Chicano Arts Pioneer Takes On Globalization and War (tags)
Pioneering Chicano artist Malaquias Montoya was present at the creation of the Chicano rights movement in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, being one of the organizers of the Mexican American Liberation Arts Front (MALAF) who helped create the images of that movement. But he’s also involved with current social and political controversies. In his show “Globalization and War: The Aftermath,” through March 4 at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, he takes on Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, the U.S. government’s rationalization of torture (“softening them up for interrogation”), the growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. and throughout the world, and other progressive themes in a bold, assertive and often brutal style derived from 20th century New York artist Ben Shahn and the Mexican muralists Orozco and Siquieros.