Dates: Wed, Feb 3, 2021 to Sun, Apr 11, 2021
Location: Sesnon Gallery
Eduardo Carrillo: Comunidad de Califas
Virtual Exhibition Dates: February 3–December 31, 2021 (virtually ongoing)
This virtual exhibition will showcase the breadth of Eduardo Carrillo’s work spanning from his early career after his studies at UCLA to his later life living in Santa Cruz, comprehensive across oil and watercolor mediums. Works by Califas Legacy artists Amalia Mesa-Bains, Ralph D’Oliveira, Carmen León, and Felicia Rice are also included in this exhibition, displayed in conversation with works by Carrillo.
The virtual exhibition is now LIVE!
To include multiple voices, we’ve added a Next Perspectives room in the virtual gallery that exhibits works by a new generation of Latinx artists. Victor Cervantes, Irene Juárez O’Connell, Jorge Gomez-Gonzalez, Jennifer Ortiz, Natalie Jauregui Ortiz and Karina Tavares Perez are all UC Santa Cruz alumni with connections to Eduardo Carrillo.
Jennifer Ortiz, Natalie Jauregui Ortiz, Jorge Gomez-Gonzalez, and Karina Tavares Perez were all recipients of the Eduardo Carrillo Scholarship in 2018. Since its inception in 1997, the Eduardo Carrillo Scholarship has benefited over 250 outstanding UCSC Art students working in painting, sculpture, photography and drawing. The Arts Division is grateful to Alison Carrillo for her generosity, vision, and commitment to helping students pursue their creativity through art, which this scholarship helps make possible.
Online reception February 3, 2021 4 p.m.–5 p.m.
Featuring a panel discussion with Amalia Mesa-Bains, Philip Brookman, Irene Juarez O’Connell, and Victor Cervantes.https://www.youtube.com/embed/3fydau5rK60
Eduardo Carrillo was a beloved friend, artist, and active member of the Santa Cruz community. Before his passing in 1997, Carrillo worked as a Professor of Art at UC Santa Cruz, bringing spirit to every studio and inspiring the budding artists he worked with. He believed in merging traditional techniques with contemporary flair in his own work and his teachings–forming this artistic praxis of Califas: two worlds brought together by envisioning a richly transcultural and equitable future. View footage from the 1982 Califas Conference at UC Santa Cruz, organized by Eduardo Carrillo, Philip Brookman, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, and Juventino Esparza.https://player.vimeo.com/video/120516975
Trailer for Eduardo Carrillo – A Life of Engagement, directed by Pedro Pablo Celedón
Eduardo Carrillo: Comunidad de Califas is part of the Califas Legacy Project, in collaboration with Museo Eduardo Carrillo, Monterey Museum of Art, Santa Cruz Art League, Moving Parts Press, UC Santa Cruz Special Collections & Archives, Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Watsonville Public Libraries, and the UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences.
The Califas Legacy Project is a multi-year, multi-medium, collaborative endeavor launched by Museo Eduardo Carrillo in Santa Cruz to document the legacy of our region’s Chicano/a cultural treasures. The project found its roots in a 1982 UC Santa Cruz conference organized by the late Eduardo Carrillo, Juventino Esparza, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto and Philip Brookman, which brought together innovative Chicano artists, intellectuals and visionaries, titled “Califas: Chicano art and culture in California.”
Central to this multi-dimensional project, Museo Eduardo Carrillo invited the artists Amalia Mesa-Bains, Ralph D’Oliveira, Guillermo (Yermo) Aranda and Carmen León to collaborate with Felicia Rice of Moving Parts Press in the creation of a remarkable hand-printed accordion book – or moveable mural – titled El Viaje Ancestral/The Ancestral Journey that intertwines the Mexican-American, Chican/a/x, Peruvian, and Indigenous heritages of five Central Coast artists, with a shadowbox assemblage cover by Amalia Mesa-Bains.
KSQD Cutting Edge interview with Gallery Director Shelby Graham
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Schedule of events from collaborators of the Califas Legacy Project:
January 8–April 11, 2021
The Califas Legacy Project: The Ancestral Journey/El Viaje Ancestral
Live exhibition at the Monterey Museum of Art featuring works by Eduardo Carrillo, Yermo Aranda, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Ralph D’Oliveira, Carmen León, Victor Cervantes, Irene Juarez O’Connell, Amy Dias Infante, Armando Franco, Anjelica Muro, and Jaime Sanchez.
January 8, 2021–Ongoing
Califas: The Ancestral Journey/El Viaje Ancestral
A series of street-facing banners displayed with an indoor display of Califas: The Ancestral Journal/El Viaje Ancestral book on view at the Downtown branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library, 224 Church Street Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Presented by the Santa Cruz Public Libraries
January 8, 2021–Ongoing
Califas: The Ancestral Journey/El Viaje Ancestral
A series of banners displayed in windows of City Hall rotunda with an indoor display of Califas: The Ancestral Journal/El Viaje Ancestral book on view at 275 Main Street, Watsonville, CA 95076
Presented by the Watsonville Public Library
January 9, 2021 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
The 3rd Annual Art of the State Symposium, Change = Action/Time: Generational Activism in Chicanx and Latinx Art
Join Latinx and Chicanx artists and scholars including MacArthur Fellow Amalia Mesa-Bains, renowned collector Armando Durón, and internationally recognized Chicana artist Judith F. Baca Ph.D. for personal accounts, live Q & A, and a live panel discussion with presenters, moderated by Susana Smith Bautista, Ph.D.
Online symposium presented by the Monterey Museum of Art
January 16, 2021–Ongoing
The Califas Legacy Project
Retrospective of Califas Legacy artists with video vignettes and exhibition of the book, Califas: The Ancestral Journal/El Viaje Ancestral
Online exhibition presented by Museo Eduardo Carrillo
January 28, 2021 5 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
Rising From the Ashes: The Artistry and Perseverance of Moving Parts Press
Online webinar event featuring artist Felicia Rice and UC Santa Cruz professors T.J. Demos and Jennifer González, in conversation about her work, the process of collaboration, and the power of artists’ books to fuel our collective imaginations as we work to cultivate futures of social justice.
Hosted by the University Library in partnership with the Institute of the Arts & Sciences
February 3, 2021 4 p.m.–5 p.m. Opening of Eduardo Carrillo: Comunidad de Califas
February 17, 2021, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Sesnon Speak Up: Community Resistance Against Erasure
Join us in conversation with guest artists Irene Juárez O’Connell and Victor Cervantes and hear about their community-centered art practice, activism, and continued resistance against cultural erasure.
Hosted by the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery.
February 24, 2021, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Sesnon Speak Up: “Chicanx” Visual Aesthetics
Join us in conversation with guest artists Amy Díaz-Infante and Angelica Muro to discuss a post-rasquachismo Chicano visual aesthetic and cultural identity that expands to include what tradition has excluded or held back.
Hosted by the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery.
March 5th, 2021, 6:30 p.m.
Online exhibition of Califas Legacy Project on Google Cultural Institute with virtual reception and panel discussion
Co-sponsored online exhibition by Santa Cruz Art League, Museo Eduardo Carrillo
For additional reading list, please contact sesnon@ucsc.edu.