chantel Paul, the SDSU galleries and exhibitions coordinator. “Their conceptual framework of delving into home, memory, and transformation is incredibly present in all of our daily lives, so I felt it would be a powerful exhibition for the campus and public communities in San Diego. Through the process, I've been introduced to new artists from Southern California and Tijuana, which is always wonderful.”

“Reencuentros” will feature artists Raylene B. Olalde, Jamil G. Baldwin, celeste hernández, Fedella Lizeth, Aldo Cervantes, Elina Gonzalez, and Alkaid Ramirez, and is curated by William Camargo and Alexa Ramírez Posada.

“The fact that the artists in the exhibition are from the Inland Empire, Orange County, and the San Diego/Tijuana border region directly reflects our immediate campus and city communities, and it's wonderful to be able to represent that during Hispanic Heritage month,” Paul said.

Raylene B. Olalde uses her unique lens to create pieces that reflect on themes such as memory, traditions, land, and identity.

As a photo-based artist born and raised in Southern California, Olalde’s art highlights her family archives and her life experiences as a Mexican American. She incorporates both archives and documentary and experiments with methods such as collage, video, and textile.

Olalde’s Instagram page, originally created as an online family album, now showcases a collection of photographs that spotlight the Mexican-American experience through the lens of migration, assimilation, and transnational identity.

Olalde’s piece in the exhibit, titled “Tres Hijas,” contemplates the connection between mother and daughter. 

“It serves as a reflection and maybe even a tender reminder that our mothers are still daughters, holding a story that exists beyond our view and experience of them as a mother,” Olalde said.  

Olalde will also contribute “signal to receiver,” “Static Blanket,” and “Mother’s Embrace,” which experiment with unconventional mediums to portray themes such as familial relationships, memory, and acceptance.

“Being able to show these pieces during Hispanic Heritage Month is validating to my own self-identity,” Olalde said. “As a third-gen Mexican-American who oftentimes is labeled as ‘white washed’ and struggles with identity, to be included is to be seen.”

Olalde said that her family’s archives tell a story of immigration and assimilation, and she wants her art to showcase their attempt to return to their roots.

“When viewers see my work, I want them to think about the complexities of memory and family and how often the two go hand-in-hand,” Olalde said.

Jamil G. Baldwin is a photographic artist who focuses on areas such as film, analog, people, and the abstract.

“Opportunities like (“Reencuentros”) lend themselves to spaces where we can shed the perceptions of our assigned identity labels, and begin to see each other for what our shared experiences hold,” Baldwin said. 

“This exhibition embodies a very real prompt we should all be engaging in within our communities and across them,” he continued.

Baldwin will contribute pieces titled “The white door is: The neighborhood: Sade Lawson (Layer 1)” and “The turmeric door is: The neighborhood: James Fugate and Eso Won (Layer 1).”

He will also showcase his series titled “These perennials don’t bolt,” which he describes as a “constellation of slide viewer pieces.” The series is made up of pieces titled “clear skies, heavy rains,” “Nutrient-Rich Depths or a Message from Reggie Andrews (1948 - 2022),” and “if anyone ask, we were laughing.”

“The smaller eye viewers bring audiences into an intimate and immersive story of place and people, often punctuated with my own poetry or ruminations,” Baldwin said. “These viewers require you to close your other eye and shut everything out—in other words, it’s a practice of attention and presence.”

“They present what it means to identify and take part in the moral memory of people and places,” Baldwin continued.

Celeste Hernández will contribute two pieces that confront painful tragedies from the artist’s family past, as well as past relationships and romantic experiences.

“(My art) is also a tribute to Karoo, the cat my ex and I shared,” hernández said. “Visitors will be able to peek through a curtain and witness the self-portraits along with snapshots of Karoo. All reminiscent of a home that used to be and no longer is. A place to which one cannot return, alive only in memories and pictures.”

For more information about the exhibition visit “Reencuentros: allá nos vemos.”