Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987

The Asco exhibition co-organized by WCMA, opened Sunday, September 4th at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and will travel to WCMA opening in February 2012. Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987 is already receiving attention in the press:

The New York Times

Associate Press Latin America

The book documenting the exhibit, edited by C. Ondine Chavoya and Rita Gonzalez, with contributions by Maris Bustamante, Amelia Jones, Chon Noriega and others can be purchased here.

Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987 will be the first retrospective to present the wide-ranging work of the Chicano performance and conceptual art group Asco. Asco (1972–1987) began as a tight-knit core group of artists from East Los Angeles composed of Harry Gamboa Jr., Gronk, Willie Herrón, and Patssi Valdez. Taking their name from the forceful word for disgust and nausea in Spanish, Asco set about through performance, public art, and multimedia to respond to turbulent socio-political periods in Los Angeles and within the larger international context. The art collective remained active until the mid-1980s, contracting and expanding to include artists and performers such as Diane Gamboa, Sean Carrillo, Daniel J. Martinez, and Teddy Sandoval, among others.