Beginning his series of disorienting and theatrical vignettes with an extended introduction, Gamboa describes his childhood and young adulthood coming of age in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s. It is through these stories of prejudice in elementary school and of mass action against police brutality and the national government’s neglect of communities of color, Gamboa implies, that readers should approach his text. Missives and other Un-notes skewers myths of US national identity, masculinity, and whiteness, placing readers in a dystopic world of violence, surveillance, and the constant threat of annihilation.
Articles by Harry Gamboa Jr.
Virtual Vérité (2005-2017), international performance troupe; Founder.
Asco (1972-1985), the East L.A.-based conceptual art group; Co-Founder
Exhibitions:
Marlborough Contemporary NY, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Tate Liverpool, Centre Pompidou (Paris) , Museo deBells Artes (México City), Statens Museum of Kunst (Copenhagen), and other museums.
Publications: The New Yorker, Flash Art, Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Frieze, The Art Newspaper, Los Angeles Times, Pfeil Magazine, and Rolling Stone (Italy).
Fotonovelas: See What You Mean, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.
Author: Urban Exile:Collected Writings of Harry Gamboa Jr., 1998.
Faculty member of the Photo/Media Program at California Institute of the Arts.
(Photo Credit: Barbie Gamboa)