Lieja Quintanar is undertaking a project that traces a genealogy of collective artistic practices responding to border violence in Mexico and Central America, and that also examines the ramifications of such violence in US immigrant destination cities like San Diego, El Paso, and Los Angeles. Lieja Quintanar will travel to specific border cities where she will meet with and interview emerging and mid-career artists as well as collectives, curators, academics, activists and journalists, culminating in a bilingual publication, public programs, and an exhibition.
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”