News Release - New Huntington-Inspired Works by Artists Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. to go on View Nov. 10

"Rituals of Labor and Engagement: Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr."

Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, Susan and Stephen Chandler Wing

SAN MARINO, Calif.— Two Los Angeles-based artists—Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. —debut new work beginning Nov. 10 as part of an ongoing contemporary arts initiative at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. "Rituals of Labor and Engagement: Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr." (on view Nov. 10, 2018—Feb. 25, 2019 in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art) marks the third year of The Huntington's /five project, in which artists are invited to explore The Huntington's vast collections and make new work in response.

For this year’s initiative, The Huntington partnered with the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College and invited Caycedo and Ybarra to be artists in residence. Focusing on the theme of identity, the artists spent several months working in The Huntington’s collections, exploring texts, artwork, and the botanical gardens through the lens of labor—mainly by people of color—as represented in materials they examined. The resulting works include a multimedia installation, drawings, and prints.

A highlight of “Rituals of Labor and Engagement” is a video by Caycedo that reconceptualizes iconic Huntington spaces through Afro-Latino and indigenous spiritual practices and dance. The exhibition also presents 24 new prints and drawings by Ybarra that bridge past and present through technique and subject matter, mixing his own iconography with imagery drawn from 15th and 16th-century European works in The Huntington’s collections.

“This exhibition—and indeed all of our programs relating to the /five initiative—dramatically spotlights exactly what The Huntington aims to do,” said Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence. “Carolina Caycedo and Mario Ybarra Jr. are bringing to life new and meaningful interpretations of our collections, so that traditions are challenged in exciting ways and visitors can be surprised and inspired.”

While both artists tackled the same overarching theme during their residencies at The Huntington, each zeroed in on different collection items or areas, employing their unique approaches and practices to achieve different results.

Caycedo sees the past as an active entity that can transform the way reality is perceived. The central piece of her multimedia installation in the exhibition is a 12-minute video, "Apariciones /Apparitions", in which ghost-like dancers inhabit The Huntington in unconventional ways. 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 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, Oxúm. “The gaze of the dancers, or phantoms, holds the viewer accountable,” says Caycedo, something that she feels is too often missing from history and art. The video is accompanied by a three-panel screen displaying images and text from Caycedo’s research at The Huntington.