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Harry Gamboa Jr. (born 1951) is an American Chicano essayist, photographer, director, and performance artist. He was a founding member of the influential Chicano performance art collective ASCO.
Harry Gamboa Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1951 |
| Known for | Performance art, Photography |
| Website | harrygamboajr |
Life
editThis article or section may have been copied and pasted from another location, possibly in violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. (March 2022) |
Gamboa grew up in East Los Angeles, California, surrounded by the activism of the Chicano Movement and the political turmoil of Los Angeles in the 1960s, two factors which would have a major influence on his artistic practice. Gamboa attended Garfield High School, where he helped to organize a student walkout in 1968 as part of the "East L.A. Blowouts", part of a larger string of protests in which 15,000 students walked out of their classrooms demanding educational reform.[1] Following his involvement, Gamboa was identified by the L.A. police as a 'militant' in a testimony before the U.S. Senate, an instance that would jeopardize his opportunity to achieve a higher education through the Education Opportunity Grant.[2]
Despite these setbacks, Gamboa attended California State University, Los Angeles, where he expanded his interest in photography and art-making. During this time, he continued to express an interest in activism and in the Chicano Movement, leading to his recruitment by Francisca Flores in 1970 to be an editor of Regeneración,[3] a magazine that gave new life to the Mexican newspaper of the same name that was created in the build up to the Mexican Revolution(1910-1920) by the Magnón brothers.[4] Through his involvement with Regeneración, he was able to reconnect with former classmates at Garfield High, Gronk (Glugio Nicandro), Patssi Valdez, and Willie Herrón, whom he recruited to contribute to the magazine. These artists, along with Gamboa, comprise the performance group Asco, which contributed to discourse over the Chincanx identity through their performance works.[5]
Work
editHis work has been exhibited by museums nationally and internationally. He has taught, lectured, and/or delivered artist talks and/or panel discussions at various universities and art institutions, including UCLA, University of California, San Diego, Otis College of Art and Design, Parsons School of Design, California State University, Northridge, and the California Institute of the Arts.[6]
Asco
editFrom this point, his career as an artist—both solo and with Gronk, Valdez, and Herrón in the art collective ASCO (Spanish for nausea) —"took off".[7] Among other "urban interventions," Asco sprayed their names on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of a performance art piece.
In 2024, Asco's work was included in Xican-a.o.x. Body a comprehensive group exhibition on Chicano art narratives from the 1960s to the present day. The exhibition was on view at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture at the Riverside Art Museum, California, and traveled to the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida. The exhibition accompanying publication was released by The Chicago University Press.[8][9]
Life
editIn 1993 Gamboa married his second wife, Chicana muralist Barbara Carrasco.
Publications
edit- Urban Exile: Collected Writings of Harry Gamboa Jr. (1998) (ISBN 978-0816630523)
- Rider (2009) (ISBN 978-1448670307)
- Xoloitzcuintli Doppelganger and other stories (2018) (ISBN 978-1724629906)
- Striking Distance (2020) (ISBN 979-8669765798)
References
edit- ^ Noriega, Chon A. (1998). "No Introduction". Urban Exile: Collected Writings of Harry Gamboa Jr. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 1–20.
- ^ "Extent of Subversion in the "New Left": Testimony of Robert J. Thoms". U.S. Congress, Senate Committee of the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office: 22–24. January 20, 1970.
- ^ Noriega, Chon A. (2005). "Gamboa, Harry, Jr". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. 2: 162–163 – via Oxford Reference Premium Edition.
- ^ Antonio Aguilar, Kevan (November 16, 2018). "The Many Legacies of Regeneración". PBS SoCal. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
- ^ Rodríguez, Richard T. (2010). "Shooting the Patriarch". Next of Kin. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 81–82. ISBN 9780822391135.
- ^ "See What You Mean: An Evening of Insurrections with Harry Gamboa Jr". CSUNARTSPACE. California State University, Northridge. October 27, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
- ^ Bradley, Megan (1998). "Gamboa (Harry, Jr.) papers". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
- ^ "Xican-a.o.x. Body • Pérez Art Museum Miami". Pérez Art Museum Miami. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
- ^ Fajardo-Hill, Cecilia; Del Toro, Marissa; Vicario, Gilbert; Chavez, Mike; Chavoya, C. Ondine; Salseda, Rose; Valencia, Joseph Daniel; Villaseñor Black, Charlene; Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum, eds. (2024). Xican-a.o.x. body. New York, NY : Munich, Germany: American Federation of Arts ; Hirmer Publishers. ISBN 978-3-7774-4168-9. OCLC 1373831827.