Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara and Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art are proud to present a symposium focusing on Guatemalan visual art production from the 1960s to the present day as the culmination of the exhibition Guatemala from 33,000 km: Contemporary Art, 1960 – Present. The symposium brings together renowned critics, academics, and Guatemalan art historians Rosina Cazali, Martín Fernández, Silvia Herrera Ubico, and Mario Roberto Morales, who also served as the Advisory Committee for the exhibition, in addition to co-curators Miki Garcia and Emiliano Valdés.
Part of the Getty’s ambitious Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, Guatemala from 33,000 km features works of art created in Guatemala just after the start of the civil war in 1960 to the present day. The exhibition is organized around nine central ideas: Art & Politics; Art Histories; Formal Experimentation; Gender Perspectives; Land, Landscape, Territory; Popular Cultures; Racisms & Identities; Religion/Spirituality/Metaphysics; and Violence & Trauma. The vast range of artwork in the exhibition, spanning diverse media and perspectives, demonstrates that even during the worst years of repression and war in their country, artists, both as individuals and collectives, continued to create visual expressions that not only mirrored but directly engaged with the sociopolitical situations of their time, albeit often through muted languages and conceptually oriented presentation.
This first major examination of Guatemalan modern and contemporary art, both in Guatemala and abroad, Guatemala from 33,000 km connects the country’s artistic output to practices and initiatives taking place in Latin America and to broader global art phenomena of this era.
Tickets may be purchased here through our professional event ticketing system.
General public: $25
Students & MCASB / Westmont members: $15
The symposium is part of the Pacific Standard Time LA/LA Santa Barbara Weekend. Additional information on events and exhibitions can be found at sbma.net/pstsb.
For further information contact engagement@mcasantabarbara.org.
Special thanks to our event volunteers from the Westmont Art Council.
Event Website: https://www.mcasantabarbara.org/?event=symposium-art-in-guatemala-1960-present&event_date=2017-10-20
