JUDY BACA: MEMORIAS DE NUESTRA TIERRA, A RETROSPECTIVE

CO-CURATED BY GUEST CURATOR ALESSANDRA MOCTEZUMA AND MOLAA CHIEF CURATOR GABRIELA URTIAGA

JULY 2021 - MARCH 2022

Judy Baca: Memorias de Nuestra Tierra, a Retrospective is the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of the internationally renowned Chicana muralist, public intellectual and community activist, Judy Baca. Baca is a painter and muralist, community arts pioneer, and scholarly-educator who has been teaching in the UC system for more than 30 years. As founder of the first City of Los Angeles Mural Program in 1974 – which evolved into the non-profit Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) – Baca has been engaged in the creation of sites of public memory within historically disenfranchised communities since 1976. She continues to serve as SPARC's artistic director while employing digital technology to co-create collaborative murals at the UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab.

During the past decade, art as a vehicle for protest and social justice has gained incredible momentum and salience; it is now part of any comprehensive discussion about contemporary arts in the U.S. However, in mid-1970s Los Angeles, the art of "contestation” and place-making was already finding voice in Judy Baca's work. During this tumultuous decade, Baca pioneered a collaborative model that enabled young people to weave "hidden" histories of their underrepresented communities into monumental public artworks. These murals celebrated their people's contributions and articulated their stories and struggles. For the disenfranchised people living in the greater Los Angeles basin, in California, and in the larger U.S., Baca's works became epic narratives, connecting youth with their diverse heritage and creating new "sites of public memory."