Black Maria Gallery announced “Immigrant Punk,” a group exhibition that will open on Saturday, October 20, 2007, at 7 PM.

Participating Artists:  Bask, John Casey, Ken Garduno, Douglas Alvarez, Martina Secondo Russo, Nicoz Balboa, Andre Firmiano, Hagop Belian, Pogo, Nina Nichols, Angela Penaredondo, Claudio Parentela, Sam Saghatelian, Glynnis Reed and Jasko.

According to Black Maria Gallery director Zara Zeitountsian, the exhibition, whose title was inspired by a song by the punk group Gogol Bordello, is homage to a particular facet of the immigrant experience.

“While immigration may be as American as apple pie, there are those individuals or groups who shape an extraordinary reality as they reinvent themselves in a new environment,” Zeitountsian said. “It is this constructive, hugely life-affirming aspect of immigration that our upcoming show celebrates.

“A veritable maelstrom of challenges awaits an immigrant in a new country: the language barrier, unfamiliar rules and ways of doing things, different traditions and cultural approaches, the very imperative of carving one’s own path out of an alien place,” Zeitountsian continued. “What’s significant is that certain immigrants will plunge into that maelstrom with gusto, and will not only tackle all the challenges but color the whole experience in terms of their own cultural roots and identity. I think there’s something of the spirit of punk music and art to all this.”

“Immigrant Punk” will feature new and recent works by a number of local and international artists. A Black Maria Gallery representative said that though not all participating artists are immigrants, most could perfectly identify with the immigrant experience through the style and inspiration of their work or because of their families’ deep immigrant roots.

Zeitountsian further commented on the parallels between punk and immigration. “Punk music and art do not pertain strictly to a specific cultural movement that exploded in the 1970s and continued to evolve on the fringe,” she explained. “Rather, punk is a certain attitude and way of seeing that doesn’t necessarily come with props and a mohawk. It’s about the exuberance and joy of rejecting limitations and doing one’s own thing, of following the call of an inner rhythm and bringing one’s own style to the mosh pit.”