By Steven Adamo
Three upcoming exhibitions at the Vincent Price museum will uncover personal and cultural histories through a variety of artistic mediums.
A photography exhibition will feature photo-documentary works by Mexican photographer Mariana Yampolsky.
Born in Chicago, 1925, Yampolsky was inspired by Mexican culture and architecture which lead to her becoming a Mexican citizen at the age of 19.
Yampolsky was a part of the artist’s print collective in Mexico called Taller de Gráfica Popular, an anti-fascist group that used art to advance revolutionary social causes.
She has described her photography as “precise and delicate, never overtly strident and always respectful.”
Yampolsky’s exhibit is a part of Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s community program called “On-Site: Neighborhood Partnerships with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.”
“By building on existing partnerships, establishing new relationships and seeking community input, LACMA will endeavor to create educational and shared experiences that resonate with community members,” the LACMA website says.
Opening at the VPAM on the same evening as the Yampolsky exhibition, Passing Through the Underworld: Egyptian Art from LACMA, is also a part of the On-Site program.
Last year, the Vincent Price Museum’s first exhibition under this program featured Chinese Ceramics on loan from LACMA.
The pieces were from 2500 B.C. (Neolithic period) to the 19th century.
“We had at least one Saturday a month dedicated to workshops that went along with the exhibition, like lectures, family workshops and collaborations with the ELAC ceramics department,” Pilar Tompkins Rivas, museum director, said.
Both the Mariana Yampolsky and Egyptian art exhibitions will have accompanying events at the VPAM throughout 2018.
The third exhibition opening March 17th is Soul Mining, discussing the influence of Asian culture in the Americas with work by artists from North America and abroad.
A focus of the show is Chinese labor and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a U.S. federal law that suspended Chinese immigration.
In an article titled “The Blood, Sweat and Tears History of Chinese in 19th Century America, Walter Ko, Board member of Chinese American Forum, said “Chinese in America in the 19th century had a difficult time.
They were confronted with hundreds of laws and regulations from city, state and US Congress with virtually no rights.
Worst of all, they could not testify in court against Whites. It seemed they had to endure discrimination and violence passively.”
The exhibition shows contemporary work in multiple mediums including paintings, sculpture, video and more. “Soul Mining uncovers histories of forced migration, political struggle and transformation, and offer personal narratives to reconcile with these collective experiences,” the VPAM website says.
The show is organized by Julio César Morales, a curator from the Arizona State University Art Museum in New York, along with Xiaoyu Weng, associate curator of Chinese Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Opening receptions for all three exhibitions take place on March 17th from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. For more information, visit the VPAM website at www.vincentpriceartmuseum.org.