Rituals of Labor and Engagement: Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr.
For the third year of its contemporary arts initiative, /five, The Huntington partnered with the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College and invited LA artists Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. to create new works in response to the institution's library, art, and botanical collections. Their theme was the concept of identity. "Rituals of Labor and Engagement" showcases these new works, which focus on bodies of color and forms of ritual. The exhibition features a video installation produced by Caycedo that reconceptualizes iconic Huntington spaces through Afro-Latino and indigenous spiritual practices and dance as well as 24 prints and drawings by Ybarra that bridge past and present through technique and subject matter, mixing his own iconography with imagery drawn from medieval and Renaissance works in The Huntington's collections.
Generous support for this exhibition is provided by Terri and Jerry Kohl and family, the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, and the WHH Foundation.
(Left) Mario Ybarra Jr., Go Big, 2018. Etching, ed. 10/10, 22 x 15 in. Photo courtesy of the artist; (Right) Still from the performance in the North Vista at The Huntington for "Apariciones/Apparitions," a video project by Carolina Caycedo. Choreographed by Marina Magalhães and shot by David de Rozas. Courtesy of the artist.
Still from the performance at the Huntington Art Gallery for "Apariciones/Apparitions," a video project by Carolina Caycedo. Choreographed by Marina Magalhães and shot by David de Rozas. Courtesy of the artist.
Still from the performance in the Huntington Art Gallery for "Apariciones/Apparitions," a video project by Carolina Caycedo. Choreographed by Marina Magalhães and shot by David de Rozas. Courtesy of the artist.
Mario Ybarra Jr., Spray Paint, 2018. Aquatint etching, ed. 7/10, 15 x 11 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), St. Jerome in his study, 1514. Engraving, 9 11/16 x 7 1/2 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Edward W. and Julia B. Bodman Collection.
#22: The Duodo shield is held by the figure of Justice; beside her 2 women hold the shields of Bergamo and Udine, while Neptune supports that of Corfù, 16th-century Venetian ducali fragment. 12 3/4 x 10 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Artists
Carolina Caycedo
Born in London to Colombian parents, Carolina Caycedo has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2012. She has developed publicly engaged projects in major cities across the globe, from Bogota to London, New York to Paris, and San Juan to Tijuana. Her work has been exhibited at several international biennials, and has been the subject of solo shows in galleries from Los Angeles to Berlin. Her artist book “Serpent River Book” was part of the recent “A Universal History of Infamy” exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). She was also a participant in the Hammer Museum’s “Made in LA 2018” exhibition.
Mario Ybarra Jr.
Mario Ybarra Jr. is an artist, educator, and activist involved in the Mexican-American community and street culture of greater Los Angeles. He creates sculptures, installations, photographs, and activist interventions to examine Mexican-American identity and is co-founder of Slanguage, an artist group based in Wilmington, Calif. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Torino, and Zurich. His work was featured in exhibitions that include “Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement” at LACMA, the 2008 Whitney Biennial, and the 2006 Prague Biennial.
Collaboration
Founded in 1957 with a gift of 90 art objects from the actor Vincent Price, the Vincent Price Art Museum now houses seven galleries, art storage, and a multimedia lecture hall as part of the 160,000 square foot Performing and Fine Arts Center at East Los Angeles College. The museum serves as an educational resource for the college’s diverse audiences and communities through the exhibition, interpretation, collection, and preservation of works in all media of the visual arts.
Aug. 17, 2019- Feb. 10, 2020, The Huntington Art Gallery, The Huntington
Apariciones /Apparitions is a nine-and-a-half-minute video work by acclaimed Los Angeles artist Carolina Caycedo that reconceptualizes several iconic Huntington spaces through Afro-Latinx and indigenous spiritual practices. Choreographed by dance artist Marina Magalhães and shot by videographer David de Rozas, the piece is centered on brown, black, and queer bodies haunting The Huntington's iconic and traditional spaces—such as the great double staircase of the Huntington Art Gallery, the sweeping sculpture-lined North Vista lawn, and the rare book reading room in the Library building—in sensuous movements informed by the spiritual rituals of an Afro-Brazilian deity. In much of the powerful, captivating piece, the dancers look directly at the camera.
Apariciones /Apparitions is a video by acclaimed Los Angeles artist Carolina Caycedo that reconceptualizes iconic Huntington spaces through Afro-Latinx and indigenous spiritual practices.
In the exhibition "Rituals of Labor and Engagement," the work of Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. mark cultural, geographic, and historic shifts that shape California's unique character as well as its prominent economic status.
Works by Artists Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. on View
"Rituals of Labor and Engagement: Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr." was on view at the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, Susan and Stephen Chandler Wing from Nov. 10, 2018- Feb. 25, 2019.
As Mario Ybarra Jr. revisited the works of ancient philosophers, he thought about how he might reinterpret some of those ideas or traditions to reflect his own experience as a Chicano in Greater Los Angeles in his work.
"Qhip nayr uñtasis sarnaqapxañani," which roughly translates to "looking back to walk forth," has served artist Carolina Caycedo as a guiding mantra in her work.
About /five
About the /five initiative
2019: Beside the Edge of the World
2018: Rituals of Labor and Engagement
2017: COLLECTION/S: WCCW/five at The Huntington
2016: Orbit Pavilion
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