MUSED Podcast: “Time Refocused” with Luis C. Garza

12 Nov MUSED Podcast: “Time Refocused” with Luis C. Garza

In this episode of the MUSED: LA 2 HOU podcast, photographer Luis C. Garza talks with collector and curator Armando Durón, museum director Megan Callewaert McAdow, and arts marketing specialist Melissa Richardson Banks.

This special episode is an edited audio version of a public program presented via Zoom on October 9, 2021.  It was timed to coincide with the exhibition, “Time Refocused: Photographs by Luis C. Garza,” which was on view at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum in University City, Michigan from Saturday, September 11, 2021 to Saturday, January 15, 2022.

This timeless conversation shares much of the backstory of Garza’s work on how he became a photographer and what inspired many of the 35 images that he took while documenting his view of the Chicano civil rights movement, the World Peace Conference in Hungary, and even the women’s movement in New York during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Curated by Durón, “Time Refocused” debuted as Garza’s solo exhibition in 2009 at KGB Gallery, and after over a decade-long hiatus, was reorganized by Melissa Richardson Banks of CauseConnect for its run at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum. The exhibition has since nearly doubled in size and has been renamed “The Other Side of Memory: Photographs by Luis C. Garza.” Now on view at Riverside Art Museum through Sunday, March 19, 2023, “The Other Side of Memory” is available to tour to museums across the country (see photos and check out details here). For hours and admission, visit www.riversideartmuseum.org for hours and admission. To view a virtual tour of his earlier exhibition “Time Refocused” at the Marshall M. Fredericks Museum, visit https://www.marshallfredericks.net/luisgarza.html.

Enjoy the conversation.

~ Melissa Richardson Banks

EPISODE NOTES

ABOUT LUIS C. GARZA: Luis C. Garza is an independent curator and photojournalist who recorded the tumultuous social events of the 1960s and 1970s, often on behalf of La Raza magazine, the journalistic voice of the Chicano movement. His images captured the attention of many, and later led to his multi-faceted career in documentary production, arts marketing, event coordination, arts consulting, and exhibition curation. He co-curated the exhibition “Siqueiros in Los Angeles: Censorship Defied” at The Autry, which elevated awareness of his work as a curator and a photographer. He then collaborated with the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and The Autry on the blockbuster exhibition “LA RAZA” for The Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. “The Other Side of Memory: Photographs by Luis C. Garza” is an expansion of “Time Refocused: Photographs by Luis C. Garza” on view at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum in 2021 (and at KGB Gallery in 2009).

ABOUT ARMANDO DURÓN: Armando Durón has been avidly collecting Chicano art since 1981. His extensive collection includes over 660 artworks and over 1,000 publications and books related to Chicano art. It represents the last 40 years of Chicano art in Southern California and reflects his Chicano perspective on collecting Chicano art. Among other exhibitions, Durón curated “Time Refocused: Photographs of Luis C. Garza” and organized “A Short Essay on Chicano Photography” at the Social and Public Resource Center (SPARC) in 2015. He also has written essays for “Camilo Cruz: Portraits of Purpose: Century Regional Detention Facility” (2016) and “Camilo Cruz: Judges/Inmates/Juxtaposed” (2017). The Durón Family Collection includes other Chicana/o photographers such as Laura Aguilar; Rafael Cardenas; Christina Fernandez; Harry Gamboa, Jr.; and Ricardo Valverde.

ABOUT MELISSA RICHARDSON BANKS: Melissa Richardson Banks has organized and toured more than 100 museum exhibitions. Since 2005, she has organized over 13 exhibitions for Cheech Marin drawn from his notable Chicano art collection and has toured them to more than 50 museums in North America and Europe. Previously, she managed and funded exhibitions in the Getty Gallery and First Floor Galleries at the Los Angeles Public Library through the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. Prior to that time, she founded the corporate partnership program and funded exhibition projects at the Autry Museum. Through her firm CauseConnect, she manages and markets selected exhibitions for museums across the country. Details at www.causeconnect.net/travelingexhibitions. Melissa is also a lifestyle photographer who shares her images and thoughts about art and artists at www.melissarichardsonbanks.com. Her work online can be seen on Instagram as @DowntownMuse.

ABOUT MARSHALL M. FREDERICKS SCULPTURE MUSEUM: Affiliated with Saginaw Valley State University, the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum celebrates the artistic legacy of Fredericks by collecting preserving, presenting, and interpreting his work. The museum also presents changing exhibitions of works by international, national, regional and local artists, along with works drawn from its own collections. Through its collection and archives, temporary exhibitions, publications, and education programs, the museum contributes to scholarly discourse and serves diverse audiences. To learn more, visit https://marshallfredericks.org.

SPECIAL THANKS to Raul Pacheco of Ozomatli who generously allowed use of clips from his song “LaLaLa” for the intro and outro of this podcast.