Robb Hernández fait le lien entre les mondes de la littérature et de l'art, notamment par son travail de co-commissaire d'expositions d'art et de science-fiction. Son rôle universitaire à l'Université de Californie, Riverside, informe son profond engagement dans des projets culturels et artistiques. Il cherche à explorer des mondes alternatifs et des concepts artistiques qui façonnent notre compréhension de la fiction et de la réalité. Son travail souligne l'interconnexion des disciplines créatives et leur influence sur la perception de la société.
Focusing on the impact of VIVA! Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists, the book explores its role as a pioneering nonprofit coalition established in 1987 in Los Angeles. It highlights VIVA!'s efforts to enhance visibility for lesbian Latina and gay Latino artists through exhibitions, performances, and educational initiatives. The organization collaborated with other LGBTQ+ groups to tackle cultural and sociopolitical issues, particularly during the AIDS crisis, providing a vital platform for marginalized voices in the art community.
Emboldened by the boom in art, fashion, music, and retail culture in 1980s Los Angeles, the iconoclasts of queer Aztlán?as Robb Hernández terms the group of artists who emerged from East LA, Orange County, and other parts of Southern California during this period?developed a new vernacular with which to read the city in bloom. Tracing this important but understudied body of work, Archiving an Epidemic catalogs a queer retelling of the Chicana and Chicano art movement, from its origins in the 1960s, to the AIDS crisis and the destruction it wrought in the 1980s, and onto the remnants and legacies of these artists in the current moment. Hernández offers a vocabulary for this multi-modal avant-garde?one that contests the heteromasculinity and ocular surveillance visited upon it by the larger Chicanx community, as well as the formally straight conditions of traditional archive-building, museum institutions, and the art world writ large. With a focus on works by Mundo Meza (1955?85), Teddy Sandoval (1949?1995), and Joey Terrill (1955? ), and with appearances by Laura Aguilar, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, and even Eddie Murphy, Archiving an Epidemic composes a complex picture of queer Chicanx avant-gardisms. With over sixty images?many of which are published here for the first time?Hernández?s work excavates this archive to question not what Chicanx art is, but what it could have been
The book delves into Robb Hernandez's examination of Legorreta's career as the performance artist Cyclona, highlighting his impact on East L.A. artists during the Chicano movement. It evaluates the collection's significance for researchers and includes an illustrated section showcasing album covers alongside the artist's reflections on Latino imagery. Additionally, a comprehensive finding aid for the collection is provided, enhancing its utility for academic study.
