The Art Dialogues – a discussion on the 1965/1992 LA Riots – co-sponsored by Curator Terrell Tilford and moderated by Darnell Hunt, PhD., this Saturday, 20th of March at Gallery 38. This event is FREE and open to the public. We will be surveying clips from both riots as edited by contributor Reginald A. Coleman.
Gallery 38 is pleased to present 25 Years Later: Race, Riots and Reform a group exhibition, featuring the artwork and artifacts of artists and educators who lived and worked during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. April 29th, 1992 was a day enshrined in our memory with events that led to a temporary unraveling of social normalcy through the lens of race, rioting and economic and reform due to the verdict of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.
How does presentation of media coverage help to shape the perception vs the reality of an incident? The footage of King being beaten by police while lying on the ground became an instant focus of media attention and a rallying point for activists in Los Angeles and around the United States.
25 Years Later: Race, Riots and Reform uses a survey of ideas, memories and documentation to start a conversation on how social inconsistencies play a part in shaping our communities locally and nationally. Through housing discrimination, prejudice and police brutality, Los Angeles has been a hotbed of tension since before the Watts Riots of the 60’s and continues today. The City of Los Angeles has made advancement in reforming policies that have healed a few wounds but still have guidelines in place that affect the everyday Angelino, potentially assisting to a rise in racial and economic anxiety leading to eruption within the urban metropolis.
Featured Artists: James Dupree, Moncho 1929, Sharon Barnes, AiseBorn, J.Michael Walker, Larry Johnson, Gabe Tiberino, Sei Shimura, Vanessa Rivera, Bryan Lee Tilford, Michael Luckey.
Featured panelist: Darnell Hunt is chair of the Department of Sociology, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at UCLA. Dr. Hunt has written extensively on race and media, including numerous scholarly journal articles and popular magazine articles. He has also published four books about these issues: Screening the Los Angeles “Riots”: Race, Seeing, and Resistance (Cambridge University Press, 1997), O.J. Simpson Facts and Fictions: News Rituals in the Construction of Reality (Cambridge University Press, 1999), Channeling Blackness: Studies on Television and Race in America (Oxford University Press, 2005), and (with Ana-Christina Ramon) Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities (NYU Press, 2010). Prior to his positions at UCLA, he chaired the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California (USC).
Over the past two decades, Dr. Hunt has worked on several projects exploring the issues of access and diversity in the Hollywood industry. He was lead author of the Bunche Center’s 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Hollywood Diversity Reports, which provide comprehensive analyses of the employment of women and minorities in front of and behind the camera in film and television. He authored the last six installments of the Hollywood Writers Report, released by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2016. He was principal investigator of The African American Television Report, released by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in June of 2000. He has also worked in the media and as a media researcher for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ 1993 hearings on diversity in Hollywood. Recently, he has worked as a consultant on film and television projects focusing on sensitive portrayals of race, ethnicity and other social issues.
Dr. Hunt received a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from USC, an MBA from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA. A native of Washington, D.C., he has lived in Los Angeles for the past 30 years.
Gallery 38 an ongoing project by ArtAboveReality and Bancs Media, opened it’s doors in March of 2015 with the hopes of starting a artistic renaissance in the West Adams neighborhood. Named in a LA Weekly article as “The Center of the burgeoning West Adams Art Scene”, Gallery 38 has done over 15 solo exhibitions and art fairs and has been able to continue the tradition of presenting emerging and established artists while focusing on developing the community around them.