Here
October 25, 2018 – January 6, 2019

In this art installation, there is one large artwork by the artist iris yirei hu that features a floral textile with pink, purple, blue and yellow colors on the floor. There are also various objects, such as a pile of dirt, a woven basket and a picture frame placed on the textile. Standing in the middle of the textile is a large freestanding tapestry that depicts a woman wearing a bright pink robe and standing next to a tree. To the left of this artwork installation are artworks by the artist Patrick Martinez, including a neon image of a palm tree, a small purple and orange painting, and another painting of bougainvillea. To the left of these artworks is a different artwork installation by the artist Fran Siegel. These artworks include white and blue abstract paperworks hanging on the wall, and a white table with white ceramic, abstract forms sitting on top.
Here, installation image, October 25, 2018 - January 6, 2018 , photograph by Jeff McLane
The artwork installation by the artist Henry Taylor features three paintings of various sizes depicting different figures. One painting depicts a male, person of color wearing a light colored checkered shirt with a brown van parked behind him over his left shoulder. To the right of this painting are two figures (a white police officer and a person of color) in a struggle on the floor. To the right of this artwork is a small painting of a male, person of color sitting in a brown chair. To the right of this artwork installation is another installation by a different artist named Mario Ybarra Jr. This artwork installation includes a large, horizontal painting of the cityscape of Wilmington in black and orange colors, photographs of construction workers, and medium-sized wooden replicas of cranes placed on top of white pedestals.
Here, installation image, October 25, 2018 - January 6, 2018 , photograph by Jeff McLane
In this artwork installation by the artist Mario Ybarra Jr., there is one large red, wooden sculpture depicting a crane, with two smaller wooden sculptures depicting cranes (painted grey and yellow) to the red crane's right. There are also three photographs hanging on the wall behind these sculptures; one depicts a cactus, another photograph depicts two figures of color engaged in a knife fight, and the other photograph depicts the same two figures clasping hands in a friendly manner.
Mario Ybarra Jr., installation image, 2018, photograph by Jeff McLane
In this artwork installation by the artist Sandy Rodriguez, there are two small framed paintings featuring various plants. In the middle of these two works is a large, horizontal artwork depicting the San Gabriel Mountains. Hanging above this work are three small black helicopter sculptures with skull fronts.
Sandy Rodriguez, installation image, 2018, photograph by Jeff McLane
The two artwork sculptures by the artist Anna Sew Hoy depict amorphous figures. One of the figures is blue with three legs with a bird bath on top, and the other figure has two legs and a black mirror front.
Anna Sew Hoy, installation image, 2018, photograph by Jeff McLane
In this artwork installation by the artist Nancy Popp, there are four photographs of different construction sites. In each of the photographs, the artist is depicted in the midst of tying orange rope in and around the construction sites.
Nancy Popp, Untitled (Street Performances) installation image, 2018, photograph by Jeff McLane
In this painting by the artist Henry Taylor, a male person of color is standing in the foreground. His left ear is painted green, and he is wearing an off white checkered shirt. Over his left shoulder is a brown van parked on the street, while over his right shoulder is a wall with graffiti that says, "L.A.".
Henry Taylor, Batman, 2018, photograph by Jeff McLane
This artwork installation by the artist Fran Siegel features various white ceramic structures on circular, cyanotype prints. These are all placed on top of a white table.
Fran Siegel, Porcelain Circus, 2018, photograph by Jeff McLane
This artwork by the artist Patrick Martinez features a bright turquoise color background with various graffiti marks, ceramic flowers, and white tile at the bottom.
Patrick Martinez, Where Does Your Auntie Live? (Temple Street), 2018, photograph by Jeff McLane

The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery was pleased to announce Here, a group exhibition examining the shifting physical and geographical boundaries, along with conceptual and imagined boundaries and boundlessness, in and around Los Angeles.

 

Boundaries contain an inherent paradox. As political theorist William E. Connolly suggests in his book The Ethos of Pluralization, “Boundaries provide pre-conditions of identity, individual agency, and collective action; but they also close off possibilities of being that might otherwise flourish. Boundaries both foster and inhibit freedom; they both protect and violate life.”

 

Connolly’s suggestion also evokes other definitions and connotations of boundaries—ones which provide us the physical and conceptual framework to delineate the idea of “self” from “other” and “here” from “there”. It additionally calls to mind the complex history of Los Angeles’ human geography and its constructed boundaries. Native Americans settled in the Los Angeles Basin around 500 BCE, and in 1781, eleven families of African, Native American, and European descent settled in the area from Spanish-controlled Mexico. Since its founding, Los Angeles (El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles) has always been a hybrid, fluid and intersectional space, with diverse peoples from many parts of the world.

 

Diverse in nature and practice, the artists in Here, who are all connected to Los Angeles, explored/challenged/reimagined/implicated boundaries through different media and modes of presentation. Mario Ybarra Jr.’s installation examined his neighborhood in Los Angeles’ Harbor Region, where global trade and the petroleum industry provide a means of subsistence for many of its residents, but also where class boundaries become heightened, and residents inhale the deathly effects of the localized economy. Gloria Galvez’s video probed the contradictions embodied by a particular wall in her neighborhood that divides public from private yet acts as a locus for unity and resistance. Using colorants and pigments native to the Los Angeles area, Sandy Rodriguez mapped state sanctioned violence from the colonial period to the present in the Los Angeles Basin. iris yirei hu broke the historic and cultural boundaries of Los Angeles by exploring women-centered, intergenerational, and transcultural transmissions through objects and sounds. While Umar Rashid’s paintings reimagined Los Angeles’ colonial past, obscuring the boundaries between history and fantasy, and Sandra de la Loza performed and documented the vestiges Los Angeles’ early transportation infrastructure that helped create and perpetuate Los Angeles’ early race and class divisions.

 

The artists assembled in Here investigated the localized frictions, hybridity, and fluidity of local barriers, to uncover the bounded and unbounded landscapes that make up the city of Angels.

 

Here featured work by: Heimir Björgúlfsson, Sandra de la Loza, Gajin Fujita, Gloria Galvez, iris yirei hu, Annetta Kapon, Patrick Martinez, Jane C. Mi, Alison O’Daniel, Renée Petropoulos, Nancy Popp, Umar Rashid, Sandy Rodriguez, Anna Sew Hoy, Fran Siegel, Henry Taylor and Mario Ybarra Jr.

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