UC Merced Curates Sweeping Chicano Art Exhibit at 3 Galleries

By Patty Guerra, UC Merced

September 16, 2024

'Alma, Corazón, y Vida' will be displayed starting next month.

A three-site exhibit is celebrating Chicano art in a collaboration between a university and a community - the culmination of a professor's nine years of effort.

"Alma, Corazón, y Vida: Latino Art Legends from the Mike 'Surrito' Echeverría Collection" will be exhibited starting next month at the UC Merced Art Gallery, La Galería and the Merced Multicultural Arts Center (MAC).

Global arts, media, and writing studies Professor Tonya López-Craig is curating the multi-site exhibition, which features work by renowned Chicano artists Carlos Almaraz, Diane Gamboa, Harry Gamboa, Margaret García, Yolanda González, Gronk, Judithe Hernández, Willie Herron, Gilbert "Magu" Lujan, José Lozano, José Orozco, Frank Romero, Richard Valdés, Patssi Valdez, Jaime Zacarías (GERMS) and more.

"I believe Chicano art is a uniquely American art," López-Craig said. "I feel like it's just going to speak to a lot of people."

She said the idea for the exhibit was sparked in 2011 or 2012 when Gronk was a visiting artist at the MAC. López-Craig met the performance artist and painter from Los Angeles, and he mentioned Echeverria, a school teacher who had amassed an impressive collection of Chicano art.

"I was just fascinated about that collector and what he had done," López-Craig said. Her interest led her into years of research, study and planning to make this exhibit happen.

And then the pandemic hit and like so many things, the exhibit was put on pause. Finally, the stars aligned and thousands of hours of López-Craig's work paid off as the exhibit was a go. Recently she consulted with Colton Dennis, executive director of the Merced County Arts Council and the MAC, who agreed to host part of the showing there.

The collection is far too large for any one of the three galleries to present it..

"Normally, you wouldn't be able to show a collection this size here," said Collin Lewis, UC Merced executive director for the arts. He has been working with López-Craig and Dennis since his arrival at the university in December 2022. "This partnership between all three galleries to show an exhibit that has so much to tell is extraordinary.

"Merced has the opportunity to see something that it normally wouldn't be able to."

Dennis agreed that the cooperation between the university and his organization has expanded access to the arts.

"To have these connections and bring this kind of art and culture to our community, it's amazing and I'm so happy that we have this kind of partnership," he said.

"Alma, Corazón, y Vida" will be a unique window into Chicano art, organizers promised.

Though the exhibit has one title, each display will stand on its own. Alma (soul in English) will be in La Galeria, Corazón (heart) will be at the UC Merced Art Gallery and Vida (life) will be at the MAC. Pieces were selected to reflect each theme.

"About half of these artists are artists that you would see really representing Chicano and Chicana art and art history in textbooks if you were studying it," López-Craig said. "And we have some very current, younger artists who are doing a lot in that area as well."

Mapping it all is Grace Garnica, manager of La Galería and assistant curator of the exhibit. She has created a miniature set to determine how best to showcase the immense collection.

"Grace and I went with three inventory lists this summer to see what works in the MAC, what works in La Galería and what works in the art gallery," López-Craig said.

Global Arts Program students are helping to determine how the pieces will be placed in the smaller Art Gallery and will work with López-Craig on the MAC exhibit.

"It's an excellent opportunity for our students to work with this art and gain this experience."

Replicating the items in miniature makes it easier to experiment with placement without potentially damaging the valuable art.

"When you have work this heavy you don't really want to risk moving it," Garnica said. "So I made a diorama and started grouping things into different categories. It's super fun; I love these hands-on aspects."

Hands-on work for Garnica and Lewis included meeting López-Craig and Assistant Curator Ashley Redford in the wee hours of a hot summer morning to help unload 119 pieces of art from a moving truck.

The displays will be colorful and wide-ranging with distinctive styles from 45 artists. Pieces include paintings, serigraphs, mixed media, etchings, photographs, monotypes, drawing media and even sculptural "art wind-up toys."

"This collection ranges from pieces you can hold in the palm of your hand to huge canvases that take up a whole wall," Lewis said. "Chicano art is such a unique subsection of modern and contemporary American art that, unfortunately, doesn't often get as much wall time in major museums as works from that period from originating in New York and Europe do.

"To put it on in a large scale like this is such a unique experience."

The exhibition is funded by an internal grant from UC Merced's Center for the Humanities as one of its "Public Humanities and Arts Grants" offered to faculty.

"This exhibit is one in a long trajectory of exhibits and arts events we have funded on our campus since before 2013 through the present," said Christina Lux, managing director of the center.

All three exhibits open Oct. 11 with an art crawl for all three galleries set that day. More information is available at the exhibit website.

Patty Guerra