MexiCali Biennial 2009/2010
22 Jan 2010
MEDIA RELEASE: JULY 2009
Media contact: Kathy MacPherson, galleryinfo@otis.edu, 310.665.6909. Images Available. The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the exhibition:
MexiCali Biennial 2009/2010
January 23 – March 20, 2010
Opening reception: January 23, 2010, 4-6pm
Homeless conducts a soccer intervention at the Mexicali/Calexico border at Colonia Pueblo Nuevo: January 30, 12pm Panel Discussion with Curators and Artists: February 6, 2-4pm
Exhibition tour with Curators followed by no-host lunch at local restaurant: March 6, 11am
The MexiCali Biennial 09/10 highlights work of artists from California and Mexico selected by Biennial Curators/Artists Ed Gomez, Luis G. Hernandez, and Amy Pederson. The exhibition opens in the OTIS Ben Maltz Gallery with a public reception Saturday, January 23, 2010, 4-6pm, and is on view through March 20. A panel discussion takes place on January 30, 2-4pm, and features the curators and selected artists from the exhibition discussing the concept of the biennial and the art and artists that are involved. An exhibition tour takes place with the curators on March 6 at 11am.
Working in photography, painting, sculpture, performance and new media, the artists from both sides of the border interrogate the economies of exchange underlying extant constructs of race, nationalism, art, and identity in the region, while insisting on a transgressive fluidity between media and territory. The presentation at the OTIS Ben Maltz Gallery is the culmination of a year-long exploration and discussion about the physical and political realities of crossing culture, language, and boundaries.
Artists: Skip Arnold, Juan Bastardo, Bordermates, Anibal Catalan, Pablo H. Cobian, Jeff Chabot, Michelle Chong, Fernando Corona, Fidel Hernández, Luis G. Hernandez, Rebeca Hernández, Homeless, I.C.E., Nicholas Kersulis, Ryan Lamb, Ivan Limas, Albert Lopez, Matt McFarland, Txema Novelo, Susana Rodriguez, Michelle Romero, Ernesto Rosas, Joaquin Segura, Gustavo Siono, Francesco X. Siqueiros, Sergio Torres-Torres, Jason Wallace Triefenbach, and Fundación Wanna Winnie.
The MexiCali Biennial began as art project between Ed Gomez and Luis G. Hernandez in April of 2006. Gomez and Hernandez are both curators and artists who live and work in Los Angeles, CA. The first MexiCali Biennial took place in Mexicali in 2006 with the idea of producing an exhibition featuring artists from California and Mexico. The addendum of “Biennial” was a deliberate political choice—to add to an art show in Mexicali a term that came with the baggage of art-world prestige and exhaustion, a Biennial at a time when no one could stand the thought of another one. The aim was to provide artists with an opportunity to respond and transgress the overarching environmental context of the production and display of their work with a notion of conversation that engages both with theheavily funded and institutionalized Biennial framework and the less formal and often more innovative process of bi-national exchange that happens every day. Project organizers and curators for the 2006 MexiCali Biennial were Ed Gomez, Luis G. Hernandez and Pilar Tompkins.
Related site: www.mexicalibiennial.org
Location: Otis College of Art and Design, 9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Parking & Admission: Free.Visitor parking in structure on La Tijera.
Hours: Tue-Sat 10am-5pm / Thu 10am-7pm. Closed Sunday, Monday and Feb 13.
Gallery Tours: 310.665.6909 to schedule tours for school, museum or other groups
Gallery Info: 310.665.6905, galleryinfo@otis.edu, www.otis.edu/benmaltzgallery
Images L-R: NIcholas Kersulis, Anarchy/Love/Spectacle (Movie Poster), 2006; Anibal Catalan, Red Cross, 2009; Juan Bastardo, El adversario (escultura), El adversario (Manual Practico de Lucha Libre), El adversario (Registro), 2008; Jason Wallace Triefenbach, INVITATION, 2009
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