Chicano Art Panel at the Getty

The Getty Center's current exhibition The Goat's Dance: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide has powerful imagery of gang culture, and that brings the question of why that's a recurring image defining Chicano identity, and used in art as well.

A January 27 panel discussion, Chicano Culture in the Arts, will explore if the Chicano arts empower change of that same identity, or add interpretation to iconic images, like the "homeboy,"  allowing it to carry more narrative depth.

Speaking about their own works is moderator Luis Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., "both an international best seller and one of the 100 most censored books in the United States." Yxta Maya Murray, author of the books Locas, What It Takes to Get to Vegas, The Conquest, and The Queen Jade: A Novel.

Visual artists joining the panel are Alma Lopez, muralist and filmmaker "internationally recognized for her innovative digital images, which recontextualize cultural icons and call attention to issues of race, gender and sexuality," and Ernesto de la Loza, the East L.A. muralist who has been painting "walls since 1974, when he worked as mural artist and project director at Estrada Courts housing project" and also has murals in Echo Park and Silver Lake.

Chicano Culture in the Arts
Sunday, Jan 27, 2008
4:00 p.m.
Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Free
Reservations required.
Call (310) 440-7300 or click on "Make Reservation" at the Getty website

Pictured: Tattoo, Alma Lopez
© Alma Lopez 1999