Centered around Chicanas in lowrider culture, the CSUN Art Galleries “Bajitas y Suavecitas” exhibit curated by Denise Sandoval, professor of Chicano/a Studies, aims to highlight women in the lowrider space and their cultural impact.

The exhibit, open to the public until March 15 in the Main Gallery, showcases a variety of art mediums such as paintings, fashion pieces and photography made by local Chicana artists.

“I feel like my whole curatorial career and my teaching career in Chicano Studies and teaching feminism classes in my department has sort of played a really essential role in how I approach this exhibit,” Sandoval said.

“Bajitas y Suavecitas” is one of Sandoval’s many exhibitions centering on lowriders in Southern California. In 2022, the University Library showcased one of Sandoval’s exhibitions, “The Politics of Low and Slow,” in its Exhibit Gallery. Sandoval has collaborated with museums such as the Smithsonian and Petersen to showcase the lowrider lifestyle on a larger scale.

While this isn’t Sandoval’s first time curating an exhibit based on lowriders, it is the first time that the Art Galleries have hosted two exhibits centering Mexican-American women at the same time. Next door to “Bajitas y Suavecitas,” the “Pachucxs Revisited” exhibit is also being showcased in the Art and Design Center’s West Gallery until March 15.

“We have the counterpart exhibit that somehow [graphic design]– you know, was already working on, on Pachucas. It just was– like such a synergy of sort of looking at that connection of how the Pachuca style, how it influences lowriding and the zoot suits are part of that history,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval says the exhibit was meant to be very feminist, with politics influencing each piece. The name “Bajitas y Suavecitas” is the feminization of the lowrider phrase “Bajito y Suavecito,” which means “Low and Slow.” However, to some Angelenos, this phrase is more than just a phrase—it is a lifestyle and community based on the art of lowriding.

While most lowrider magazines in the ’90s and 2000s often used hyperfeminine models in their covers, Sandoval and former Lowrider Magazine writer Jessica Lopez wanted to “flip the script” and use women who were actually a part of the lowrider community to represent them.

A collection of lowrider magazines is showcased at the front of the exhibit, following photographs and paintings of Chicana women crafted by artists such as Amanda Lopez and Jacqueline Valenzuela.

“Those were women that obviously did not have bikinis; they were fully clothed and they were older, right? Like in their 40s and up,” Sandoval said.

She hopes the exhibition will empower Chicanas by cultivating a space emphasizing unity and self-love. For CSUN students who may not identify as women or Chicano, Sandoval says that the exhibit is still important because it shows that anybody can be part of a wider creative community through social change.