“Forging Territories: Queer Afro and Latinx Contemporary Art”

June 30 - November 3, 2019 San Diego Art Institute

 

Curatorial Decision

Specification: Curatorial Activism

Forging Territories: Queer Afro and LatinX Contemporary Art presents artists engaged in cultural storytelling that describes themselves, their friends, and their environments in striking visual ways.This exhibition combines established and emerging artists with a shared queer history. The word “QUEER” is being subverted and redefined by the artists in the show by instilling power back into its historical definition.

This exhibition was curated by Rubén Esparza, the founder and director of the Queer Biennial in Los Angeles.This exhibition is categorized as curatorial activism because the curator isn’t merely showing off the queer community, but is a member of the queer community himself and is involved in activism and community building. Forging Territories: Queer Afro and LatinX Contemporary Art involved lot of programming to the featured community encompassing methods like Pay-What-You-Can Admission during the last week of the show. It is important that art that is placed in institutions that are usually aren’t too accepting of these marginalized communities are putting efforts forth to allow access and comfort to these sub-communities.

The African American and Latinx artists included in Forging Territories: Queer Afro and LatinX Contemporary Art are responding to many things: the current political moment, identity/place/zeitgeist, a shared background of language and history. What they particularly have in common is participation in a queer cultural awakening and the talent to use art in depicting their journey.

 

Notes From The Curator

by Rubén Esparza

African American and Latinx culture are not monolithic; there is neither one story nor one identity. Each culture combines myriad characteristics, origins, and histories. And in each instance, there are subsets beyond that. One of those subsets involves African American and Latinx artists taking part in a queer cultural awakening.

African American history is a broad narrative of resilience and hope. It is a chronicle of abduction and enslavement, struggle and tumult – accounts of which are kept alive through family histories.  After long and continued conflicts, the African American story unfolds to produce great thinkers, activists, and artists imprinting American and global culture.

Latinx people have more than a four hundred year history of establishing and growing communities in what is now the United States. It is an extensive culture that includes people from European, Mestizo, and Afro-Latin backgrounds, from the Spanish and Portuguese explorers to braceros working in the fields. It includes Afro-Cubans and Chicanos and innumerable others. And each of these represents but a sliver of the stories of the Latinx experience.

The African American and Latinx artists included in FORGING TERRITORIES are responding to many things: the current political moment, identity/place/zeitgeist, a shared background of language and history.  What they particularly have in common is participation in a queer cultural awakening and the talent to use art in depicting their journey.   

Time will tell how the awakening provided by FORGING TERRITORIES weaves into the broader lineage of art and LGBTQ history.

EXHIBITIONS