2019 cadd fund WINNER

melissa gamez-herrera

MFA UNT

Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas celebrated creativity and community with CADD FUND 2019 held this year at 500X Gallery.

Melissa Gamez-Herrera is a visual artist who investigates and grapples with issues  of human rights, humanity, spirituality and identity through her artwork, primarily  using photography as a medium. She earned a BA in Art and Art History from  

Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, and is currently an MFA candidate in Photography at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX . She was born and  raised in San Antonio, TX.

WOMEN WORKERS ON THE BORDER 
Melissa’s CADD Fund winning project is a series of photographs and handmade books about women maquiladora (assemblage factory) workers in Piedras Negras, Mexico, just across the U.S.-Mexico border  from Eagle Pass, TX. Through an organization called the Comit é Fronterizo de Obrer@s (CFO), each  woman participating in this project have displayed leadership in local and global communities  concerning labor rights, as well as women’s rights. Although labor rights and women’s rights could be  considered one and the same.

This project attempts to show the faces of the women leaders who work in the various maquiladoras of  the area, the words spoken by each woman worker, as well as the interior of their living spaces. The  purpose of this work is to place each woman in the context of her home, in the context of her own  words, thus placing her in the context of her own humanity. 

Thank you to our finalists; Lara Asam, Christopher Evans, Morgan Grasham, Alexander Lozano, Sara  Rastegarpouyani & Ehsan Matoori, and to our jurors; Jennifer Klos, Art Advisor, Collector House Inc.;  Vicki Meek, Artist/Independent Curator/Cultural Critic; and Caleb Bell, Curator, Tyler Museum of Art. 

Thank you to our CADD Fund Friends and CADD Fund Sponsors listed below and to all that came to the  event to offer support and funds for the winning project! 

CADD FRIENDS 
Arts + Culture Texas Magazine, Brooklyn Brewery, Pogo's Wine & Spirits, & Anne and John Mullen

CADD SPONSORS
Michael Matthews and Michael Pugh, Kessler Collins, & Tom Maddrey, PLLC