Here’s your list of Orange County institutions participating in Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an initiative of the Getty in which arts institutions across Southern California will join together to explore the vast subject of Latin American and Latino Art in dialogue with Los Angeles that takes place from September 2017 through January 2018.
Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center – Deconstructing Liberty: A Destiny Manifested
A far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. Through performance, installation, video, and photography, these artists question ideas traditionally associated with American liberty as they resonate in forms of collective identity across the globe.
Muzeo, 241 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, (714) 956-8936. On view August 5, 2017-October 15, 2017.
Chapman University – Emigdio Vasquez and El Proletariado de Aztlán: The Geography of Chicano Murals in Orange County
The Art Collections Department will present a multi-faceted exploration of Chicana/o art in Orange County. The springboard for Chapman’s project is a 1979 mural, El Proletariado de Aztlán, by Emigdio Vasquez. The project will comprise five distinct components, an exhibition of Vasquez’ paintings at the Guggenheim Gallery, an exhibition of documentary material in the Henley Galleria Argyros Forum — outlining critical events and movements of Mexican and Chicana/o history. The ancient Aztec homeland of Aztlán, The Mexican Mural Movement (1920s-1970s), California school segregation, zoot suit and pachuco culture, bracero programs in the US and the rise of the United Farm Workers of America, and the development of MEChA; a timeline of Vasquez’s career and a detailed look at El Proletariado de Aztlán. In addition, a downloadable app provides an interactive map of historic mural sites in Orange County, a symposium on Chicana/o murals and new mural centered on Chapman University history, painted on campus by Higgy Vasquez (Emigdio Vasquez’ son).
Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, (714) 997-6815. On view September 13, 2017-January 5, 2018.
Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) – Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago
Curated by Tatiana Flores, it’s a major survey exhibition of twenty-first century art of the Caribbean that employs the archipelago as an analytical framework. The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: Conceptual Mappings, Perpetual Horizons, Landscape Ecologies and Representational Acts and features over 80 artists with roots in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curaçao, Aruba, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, and St. Vincent whose works have informed and shaped those themes.The exhibition includes painting, installation art, sculpture, photography, video, and performance.
MOLAA, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, (562) 437-1689. On view September, 16, 2017-January 28, 2018.
The University Art Galleries – Aztlán to Magulandia: the Journey of Chicano Artist Gilbert “Magu” Luján
UC Irvine’s University Art Galleries will present the first survey of Gilbert “Magu” Luján (1940–2011) and an accompanying publication. One of the founding members of the Chicano artists collective Los Four (whose members also included the dad of Irvine’s Zack de la Rocha), Luján is known for his coloration and visual explorations of Chicano culture and community that drew upon and brought to life various historic and contemporary visual sources with startling results: Pyramid-mounted low riders driven by anthropomorphic dogs traversing a newly defined and mythologized L.A. He was part of a small group of dedicated artists and intellectuals who set about defining a Chicano identity and culture as part of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
University Art Galleries, 712 Arts Plaza, Irvine, (949) 824-9854. On view October 7, 2017-December 16, 2017.
Laguna Art Museum – California Mexicana: Missions to Murals, 1820-1930
California Mexicana: Missions to Murals, 1820–1930 explores how Mexico became California. After the U.S.-Mexican War, lands that had belonged for centuries to New Spain, and later Mexico, were transformed into the 31st state of the U.S. The visual arts created distinct pictorial motifs and symbols that helped define the new California while establishing dialogues and intersections with the land’s previous identity as Mexico. Showing paintings along with posters, books, photographs, and some of the earliest films made in Los Angeles, the exhibition demonstrates how images of California spread worldwide. The selection ranges from picturesque landscapes of Alta California and still life paintings of fruits and flowers that celebrated the state’s agricultural growth, to works by modernists such as Diego Rivera who were inspired by the art of ancient Mexico. California Mexicana reveals how a unique combination of Mexican and Anglo visual traditions created a profile for California distinct from any other U.S. state.
Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach, (949) 494-8971. On view October 15, 2017-January 14, 2018.
University Art Museum – David Lamelas: A Life of Their Own
The University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach presents David Lamelas: A Life of Their Own, the first US monographic exhibition of the Argentine-born pioneer of conceptual art, who initially gained international acclaim for his work in the 1968 Venice Biennale, Office of Information about the Vietnam War at Three Levels: The Visual Image, Text and Audio.
University Art Museum, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, (562) 985-5761. On View September 17, 2017-December 10, 2017.
Cynthia Rebolledo covers anything and everything food, culture and spirits.