SAN DIEGO, CA.- Featuring approximately fifty works by forty-eight artists from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art is on view at MCASD La Jolla. The exhibition, which showcases key works and new commissions in a range of media, runs through May 13, 2007, with selections on view through September 2, 2007.

Contemporary art from Latin America now forms an intrinsic part of the international art arena. While engaging in a global dialogue, these artists explore and parody cultural locations and identities even as they uphold and transgress them. TRANSactions celebrates the heterogeneous nature of contemporary Latin American and Latino art in order to dismantle preconceptions and promote new interpretations.

TRANSactions takes advantage of MCASD's unique geographic situation as a border city. Located in a major gateway community to South America as well as a twin city to Tijuana, Mexico, MCASD has made a priority of collecting art of both the immediate region and works by artists of the Americas, including significant examples by José Bedia, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Enrique Chagoya, Luis Gispert, Silvia Gruner, Salomón Huerta, Alfredo Jaar, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Ana Mendieta, Vik Muniz, Gabriel Orozco, Rubén Ortiz Torres, Liliana Porter, Marcos Ramírez ERRE, and Doris Salcedo.

TRANSactions is one of the few exhibitions to show Latino and Latin American artists together, examining the zones of convergence, tension, and expansion along the various paths taken by each artist. Like Latin American artists, who hail from varied countries and cultures around the globe, the Latino population of the United States does not comprise one sole entity, but rather an amalgam of races, classes, and national heritages that elude any attempt at easy classification.

TRANSactions will demonstrate the dynamic play of references between works, establishing a web of connections between artists from different cultures and countries. In a "post-Latin American" age, this work is characterized by a postmodern approach to art-making that is no longer determined by geographical borders and identity politics. The artists in the exhibition are going above and beyond borders that are geographic, cultural, and aesthetic. Many of the artists in TRANSactions share an interest in revitalizing existing artistic language and forms, infusing their work with a social commentary based on local and global references.

TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art has been organized by Stephanie Hanor, Ph.D., Curator at MCASD. It is the third in a recent series of thematic exhibitions curated by Dr. Hanor that explores aspects of MCASD’s permanent collection, the previous two exhibitions being Specific Objects: The Minimalist Influence, 2004, and Southern Exposure, 2005. TRANSactions will travel to the Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, October 6-December 30, 2007; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, February 9-May 4, 2008; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, June 22-September 21, 2008. There will be an accompanying 200-page, bilingual catalogue.