Curatorial Walkthrough of Mundos Alternos

With Robb Hernández and Kathryn Poindexter

Culver Center of the Arts

October 5, 2017

Join us for a special tour of Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas led by Robb Hernández, co-curator of the exhibition and Assistant Professor Latina/o literary and cultural studies in the Department of English at the UC Riverside, and Kathryn Poindexter, Assistant Curator/Exhibitions Manager at California Museum of Photography, and Mundos Alternos project coordinator, and managing editor for the exhibition’s catalog.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas brings together contemporary artists from across the Americas who have tapped into science fiction’s capacity to imagine new realities, both utopian and dystopian. Science fiction offers a unique artistic landscape in which to explore the colonial enterprise that shaped the Americas and to present alternative perspectives speculating on the past and the future. In the works featured in the exhibition, most created in the last two decades, artists employ the imagery of science fiction to suggest diverse modes of existence and represent “alienating” ways of being in the world. Drawing on UCR’s strong faculty and collections in science fiction, the exhibition offers a groundbreaking account of the intersections among science fiction, techno-culture, and the visual arts. The exhibition is on view through February 4, 2018.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS: Robb Hernández is Assistant Professor of Latina/o literary and cultural studies in the Department of English at the University of California, Riverside. His current book project, Finding AIDS: Archival Body/Archival Space and the Chicano Avant-garde constructs a queer genealogy of Latino artist communities through the alternative archives, records, and custodial practices produced during the AIDS crisis. Hernández has published in such journals as Radical History Review, MELUS: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, and Azatlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. He is a recipient of grants from the Getty, Ford, and Hellman Foundations; National Association of Chicana/o Studies; and Dartmouth College, among others. Hernández holds a PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Kathryn Poindexter is Assistant Curator/Exhibitions Manager at California Museum of Photography, and Mundos Alternos project coordinator, and managing editor. She previously held positions at the Riverside Art Museum and the UC Irvine Beall Center for Art + Technology, and works as chief assistant to artist David Rabinowitch. Her curated and co-curated exhibitions at the CMP include Jennah Ward Bentley: Teviot 10 (2016), Myth and Majesty: Photographs Picturing the American Southwest (2016), Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and Terrors (2015–16), and Penelope Umbrico: Master, Mountain, Range (and Rangers) (2015). Curated exhibitions at Riverside Art Museum include Eretai: John Beech, Lael Marshall, David Rabinowitch, Michael Voss; Julie Torres: Close Encounters; David Leapman: The Tumbling Surveyors Pursuit; and SKY BLUE SKY: Print Media by Matthew Tyson. Poindexter earned her BA in studio art in 2008 from University of California, Irvine, and studied at the University of British Columbia from 2006 to 2007.

Mundos Alternos is curated by Robb Hernández, Assistant Professor of English at UCR; Tyler Stallings, Artistic Director of the Culver Center of the Arts; and Joanna Szupinska-Myers, Senior Curator of Exhibitions at the California Museum of Photography. Kathryn Poindexter, CMP Exhibitions Manager and Assistant Curator, is Project Manager.

Mundos Alternos is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 70 cultural institutions from Santa Barbara to San Diego, and from Los Angeles to Palm Springs.

Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Major support for this exhibition is provided through grants from the Getty Foundation.

Additional support is provided by UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), and the City of Riverside.

(IMAGE): Ricardo Valverde, "Armando y Consuelo—Two Alienz Muertos," 1983-91. Hand-painted gelatin silver print, Collection of Esperanza Valverde & Christopher J. Valverde and UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.