Looking forward, Pacific Standard Time Round 3: LA/LA

Opening September 2017

By Jacqueline Bell Johnson

Pacific Standard Time started in 2011 with Art in LA: 1945-1980.  It was a massive series of exhibitions and other events uncovering the Los Angeles’ local art history and revisiting the city’s contributions to the modern art canon.  The list of participating venues, institutions, artists, curators, and historians was a who’s who of the LA art scene.  Projects were funded through grants from the Getty Foundation, who also jointly created the initiative with the Getty Research Institute.  This first PST lasted for 6 months; the enthusiasm maintained through staggered openings, a calendar full of coinciding events including a performance festival.

In 2013 came Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in LA.  This event was smaller in scale, yet still a collaborative venture that included other LA institutions.

Scripps College, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. Revolution and Ritual: The Photographs of Sara Castrejon, Graciela Iturbide, and Tatiana Parcero. Tatiana Parcero, Cartografia Interior #43, 1996. Photo Courtesy of Scripps College. Photo Credit JDC Fine Art.

Riverside Art Museum. Spanish Colonial Revival of the Inland Empire. Douglas McCulloh, Santa Fe Depot, San Bernadino, 2015. Digital Photograph, Designed by W.A. Mohr, Opened 15 July, 1918, Collection of the Riverside Art Museum.

Now, the Getty Foundation has created a new incarnation of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA.  This event will be similar in structure and scale to the first PST, covering Latin America and Latino Art.  LA/LA approaches the southern California region through its history; the first identity of Los Angeles was as the city of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, officially founded in 1781 as part of New Spain.  Though modern day LA is a cultural mecca in its own right, this PST looks at its history as the culmination and collision of Latin, Native, European, and [a young] American culture, and seeks to celebrate and highlight its robust legacy. The theme is timely, following on the heels of some major rejection of America’s Latin roots and Latin people.  PST: LA/LA is a reminder of who we are and where we came from.

Skirball Cultural Center. Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico. Tina Modotti, Anita Brenner, 1926. Photo Courtesy of The Whitliff Collections, Texas State University.

Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Monica (MCASB). Guatemala from 33,000 Kilometers, Contemporary Art from 1960 to Present. Alejandro Paz, Migracion, 2009. Mixed Media, dimensions variable. Artist’s collection.

All the PST exhibition series have been coupled with loads of funding: grants awarded to institutions both big and small to conduct research, curate exhibitions, house residencies and support contemporary artists, representing $16 million and over 50 organizations. PST:LA/LA also stands to be the most encompassing so far, with funding going to institutions as far away as Mexico City, Brazil, Argentina, and Houston.  Even without funding, to be included a proposal must be accepted by the Getty Foundation.

LACMA. A Universal History of Infamy. Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa, A Brief History of Architecture in Guatemala, 2010-13. Single channel video installation. Copyright Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa.

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). Juan Downey: Radiant Nature. Juan Downey, Map of America, 1975. Colored pencil, pencil, and synthetic polymer paint on map on board. 34 1/8 x 20 inches. Photograph by Harry Shunk. The Estate of Juan Downey, New York, via The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

CSU Long Beach University Art Museum. David Lamelas: A Life of Their Own. David Lamelas, The artists with Piel Rosa (Pink skin) (1965/1997), B/W Photography, 9.5 inches. Installation view, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Exhibition: A New Refutation of Time co-curated by Dirk Snauwaert and Bartomeu Mari. Copyright: David Lamelas.

Craft and Folk Art Museum. The U.S. – Mexico Border: Place, Imagination, and Possibility. Ana Serrano, Cartonlandia, 2008. Cardboard, paper, acrylic paint. 5′ x 4′ x 4.5′. Photo: Julie Klima. Courtesy of the artist.

A side effect of these PST’s is the building of community. Relationships have been built between art institutions, galleries, curators, universities, even local community art centers through joint endeavors.  The dispersal of grants has created new research, sprung back-to-life forgotten art and artists, and directly supports the active community of contemporary artists making and working now in Los Angeles by acknowledging their value and contributions to LA culture by creating opportunities for their work to exhibited in high profile programming. For example, REDCAT received a rather large grant for their Live Art: Latin America/Los Angeles performance art festival, which takes place January 2018.  In addition to REDCAT’s own programming for the festival, they had an open call for additional artists.  Artists will receive an honorarium, meaning financial support to bring their ideas to fruition.

LA/LA will officially kick off in September this year, and while this PST focuses on modern and contemporary art, there is a broad spectrum of programming that includes historical artifacts and early civilization art, film, photojournalism, design, architecture, orchestral/jazz/pop music concerts, a symposium, and several festivals.  There are over 70 exhibitions planned, but those numbers could grow as the start date gets closer.

http://www.getty.edu/foundation/initiatives/current/pst_lala/

http://www.pacificstandardtime.org/

Vincent Prince Art Museum, East Los Angeles College, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell. Laura Aguilar, Nature Self Portraits #12, 1992. Gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches. Photo Courtesy of the Artist and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.

University of San Diego, University Galleries Copyart: Experimental Printmaking in Brazil 1970-1990s. Paulo Bruscky, Facsimil-arte, 1980, photo copy and fax. Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

UCI University Art Galleries. Aztlan to Magulandia: The Journey of the Chicano Artist Gilbert ‘Magu’ Lujan. Mingo and Fireboy, 1988, Lithograph with hand-marking in prismacolor, 44 1/4 x 30 inches. Cooyright The Estate of Gilbert “Magu” Lujan.

Torrance Art Museum. Oracle. Yoshua Okon, Oracle, Video Still, 2015. Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Self Help Graphics and Art Dia De Los Muertos, A Cultural Legacy: Past, Present and Future. Alfredo Batuc, Dia De Los Muertos, 1979. Copyriight: Self Help Graphics & Alfredo Batuc.

Palm Springs Art Museum. Living Architecture: Lina Bo Bardi and Albert Frey. Interior of Glass House (Casa de Vidro) by Lina Bo Bardi, with Veronika Kellndorfer, transparent silkscreen print on glass, installation view, 2014, Courtesy of Christopher Grimes Gallery.

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Memories of Underdevelopment. Eugenio Espinoza, Untitled (Circumstantial [12 coconuts]), 1971, acrylic on canvas, coconuts, and rope, 59 x 59 x 10 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Copyright Eugenio Espinoza. Photo: Sid Hoeltzell- Miami 2015.

MOLAA (Museum of Latin American Art). Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago. Tony Capellan, Mar Invadido / Invaded Sea, Found objects from the Caribbean Sea, 2015. Installation view: Poetics of Relation, Perez Art Museum Miami, 2015. Collection of the Artist. Photo Courtesy of Oriol Tarridas Photography.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). Anna Maria Maiolino. Glu, Glu, Glu, 1966. Acylic ink on wood. 110 x 60 x 12 1/2 cm. Collection Gilberto Chateaubriand, MAM Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Copyright Anna Maria Maiolino.

Mingei International Museum. Art of the Americas: Mesoamerican and Pre-Columbian Art from Mingei’s Permanent Collection. Male and Female Ancestor Figures, Mexico, Nayarit, 300 BCE-300 CE, Painted ceramic, Collection of Mingei International Museum, Gift of Fred and Barbara Meiers, 1996-82-002A-B.

Millard Sheets Art Center, Judithe Hernandez and Patssi Valdez: One Path Two Journeys. Judithe Hernandez, The Purification, 2013, Pastel mixed-media on archival wood board, 30×40, Copyright 2016 Judithe Hernandez.

Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) Jose Davila. Jose Davila, Untitled, 2015, cardboard boxes and bottle caps, 168.5 x 24 x 18.9 inches. Courtesy of Jose Davila.

La Plaza de Cultura y Artes and California Historical Society. Murales Rebeldes: Contested Chicana/o Public Art. Roberto Chavez at work on The Path to Knowledge and the False University, East Los Angeles College. Photo: Manuel Delgadillo.

The Hammer Museum, Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960 – 1985. Marie Orensanz, Limitada, 1978, Photograph, edition 1 of 5, 13 3/4 x 19 11/16 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Fowler Museum at UCLA. Axe Bahia: The Power of Art in the Afro-Brazilian Metropolis. Ayrson Heraclito Bori – Oxum, 2008. Photograph, H: 100 cm W: 100 cm. Copyright Ayrson Heraclito.

El Segundo Museum of Art [ESMoA] Hope. Fidel Garcia, Making of Static, 2009-2013, FM transmitter, radioantena, MP3 Player, micro controller interface, solar panel, 12 v. battery, metal framework, 80 x 130 x 500 cm.

Chapman University. Emigdio Vasquez and el Proletariado de Aztlan: Geography of Chicano Murals in Orange County. Emigdio Vasquez, El Proletariado de Aztlan (Detail), 1979, acrylic on plaster, 8′ x 40′. Chapman University Art Collections, Copyright Emigdio Vasquez Art. Photo: Jessica Bocinski.