About PST: LA/LAPacific Standard Time: LA/LA is a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. Led by the Getty, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is the latest collaborative effort from arts institutions across Southern California. Through a series of thematically linked exhibitions, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA will present a wide variety of important works of art, much of them new to Southern California audiences. While the majority of exhibitions will have an emphasis on modern and contemporary art, there also will be crucial exhibitions about the ancient world and the pre-modern era. With topics such as luxury objects in the pre-Columbian Americas, 20th-century Afro-Brazilian art, alternative spaces in Mexico City, and boundary-crossing practices of Latino artists, exhibitions will range from monographic studies of individual artists to broad surveys that cut across numerous countries.
Let’s face it, Inglewood is not the type of neighborhood you go to for art shows. Other than the Inglewood Open Studios art walk, which happens once a year in places like 1019 West and the Beacon Arts Building, there isn’t a scene like in Downtown Los Angeles or adjacent Culver City. But there is a new kid on the block that is challenging this perception and bringing multicultural awareness and art that reflects people and ideas from the surrounding area. Residency Art Gallery, which sits in the historic Downtown Inglewood corridor, is carving out a creative space for dialogue and representation, in a metropolis that is constantly reinventing itself via new development, and in the process disappearing entire peoples and communities.
Residency’s next exhibition, which is part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time LA/LA Initiative, Barrio Logos: Displacement and Vanishing Iconography, parallels the gallery’s ideology of erasure. And with such an ambitious initiative that seeks to embrace the Latino community across Los Angeles, the Getty glossed over the entire LAX area, with the exception of Residency. According to professor Raul Homero Villa of Occidental College, “In our post-modernist present, the threat is more insidious and dispersed, as the invisible hand of real estate speculation catalyzes a piece-meal but cumulative displacement of working-class Latino households, especially renters, through residential and commercial gentrification.” Look at all major cities across California and you will observe that cumulative displacement is at the core of a 21st century American crisis. Homelessness in Los Angeles has reached an all-record high, partially related to massive evictions, and there is not a week that goes by in which the Los Angeles Times does not report on the affordability emergency that is plaguing our city. Bottom line is that working-class people are finding it extremely difficult to live in Los Angeles, let alone buy a house. Major cities have become a hub for luxury living and creative economic work, yet, they still rely on service labor to run the dream machine. And along with the displacement of people is the removal and vanishing iconography, such as public murals, graffiti, and neighborhood roll calls that once reflected specific demographic groups. Curated by artist Oscar Magallanes, Barrio Logos seeks to reclaim the imagery and iconography of the barrio that has constantly been fined, criminalized, and white-washed, while its practitioners have suffered extreme social disorganization such as mass incarceration, deportation, civil injunctions, and other such racialized phenomenon.
But, Magallanes’ exhibition moves beyond the simple protest plea to a more philosophical concern. Barrio Logos, which runs through December 10th, interrogates what part of barrio culture is allowed to get appropriated by the dominant culture, and what part of it remains within the host community as centralized identity, without being criminalized. Moreover, Magallanes seeks to balance political/social realism and conceptual art, within the constraints of academia. He asks – How can an artist work within specified social justice, without thinking about the larger marketplace of the artworld? For this reason, he has collected a group of artists that represent many forms of resistance, such as the style and clothing of John Carlos De Luna, the phenomenology of Patrick Martinez, the heroic paisas of EL MAC, and the displacement of people from everyday objects in photography by Gustavo Martinez. Other artists include: Adriana Corral, Pablo Cristi, Aaron D. Estrada, Ofelia Marquez, and Vincent Valdez. Barrio Logos: Displacement and Vanishing Iconography opens to the general public on October 7th, with a block party reception from 1-6pm.
As South Los Angeles and its surrounding communities continue to face the threat of gentrification, both community residents and artists have begun to feel the effects of displacement.
As a result, a group of artists, including Patrick Martinez and John Carlos “Barrio Dandy” De Luna will be displaying their work in an upcoming exhibition titled, “Barrio Logos: Displacement and Vanishing Iconography,” aimed at preserving the legacy of Chicano/o resistance in a city whose Chicano style and aesthetics have been appropriated around the world.
Located at the Residency gallery, directed by Rick Garzon, in the rapidly changing city of Inglewood, Barrio Logos is part of a larger art initiative titled Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, which is hosting a range of art events and exhibitions aimed at creating a dialogue between Los Angeles and Latin America art.
“Barrio Logos is the only PST LA/LA participating exhibition taking place within South Central Los Angeles.”
Curated by Oscar Magallanes, the upcoming exhibit takes place in a city that is 50 percent Latino, and serves as the backdrop for popular HBO series, “Insecure.” Magallanes urges viewers to think about the historical impact of displacement in the context of a Chicana and Chicano legacy that stems back to the mid-19th century Mexican-American war.
Additionally, the upcoming exhibit, Magallanes explained to mitú over the phone, builds on the book, titled, “Barrio Logos,” written by author, Raul Villa, which explores how California Chicanos have used expressive culture to oppose community-destroying forces like urban renewal programs and massive freeway development for survival.
Through art, Adriana Coral explores human rights issues.
Adriana Coral Impunidad, Circle, Vicioso, 2015
But the idea for the show,” explained Magallanes, “also came from hearing about Pacific Standard Time and not hearing that anything was going on in South L.A. or Inglewood. I knew it would be important for different communities and galleries and community spaces that represent Latino art to be involved.”
L.A. native Patrick Martinez will also be one of the artists featured in the show. Through his art he’s creating discussion around cultural appropriation of Chicano style around the world.
Patrick Martinez. what you gonna do now? (haircuts look airbrushed) / Mixed media on acrylic / 72 x 72 inches / 2014
As fashion companies continue to glorify Chicano aesthetics, the show’s curator hopes it can help people understand that there are dire consequences for Chicanas and Chicanos in L.A who continue to be victims of hyper-policing.
“People gravitate towards Chicano culture and style all over the world,” he said, “While it continues to be criminalized here in L.A.,” he explained.
“What does it mean that people in Japan can celebrate the culture but we can’t even go cruising in LA? There’s an underlying racism that informs the artwork in this show.”
Barrio Logos will run from September 23rd through December 16th.
About PST: LA/LAPacific Standard Time: LA/LA is a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. Led by the Getty, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is the latest collaborative effort from arts institutions across Southern California. Through a series of thematically linked exhibitions, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA will present a wide variety of important works of art, much of them new to Southern California audiences. While the majority of exhibitions will have an emphasis on modern and contemporary art, there also will be crucial exhibitions about the ancient world and the pre-modern era. With topics such as luxury objects in the pre-Columbian Americas, 20th-century Afro-Brazilian art, alternative spaces in Mexico City, and boundary-crossing practices of Latino artists, exhibitions will range from monographic studies of individual artists to broad surveys that cut across numerous countries.
Photo credit: Purgatory by Miles Macgregor
