Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement

April 6, 2008–September 1, 2008 | Art of the Americas

Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement is the largest exhibition of cutting-edge Chicano art ever presented at LACMA. Chicano art, traditionally described as work created by Americans of Mexican descent, was established as a politically and culturally inspired movement during the counterculture revolutions of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This exhibition explores the more experimental tendencies within the Chicano art movement—ones oriented less toward painting and declarative polemical assertion than toward conceptual art, performance, film, photo- and media-based art, and "stealthy" artistic interventions in urban spaces. The exhibition includes approximately 125 works in all media, including painting and sculpture as well as installation, conceptual, video, performance art, and intermedia works that incorporate film, digital, and sound art. Artists featured are photographer Christina Fernandez, who documents the poetic and “phantom” in the urban landscape; Mario Ybarra Jr., who creates performances, site-specific installations and intermedia works; the “intermedia synaesthesia” of the seminal conceptual art group Asco; and the New York-based artist Nicola López, who creates dramatic installations with drawings that extend from the wall into the gallery.

The curators are Rita Gonzalez, American Art, LACMA, Howard Fox, Contemporary Art, LACMA, and Chon Noriega, Adjunct Curator of Latino and Chicano Art, LACMA, and Director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and was made possible in part by the Peter Norton Family Foundation, LACMA’s Art Museum Council, and Bank of America.

Additional support was provided by the Contemporary Projects Endowment Fund. Contributors to the fund include Mr. and Mrs. Eric Lidow, Ronnie and Vidal Sassoon, Steve Martin, The Broad Art Foundation, Bob Crewe, Tony and Gail Ganz, Ansley I. Graham Trust, Peter Norton Family Foundation, Barry and Julie Smooke, and Sandra and Jacob Y. Terner.

Artwork: Juan Capistran, The Breaks, 2000, Giclée print, 40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm), courtesy of the artist, © Juan Capistran.

On exhibitions index page: Christina Fernandez, Lavanderia #2, 2002 (detail), chromogenic development print mounted on Sintra, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm), courtesy of the artist and Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica.

ONLINE

Slideshow: 14 works

"LA Boyz, welcome to LACMA"—Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2008

Phantom Video: Conversations with the Artists of Phantom Sightings

Purchase the exhibition book online

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Talks & Courses

Phantom Sites: Rethinking Identity and Place in Contemporary Art 
April 5

CalArts at LACMA: Reading Series in Contemporary Literature
April 21

Conversations with Artisits: Sandra de la Loza and Harry Gamboa Jr.
May 4

Conversations with Artists: Danny Jauregui and Rubén Ortiz-Torres
June 1