From Watts Towers Art Center:

Image Caption Courtesy of the Watts Towers Art Center

Our last two exhibitions, “Fifty Years And I Still Can’t Breath, Remembering the 50th Anniversary of the 1965 Watts Rebellion and Now” and “NEXT: The Power of Love and It’s All About the Bass”, documented our 50 + year history of economic deprivation, continuous police brutality and disrespect for Black and Latino people; and reflected on what our pathway out of this despair could look like if we focus on loving ourselves first, thereby opening our consciousness up to love and protect those who are in need of help.

We laid out our problems, acknowledged our strengths and realized in order to keep moving forward we must do “Sankofa”.

This current exhibition, a one man show by La Monte Westmoreland does just that. The Watts Towers Arts Center is one of, if not the only fine arts institution of its kind that has a Community Arts focus and rich cultural heritage on which we stand. One of our Motto’s is “We don’t do mediocre because we don’t have to”.

When we do “Sankofa”, we look back at the foundation upon which we stand in order to get strength and knowledge to move forward. Westmoreland has done a lot of our work for us. As we look at the images of racial stereotypes embodied in some of his work, we also see part of his foundation as an artist in his survey of art history and his Kabuki series.

Additionally, in his exhibition of African American Male Artists, Woman Sculptors, and Jazz collage and assemblage work, we come to our rich cultural foundation at the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus. All of these creative leaders have a direct or indirect relationship to our family tree, a testament to our powerful and rich legacy.

Sabato Rodia, who came to Watts to build “Nuestro Pueblo”, also known as the Watts Towers, did not know and could never imagine the foundation he was laying for this historical Campus and its future occupants. Listed below are the artists La Monte has included for our continued nourishment. As we look back, we recapture our heritage, strength and knowledge to make this world a better place, we do “Sankofa”.

Exhibition Details

“Sankofa”
Artist: La Monte Westmoreland
March 19, 2017- August 6, 2017
Noah Purifoy Gallery
Charles Mingus Gallery

Gallery Hours

Monday-Saturday | 10:00am – 4:00 : Sunday | 12:00pm – 4:00

Location

Watts Towers Arts Center Campus, 1727 East 107th Street, Los Angeles, California 90002, Phone: 213-847-4646

More Info Here: https://www.wattstowers.org/copy-of-exhibitions