In the 1970s and 1980s, Los Angeles-based Chicanas/os strove to scrutinize aspects of popular culture and advanced alternative narratives concerning race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship that were not represented within mainstream art practice at the time. These efforts are investigated in the new exhibition, L.A. Memo: Chicana/o Art from 1972-1989, presented by LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes and AltaMed Health Services. The exhibition will run from March 18 through August 14, 2022.
The exhibition showcases the artwork of more than 30 artists, such as Carlos Almaraz, Patssi Valdez, Teddy Sandoval, Judy Baca, and additional members of the first generation of Americans who would come of age during the expanding media culture of the 1960s. At the same time, they were among the pioneering artists from across the United States who would appropriate and utilize popular culture imagery as their subject, chosen media, and means of presentation.
L.A. Memo explores how these artists adapted new modes of image-making and self-expression, breaking barriers to create a pivotal genre of art to tell their stories through painting, film, television, magazines, newspapers, theater, and music.
