La Frontera - The Border: Art Exhibitions

The Guggenheim Gallery | The Escalette Collection

The Escalette Collection is deeply invested in acquiring and displaying art that engages with issues central to the lives of people living in southern California. As debate about the U.S./Mexico border has become ever more salient and polarizing, we recognize a responsibility to foreground work that takes part in this conversation. The artworks featured in the exhibition La Frontera-The Border: Selections from the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art form the nucleus of this effort. This exhibition, which developed into a campus-wide exploration of the subject, introduced us to many other artists whose work is dedicated to the subject of borders. We were privileged to meet some of the photographers from the “BorderClick: Tijuana/San Diego” initiative, and are delighted to be adding six of their works to the Escalette Permanent Collection. We are grateful to Phyllis and Ross Escalette for their endowment that allows us to grow the permanent collection each year in ways that respond to current events, ideas and concerns. The Guggenheim Gallery shows local and international contemporary artists and is committed to generating exhibitions that bring work situated within current artistic and intellectual dialogs to our students and curriculum. La Frontera-The Border: Art Across the Border presents a selection of works examining the subject of the U.S./ Mexico border from personal, satirical, and political perspectives, as well as the cultural and psychological implications of the physical wall. From artivist aesthetics (a term coined by Dr. Guisela Latorre in Border Consciousness and Artivist Aesthetics: Richard Lou’s Performance and Multimedia Artwork) to personal histories, these works explore the border’s effect on the lives of the communities on both sides, as well as the political significance of this delineating landmark.