News Release - The Huntington Selects Vincent Price Art Museum for Contemporary Art Collaboration

Noted Los Angeles artists Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. to create new work inspired by Huntington collections for the third year of The Huntington's /five initiative

SAN MARINO, Calif.—The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens announced today that it will partner with East Los Angeles College's Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) for the third year of The Huntington's /five initiative, inviting noted Los Angeles artists Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. to create new work inspired by The Huntington's collections around the theme of Identity. The project will culminate in an exhibition at The Huntington on view Nov. 10, 2018–Feb. 25, 2019.

Left: Carolina Caycedo; right: Mario Ybarra Jr.  at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photo: Kate Lain.

"We are incredibly honored to partner with the Vincent Price Art Museum, a vibrant force in the Los Angeles arts landscape," said Chad Alligood, The Huntington's Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art. "The Huntington's renowned collections on the history of California and the West already make it a center for research in the humanities. This collaboration will further activate our objects for a wider audience through the lens of two artists who address some of the most pressing issues of today through their work. Further, VPAM's affiliation with East Los Angeles College enables us to connect the student population with our collections. Collaboration is the future of arts institutions, and we are embracing that notion wholeheartedly."

Founded in 1957 with a gift of 90 art objects from the actor Vincent Price, VPAM 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 ELAC.

"The Vincent Price Art Museum is committed to presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and connecting with the community in creative ways to make a maximum impact," said Pilar Tompkins Rivas, VPAM director. "This partnership does just that, expanding our fall programming in terms of concept, theme, and reach. I couldn't be more excited, and look forward to fleshing out the Huntington exhibition concept with Chad Alligood and the formidable Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. I expect great things.

For the exhibition, Caycedo and Ybarra plan to focus on the ways in which labor and capital in the late 19th and early 20th centuries indelibly shaped Los Angeles. The artists will conduct research in The Huntington's vast collections to investigate the formation of Angeleno identity since the era of the city's founders (pobladores). The concurrent, multi-artist VPAM exhibition, Regeneración: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology (Sept. 29, 2018–Feb. 16, 2019) will examine the transnational exchange of revolutionary and activist ideas across generations and between the U.S. and Mexico. It also will build, in part, on research in early 20th-century labor issues in Los Angeles

About /five
The Huntington's /five initiative pairs the institution with five different cultural organizations over five years, inviting contemporary artists to respond to a theme drawn from The Huntington's deep and diverse library, art, and botanical collections. The results are intended to create engaging, thoughtful, provocative, and inspiring experiences for Huntington audiences. 

In its first year (2016), the institution collaborated with NASA/JPL to present an installation of the outdoor sound sculpture "Orbit Pavilion" (on view through Sept. 3, 2018), giving a nod to The Huntington's collections in the history of aerospace, astronomy, and earth sciences. In the second year of the initiative, The Huntington teamed up with the Women's Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles to explore the theme of collecting and collections, culminating in the exhibition, Collection/s: WCCW/five at The Huntington (Nov. 18, 2017–Feb. 12, 2018). This year's initiative is focused on the theme of "identity."

Carolina Caycedo (b. 1978)
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 also will participate in the Hammer Museum's "Made in LA 2018" exhibition.

Mario Ybarra Jr. (b. 1973)
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. 

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Contacts
Thea M. Page, 626-405-2260, tpage@huntington.org
Lisa Blackburn, 626-405-2140, lblackburn@huntington.org

About The Huntington
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is a collections-based research and educational institution serving scholars and the general public. More information about The Huntington can be found at huntington.org

Visitor Information
The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino, Calif., 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It is open to the public Wednesday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information: 626-405-2100 or huntington.org. 

About the Vincent Price Art Museum
The mission of the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is to serve as a unique educational resource for the diverse audiences of the college and the community through the exhibition, interpretation, collection, and preservation of works in all media of the visual arts. VPAM provides an environment to encounter a range of aesthetic expressions that illuminate the depth and diversity of artwork produced by people of the world, both contemporary and past. By presenting thoughtful, innovative and culturally diverse exhibitions and by organizing cross-disciplinary programs on issues of historical, social, and cultural relevance, VPAM seeks to promote knowledge, inspire creative thinking, and deepen an understanding of and appreciation for the visual arts.