A major photography exhibition celebrating Latinx identity opens this fall at Santa Monica College's Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery, featuring 38 emerging artists from across Southern California in a show that has gained new urgency amid the current political climate.
"Concrete Hope (Esperanza Concreta)" serves as the centerpiece of FotoSoCal, an ambitious year-long project spanning more than 20 related exhibitions across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and Orange counties. The constellation of shows will be presented at community college galleries and public art spaces throughout the region.
"We're coming together to celebrate latinidad at a time when the political climate is turning against us," said Erika Hirugami, the exhibition's curatorial director and an award-winning curator who also teaches art history of photography at SMC. She cited the federal government's immigration policies as driving the urgency behind the project.
The exhibition challenges traditional photography display conventions, featuring mixed-media works created from volcanic rock, light boxes, cinder blocks and propane tanks alongside more than 80 artworks that embrace what Hirugami calls the "brown community" in all its complexity.
One standout installation, "Herencia Laboral" (Labor Inheritance) by Anaheim-based Chicano/x artist Alkaid Ramirez, exemplifies the show's themes. In the performance piece, Ramirez dons a blindfold printed with his father's enlarged eyes and proceeds to disassemble a washing machine while sightless. The exposed drum becomes a screen for projected family photos and video.
The work pays homage to manual labor's dignity while exploring what Ramirez calls the "intersectionality of being an artist with these inherited labor skills." His immigrant father worked as a washer and dryer repairman and taught his children the trade.
The featured artists represent diverse Latinx experiences, including Mexican Irish, Afro-Mexicana, Mexipino (Mexican-Filipino) and Jaxican (Japanese-Mexican) identities. Hirugami, who identifies as Jaxican, said the artist roster developed organically from her colleagues at Claremont Graduate University.
"We're all so interrelated, like a big family," she said, describing a community of Southern California photographers who "all know each other, stand up for each other, and push each other to do better and thrive."
The project embraces traditional Latinx cultural symbols including piñatas, abuelitas, cholos, tatuajes, virgencitas, mercados, rosarios and familia, presenting them without apology as part of the region's cultural landscape.
Walter Meyer, SMC Art Department chair, said the exhibition demonstrates the Barrett Gallery's commitment to fostering conversations around social justice and equity.
Beyond her curatorial work, Hirugami teaches photography history at SMC and Cypress College, exhibition design at Mission College, and immigration policy and politics through contemporary art at UCLA. She plans to integrate both exhibitions into her curricula and regularly brings students to regional art events.
"It totally warms my heart when they follow through," she said of student participation. "They're so eager not just to learn, but to be involved in the photography community."
The exhibition's nine-month run promises variety for repeat visitors. Hirugami said no two visits will be identical due to the diverse media and rotating elements within the show.
The current political environment, including what Hirugami described as daily ICE raids and mass deportations, has heightened the project's significance.
"Under the current administration, my community is being targeted violently, aesthetically and politically," she said. "I'm here to unapologetically celebrate my community, and I truly believe these photographic works have the power to shift the narrative."
The exhibition begins with a soft opening Sept. 23, followed by a series of lectures leading to the official Oct. 14 kickoff featuring a campus-wide symposium and opening reception.
Two additional SMC exhibitions complement the Barrett show: Juan Manuel Valenzuela's solo exhibition "Nurturing Masculinities" opens Sept. 18 at SMC's Emeritus Gallery, running through Nov. 7. The Malibu Campus Gallery will join FotoSoCal in March 2026.
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Edited By Maaz Alin. Article Courtesy of the SMC Public Information Office.