Each chapter will feature a conversation between the most remarkable artists from Latin America and Latinx in the U.S. and our MOLAA Chief Curator Gabriela Urtiaga. Together we will focus on a series or specific artwork which requires a close inspection, a deliberate process of contemplation, and exploration; delving into the ideas surrounding the creation of the works, their sources of research and inspiration, in an effort to immerse ourselves in the world of the artists.
Join Chapter #28 of the MOLAA Zoom Project, where MOLAA's Chief Curator Gabriela Urtiaga will join artist Oscar Castillo for a conversation. This session will be pre-recorded.
Oscar Castillo (1945)
Oscar Castillo's extensive photographic work documenting the Chicano community over the past forty years offers a distinctive visual challenge to the stereotypical representation of East Los Angeles as violent or exotic. It does so by maintaining a calm, almost matter-of-fact gaze on everyday barrio life, the post-urban renewal landscape, and the cultural practices and political events that redefine public space. Castillo was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1945 and developed an interest in photography at a young age. His parents always encouraged him to pursue the arts, but it wasn't until Castillo arrived at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge) in 1969 that he received formal training in the medium. Yet, it was the activity emanating from the school's newly formed Chicano Studies Department-one of the first in the nation-that got him shooting.
Motivated artistically and identifying politically, Castillo photographed Chicano protests, parades, and ordinary public life in what proved a period of profound social and political upheaval. The result is one of the richest photographic collections available of the Chicano civil rights movement.
Castillo's images reflect his keen awareness of the relationship between a subject and its environment. It is this texture, combined with his masterful sense of timing and composition, that makes Castillo's photographs examples of both photojournalism and art photography. Whether the subject is people on the street, political figures giving speeches, or emerging media figures, Castillo's extensive documentation reveals contrasting views of a multigenerational community becoming more visible.
—Chon A. Noriega, Director