Harry Gamboa Jr.
Photo: ©2014, Barbara Carrasco
Harry Gamboa Jr. is an artist, writer, and educator.
He is the founder and director of Virtual Vérité (2005-2017), the international performance troupe.
He is a co-founder of Asco (1972-1985), the Los Angeles-based performance group.
He is a faculty member of the Photo/Media Program at California Institute of the Arts.
He is a lecturer with the Chicana/o Studies Department at California State University, Northridge.
His work has been exhibited by museums + galleries + art spaces nationally/internationally :
Marlborough Contemporary, New York (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016, 2015 and 1995 Biennial); Utah Museum of Fine Arts (2015); Princeton University Art Museum (2015); Centre d’Arts Plastiques Contemporain Bordeaux, France (2014); De Appel, Amsterdam (2014); Triangle France, Marseille, France (2014); Smart Museum of Art, Chicago (2014); Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz, Austria (2013); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England (2013); Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. (2013); Le Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France (2013, 2017); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (UNAM), Mexico City (2013); Tate Liverpool, Liverpook, England (2013); The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York (2013); UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Rim Film Archive (2012); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (2011, 1981); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011, 2010); Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (2009); Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA (2011); Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England (2009); Museo de Arte Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico (2009); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2011, 2008, 2001); Fowler Museum, UC Los Angeles (2011); Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City (2008); Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles (2008); El Museo del Barrio, New York (2008, 2010); The Huntington Library, San Marino, California (2008); Museo José Luis Cuevas, Mexico City (2006); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2006); Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City (2005); International Center of Photography, New York (2003); MIT List Visual Arts Center (2000); Queens Museum of Art (1999); Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (1997); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark (1996); Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1994); Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (1994); LAX/CSU Los Angeles (1994); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (1981); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1979); Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City (1978); Museo Alvar y Carmen T. Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (1978); Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ (1977).
Current Exhibition:
Harry Gamboa Jr.: Chicano Male Unbonded
https://theautry.org/exhibitions/harry-gamboa-jr-chicano-male-unbonded
Autry Museum of the American West
4700 Western Heritage Way
Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462
Opens September 16, 2017
Map and Directions:
Museum Hours
Tuesday–Friday: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Saturday–Sunday: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Closed Mondays.
Current Exhibition:
Muros Blandos/Soft Walls
September 1, 2017 – January 22, 2018
Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende
http://mssa.cl/exposicion/muros-blandos/
República 475
Santiago, Chile
+56 2 2689 8761
He has received numerous awards from institutions including the Rockefeller Foundation (2004), the Durfee Foundation Artist Award (2001), the Flintridge Foundation Visual Artist Award (2000), the Gluck Foundation (1998–1999), the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts (1990), the California Arts Council (1996), Art Matters, Inc. (1996), and National Endowment for the Arts (1987 and 1980).
Hilda Solis, Los Angeles County Supervisor, First District presented Harry Gamboa Jr. with a County of Los Angeles Commendation, August 1, 2017
In recognition of dedicated service to the affairs of the community and for the civic pride demonstrated by numerous contributions for the benefit of all citizens of Los Angeles County.
2010 Latino Heritage Month was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by a wide spectrum of supporters in Council Chambers at the famed Los Angeles City Hall, where Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa presented the Latino Heritage Awards: Spirit of Los Angeles, Willie Herrón III, Patssi Valdez, and Harry Gamboa Jr. accepted the award on behalf of Asco), Dream of Los Angeles Tony Plana, Hope of Los Angeles Plácido Domingo.
He has taught, lectured, and delivered artist talks at various universities and art institutions, including: University of Houston, California State University, Northridge, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Riverside,University of California, Irvine, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of California, San Diego, Otis/Parsons, and Maine College of Art. He has delivered artist talks at: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Harvard University; UC Berkeley; Stanford University; Dartmouth College; Cornell University; Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University; School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Centro Cultural de España, Mexico City; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado “La Esmeralda”, Mexico City.
In Fall 2017, he delivered keynote, Summer School #2 MAKING PUBLIC DOMAIN, Middelheim Museum, Antwerpen [10], organized by by Nico Dockx (Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten) and Pascal Gielen (ARIA).
In Fall 2012, Universitair Centrum Sint Ignatius Antwerpen – UCSIA sponsored Gamboa to present, La La Land: Deflections and Recollections, an artist talk at Universiteit Antwerpen. He also worked with students and faculty of Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) along with Belgian artists Ria Pacquée and Nico Dockx to produce “actions” in Antwerpen and Brugge.
His photographs are in the permanent collection of Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
His photographs are in the permanent collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
His photographs are in the permanent collect of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
His photographs are in the permanent collect of Wiliams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.
His photographs are in the permanent collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY.
His photographs are in the permanent collection of Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles
His lithographs are in the permanent collection of Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, University of California, Los Angeles.
His oral history is included in Smithsonian Archives of American Art (1999).
His oral history is also included in Alternative Projections, Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945-1980, a project of Los Angeles Filmforum (2011).
A permanent collection of his media works/papers has been established and archived at Green Library, Stanford University. He is the author of several books:
- Gamboa, Harry Jr.; Aztlángst 2 ; c2015. ISBN 1477615822 (paperback)
- Gamboa, Harry Jr.; Vie 21, Photo Journal 1 ; c2014. ISBN 1500706868 (paperback)
- Gamboa, Harry Jr.; Worker Ant (1) ; c2013. ISBN 1493544349 (paperback)
- Gamboa, Harry Jr.; Aztlángst: La La Fotonovela (Volume 1) ; c2011. ISBN 1-4505-6964-1 (paperback)
- Gamboa, Harry Jr.; Fallen ; c2010. ISBN 1-4505-6964-1 (paperback)
- Gamboa, Harry Jr.; edited by Chon A. Noriega. Urban Exile: Collected Writings of Harry Gamboa Jr. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, c1998. ISBN 0-8166-3051-8 (hardback), ISBN 0-8166-3052-6 (paperback)
His video and film work is available:
His works are featured in numerous museum catalogues including:
- Whitney Museum of American Art: Handbook of the Collection. Whitney Museum of American Art, 2015.
- The City Lost and Found Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960–1980. Yale University Press, 2015.
- Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., 2014.
- Performance as Archive , Archive as Performance. Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp (Belgium), 2013.
- Glam! The Performance of Style. Tate Liverpool (England), 2013.
- ASCO: Elite of the Obscure: A Retrospective 1972-1987. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011.
- MEX/LA: Mexican Modernisms in Los Angeles 1930-1985. Museum of Latin American Art, 2011.
- L.A. Xicano. UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, 2011.
- Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981. Museum of Contemporary Art, 2011.
- Pacific Standard Time, Los Angeles Art, 1945–1980. Getty Research Institute and J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
- Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008.
- This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in Los Angeles Photographs. The Huntington Library, 2008.
- Los Angeles 1955-1985 Birth Of An Art Capital. Centre Pompidou, 2006.
- Only Skin Deep. International Center of Photography, 2003.
- Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2000.
- Global Conceptualism. Queens Museum of Art, 1999.
- 1995 Biennial Exhibition. Whitney Museum of Art, 1995.
- Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. Wight Art Gallery, 1991.
- Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s. Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992.
- L.A. Hot & Cool. MIT/Bank of Boston, 1987.
His work is featured in numerous books including:
- Both Sides of Sunset – Photographing Los Angeles. Edited by Jane Brown, Marla Hamburg Kennedy. Foreword by Ed Ruscha. Introduction by David L. Ulin., Metropolis Books, 2015.
- Creating the Future: Art and Los Angeles in the 1970s. Michael Fallon , Counterpoint, 2014.
- A People’s Art History of the United States: 250 Years of Activist Art and Artists Working in Social Justice Movements . Nicolas Lampert, The New Press, 2013.
- Live Art in LA: Performance in Southern California, 1970 – 1983. Peggy Phelan, Routledge, 2012.
- Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. Alex Moreno Areyan, Arcadia Publishing, 2010.
- Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics. Richard T. Rodriguez, Duke University Press, 2009.
- Technological Rituals, Stories from the Annenberg Dialogues’. Rosanna Albertini, University of Southern California, 1999.
- Chicanos And Film: Representation and Resistance’. Chon A. Noriega, University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
His wok has been internationally featured in various publications:
- The Glam Politics of a Chicano Collective from East L.A., The New Yorker, September 16, 2017
- ‘Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA’ Begins With a Bang at Getty Center Celebration, The Hollywood Reporter, September 17, 2017
- Harry Gamboa Jr., 500 Words, Artforum, September 12, 2017
- Art Out: Harry Gamboa Jr. – The ASCO Years, Musée Magazine, September 8, 2017
- Gallery hopping on the opening night for the 2017-2018 season, Arte Fuse, September 9, 2017
- ‘The ASCO Years’ by Harry Gamboa Jr. at Marlborough Contemporary, BLOUIN ARTINFO, September 17, 2017
- Harry Gamboa Jr.’s ‘Chicano Male Unbonded’ Highlights Diversity Of Chicano Male Identity, Artbound, KCET TV, September 15, 2017
- Artist Harry Gamboa Jr. attends the LA Art Show 2017 opening premiere hosted by Emma Roberts, Getty Images
- Guest Lecture – Harry Gamboa Jr.- The Sixth Expanse, Artillery, January 10, 2017
- We watch artist Harry Gamboa Jr. stage a fotonovela at the site of L.A.’s demolished 6th Street Bridge, Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2016
- A New Crop of Artists Re-create a Famed 1968 LACMA Photograph, Vanity Fair, December 2016
- Re-creating LACMA’s Famed 1968 Class Photo, Vanity Fair, December 2016
- L.A. Habitat: Ed Ruscha, Artnews, March 2016
- Art and Technology, Artforum, September, 2015
- The Whitney Discovers L.A., Blouin Artinfo, August 24, 2015
- Can you capture L.A.’s complexity in a photo book? ‘Both Sides of Sunset’ tries, Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2015
- Max Mara, Presenting Sponsor, Celebrates The Opening Of The Whitney Museum Of American Art – Arrivals (Harry Gamboa) 2015
- The New Whitney Museum of American Art: First Impressions, Frieze, April 27, 2015
- The City Lost and Found at the Princeton University Art Museum, Artnews, April 27, 2015
- The Ultimate Tour of the New Whitney Museum, NY Curbed, April 27, 2015
- At new Whitney Museum site, a show is shrouded in parochialism, Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2015
- From Solange to Art Stars, The New Whitney Draws a Crowd, Art in America, April 24, 2015
- The Whitney Opens With A Winner, ARTnews, April 23, 2015
- The Whitney’s Buried Treasures: 10 Rarely Seen Masterworks Making Their Debut in the New Building, Artspace, April 17, 2015
- The Whitney Museum announces inaugural show, and the Internet parses, Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2015
- Which Artists Does the New Whitney Museum Leave Behind?, New York Observer, April 13, 2015
- The Whitney Museum’s New Home, The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2015
- The Whitney Museum, Soon to Open Its New Home, Searches for American Identity, The New York Times, March 26, 2015
- How New York, Chicago, and L.A. Explain the 1960s and ’70s, CITYLAB, March 30, 2015
- Experience three cities’ histories in photos, Daily Record, March 10, 2015
- Texas Museum to Build Ellsworth Kelly Design, The New York Times, February 5, 2015
- Celebrating a Partnership of Two West Coasts, Mexican-American Street Art From Los Angeles Comes to Bordeaux, The New York Times, September 9, 2014
- Los Angeles, 1970s style, The Art Newspaper, May 8, 2014
- L’art du happening des voyous superbes d’ASCO, Le Monde, Paris, April 18, 2014
- L’art en bande organisée, Le Monde, Paris, April 11, 2014
- Le combat en images des Chicanos californiens, La Provence, Marseille, March 13, 2014
- CSUN Professor’s New Show ‘Vidrio’ Exhibits Under Hollywood, CSUN Today, March 6, 2014
- Asco: No Movies, Art Monthly, UK, December 2013 – January 2014
- Mexico City’s Best, 2013—Patrick Charpenel, Art in America, December 2013
- Los Fantasmas y Los Muros, Luna Córnea 34, Mexico City, 2013
- CSUN Professor’s Work Part of Smithsonian Exhibit on American Art, San Fernando Valley Sun, October 31, 2013
- West Coast Art (Not Laid-Back) A California ‘State of Mind,’ Circa 1970, at Bronx Museum, The New York Times, July 11, 2013
- Le MAC de Marseille s’ouvre sur le monde, 20 minutes FR, May 27, 2013
- MUAC prepara ciclo de talleres sobre videoarte y visuales, El Universal, 25 de mayo de 2013
- México DF acoge una retrospectiva de Asco, un colectivo de arte chicano, El País, May 15, 2013
- Chicano Males Stare Down Stereotypes, NPR, April 25, 2013
- Circa 1970: Pacific Standard Time at the Bronx Museum, Art in America, July 11, 2013
- Building bridges between Mexican and Mexican American Art, Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2013
- Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective (1972-1987) Arrives at the MUAC, Mexico City, Arte al Día, 2013
- CSUN Prof Harry Gamboa’s Work to Be Exhibited in England and Mexico, CSUN Today, 2013
- Walking Mural: Asco and the Ends of Chicano Art , Los Angeles Review of Books, August 23, 2012
- Gallery Sonja Roesch puts prints online with the unveiling of new UNIT shop and exhibit, Culture Map Houston, August, 2012
- City after Fifty Years’ Living: L.A.’s Differences in Relation, Art Journal, Vol. 71, No. 1, Spring 2012
- Civillains, A Fotonovela, X-TRA, Summer, 2012
- Artists, actors creatively reengage with ’92 L.A. riots, ‘Twilight’, Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2012
- Asco: Elite of the Obscure, Art in America, January, 2012
- Asco: Elite of the Obscure, Frieze, January, 2012
- Harry Gamboa of Asco: How A Chicano Performance Group Turned Oppression into Dangerous Fun, LA Weekly, December 6, 2011
- The MEX/LA Art Show: Five Things to Know, The Hollywood Reporter, December 4, 2011
- A New Pin on the Art Map, The New York Times, November 10, 2011
- End of an Era/Error, a play by Harry Gamboa Jr., East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines, November 1, 2011
- ASCO: estetica sovversiva, Rolling Stone, 12 ottobre 2011
- Southern California Stakes Its Claim as World Art Center, The New York Times, October 13, 2011
- Pacific Standard Time, puro arte de L.A. El Cultural, October 13, 2011
- Laying Claim to Its Place in the Sun, The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2011
- PST Events Bring Out Actors, Artists, Collectors and Others, Society News L.A., October 7, 2011
- L.A. Stories: A Roundtable Discussion, Artforum, October, 2011
- Patt Morrison Asks: New master Ed Ruscha, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2011
- Asco en el museo, BBC Mundo, 23 de septiembre de 2011
- A permanent Asco mural is slated for City Terrace, Los Angeles Times, September 12, 2011
- Art review: ‘Asco: Elite of the Obscure, 1972-1987’ at LACMA, Los Angeles Times, September 9, 2011
- Chicano Pioneers, The New York Times, August 25, 2011
- Asco Returns Triumphant to LACMA, The Huffington Post, August 25, 2011
- Virtual Vérité performing for Aztlángst fotonovela, The American Show, August 19, 2011
- Last Stand, a play by Harry Gamboa Jr., Bad Subjects, Issue 81, 2011
- Blinders, a story by Harry Gamboa Jr., Global Graffiti Magazine, June 15, 2011
- MOCA’s ‘Art in the Streets’ gets the big picture wrong, Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2011
- ‘America Latina: ‘Crisisss. Art and Confrontation in Latin America 1910-2010’, Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution, May 24, 2011
- ‘Your Art Disgusts Me: Early Asco 1971-75’, East of Borneo, November 16, 2010
- ‘Against the Wall: Remembering the Chicano Moratorium’, East of Borneo, November 16, 2010
- ‘The Artists Take Over’, Los Angeles Downtown News, November 5, 2010
- ‘Arizona law spurs backlash among artists’, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2010
- ‘Democrats lead calls to boycott Arizona over immigration bill’, The Guardian, April 26, 2010
- ‘Palabra’, Literary Magazine Reviews, May 26, 2009
- ‘Phantom Sightings, Frieze, Issue 117, September 2008
- ‘This Side of Paradise at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens’, Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2008
- Artists in conversation: ‘Phantom Sightings’ at LACMA, Sickly Season-Notes From Mictlan, May 4, 2008
- ‘Phantom Sightings at LACMA’, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2008
- Harry Gamboa Jr.: Early Video Art, Education Media Reviews Online, April 21, 2006
- ‘Harry Gamboa and the Contemporary Avant-Garde’, Jouvert, Vol. 6, Issue 3, 2002
- The Art of His Choosing, The New York Times, February 26, 1995
- ‘Harry Gamboa’s East Side Story’, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 1994
