SAN DIEGO, CA.- Several San Diego institutions will host exciting exhibitions and collaborations this fall thanks to the Getty-led Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, 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 across Southern California.

Through a series of thematically linked exhibitions and programs, PST: LA/LA highlights different aspects of Latin American and Latino art from the ancient world to the present day. With topics such as luxury arts in the pre-Columbian Americas, 20th century Afro-Brazilian art, alternative spaces in Mexico City, and boundary-crossing practices of Latino artists, exhibitions range from monographic studies of individual artists to broad surveys that cut across numerous countries.

Participating San Diego organizations include the Mingei International Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA), Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA), The San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) and University of San Diego (USD).

The initiative follows its successful predecessor, Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. Launched in 2011, the landmark regional collaboration supported more than 60 organizations presenting exhibitions designed to collectively tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene and how it became a force in the art world. In this iteration of Pacific Standard Time, the number of San Diego museums included has more than doubled, speaking to our city's rich cultural assets and the importance of Latin American and Latino culture in the region.

In collaboration with Museo Jumex in Mexico City and the Museo de Arte de Lima, MCASD will present an exhibition examining the ways in which Latin American artists from the 1960s through the 1980s responded to the unraveling of the utopian promise of modernization after World War II, most notably in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. In the immediate postwar period, artists had eagerly embraced the "transition to modernity," creating a new abstract geometric language meant to capture its idealistic possibilities. As modernization failed, and political oppression and brutal military dictatorships followed, avant-garde artists increasingly abandoned abstraction and sought new ways to connect with the public, engaging directly with communities and often incorporating popular strategies from film, theater, and architecture into their work. Memories of Underdevelopment will be the first significant survey exhibition of these crucial decades and will highlight the work of well-known artists such as Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape as well as lesser-known artists from Chile, Colombia, and Peru.