Charlotte, with one of the country’s fastest growing Latino populations, will get a new and multidimensional look at Mexico this fall – through pictures.
That’s when an unusual arts collaboration called “In Focus/Enfoque” begins, with half a dozen arts institutions in the city offering the work of more than 50 contemporary photographers, from both Mexico and the United States, over a timeframe that stretches from this month to next June.
Topics and themes will be all over the (focused) map: identity, borders, gender, activism, design and more. Ways to dig into this are also planned: Community and educational programs will be coordinated by the Arts and Science Council. Allen Blevins, director of Global Art and Heritage Programs at Bank of America, who’s worked on the project, has called the anchor exhibition, which will be at the Mint beginning in late October, “one of the strongest exhibitions of contemporary art photography that I have seen.
“Part of this is helping us all to better understand different cultures, to better understand our neighbor to the south, and to better understand our neighbors here in Charlotte,” Blevins said in a news release.
Let’s break down the plan (which took its cues from the larger-scale “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA”; that effort hooked up 70+ partners across southern California).
In Charlotte, the six participating institutions will be: The Mint Museum, The Bechtler Museum, The McColl Center for Art + Innovation, The Light Factory, LaCa Projects and SOCO Gallery.
At LACA PROJECTS
WHAT: Karina Juarez, Humberto Rios, and Alejandra Laviada, at Latin American Contemporary Art Projects.
WHEN: Sept. 14 to Nov. 4
NUTSHELL: LaCa’s first exhibition of photography, this will offer three artists’ themes “ranging from identity and personal loss to metaphorical and autobiographical elements, and create striking visual narratives taken from the personal experiences of the artists, as well as from conceptual ideas and practices.”