With the establishment of the first Chicano art gallery in 1969 in East Los Angeles, Chicano artists initiated a collective reimagining the urban landscape through such media as photography, graphic arts, murals, painting, and sculpture. These artists mapped another L.A., harnessing their work as part of a social protest and community empowerment movement. Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement (October 16, 2011-February 26, 2012) introduced this exciting period of Los Angeles history by revealing the social networks among Chicano artist groups and art spaces in Los Angeles during the 1970s,including Asco, Centro de Arte Público, Los Dos Streetscapers, Goez Art Studio and Gallery (Goez), Los Four, Mechicano Art Center, Plaza de la Raza, Self Help Graphics and Art, and the Social Public Art Resource Center (SPARC).

The exhibition, curated by Chon A. Noriega, Terezita Romo, and Pilar Tompkins Rivas, presented little-seen work and archival documentation that revealed a complex history of how artists both navigated and imagined the social spaces of Los Angeles. Enjoy this virtual walkthrough of the exhibition:

The featured artists in the exhibition included Judithe Hernandez, Johnny Gonzalez, David Botello, Robert Arenivar, as well as Luis C. Garza, John Valadez, David Botello who participated in the Fowler’s robust programming that accompanied the exhibition. For Cultures Fixes by Garza, Valadez and Botello, listen here. New works by Kathy Gallegos, Reyes Rodriguez, Arturo Romo-Santillano, Ana Serrano were commissioned for Mapping Another L.A.

Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement Mapping Another L.A. was part of L.A. Xicano, a collaboration between the Fowler, the Autry National Center, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that resulted in four interrelated exhibitions dedicated to the diverse artistic contributions of Mexican-descent artists since 1945. Together these exhibitions presented hundreds of rarely seen paintings, sculptures, drawings, posters, murals, and photographs, and provided the basis for a visual dialogue about Los Angeles and contemporary art through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

Image at Top:
Goez Art Studio and Gallery
Birth of Our Art
Mural: Johnny Gonzalez, David Botello, Ignacio Gomez and others
Image: Oscar Castillo
1970
Mural documentation
Courtesy of the Oscar Castillo Photograph Collection at UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.