Harry Gamboa Jr.

The first of five children born to a working-class Mexican American couple, Gamboa grew up in East Los Angeles, California, "an urban area tormented by poverty, violence, and racial conflict".[1] Despite the "inadequacy of the East L.A. public schools",[1] Gamboa was encouraged to value education and did fairly well in school, and he was active in community organizations and politics as a teenager. As a high-school student (graduated 1969), Gamboa was active in student government and an organizer of various student-initiated reforms, most significantly the 1968 "East L.A. Blowouts"—a series of protests against the inferior conditions of public schools in poor, non-white areas.[2]

Gamboa's extracurricular activities were not, however, limited to politics. Already a developing artist, it was at Garfield High that Gamboa met Gronk (Glugio Nicandro), Patssi Valdez (then known as Patsy), and Willie Herrón, three of his closest associates in his later career. After the "Blowouts" of his senior year, Gamboa dropped out of the political scene to dedicate himself to his education. Thanks to these efforts and with the help of the Equal Opportunities Program (EOP) for disadvantaged minority students, Gamboa was able to attend California State University, Los Angeles.

From this point, his career as an artist—both solo and with Gronk, Valdez, and Herrón in the art collective ASCO (Spanish for nausea) —"took off".[1] Among other "urban interventions," Asco sprayed their names on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.[3]

In 1993 Gamboa married his second wife, Chicana muralist Barbara Carrasco, after seven years of romantic and professional involvement.

The Getty Research Institute Pacific Standard Time initiative that focused on postwar art in Los Angeles featured the major exhibition, Asco: Elite of the Obscure, a retrospective, 1972-1987, at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 4 - December 4, 2011.

Elite of the Obscure, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, February 4 - July 29, 2012.

Patrick Charpenel selected Asco: Elite of the Obscure as Mexico City’s Best, 2013, Art in America, (December 2013)

Gamboa's photograph, Decoy Gang War Victim, 1974, was featured on the cover of Artforum (October, 2011).

Michael Ned Holte selected, Asco: Elite of the Obscure, as his #1 pick for Best of 2011 in Artforum (December, 2011).

Christopher Knight selected, Asco: Elite of the Obscure, 2011 year in review: Best in Art, 2011 Los Angeles Times.

His work has been exhibited by museums nationally/internationally:

Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2020); The Jewish Museum (2020); Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.(2019); Tirafkan Cultural Foundation, Tehran (2019); Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2019); Davis Museum at Wellesley College (2019); Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art UNLV, Las Vegas (2019); Vincent Price Art Museum ELAC, Monterey Park (2019); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gill, Mexico City (2018, 1978); Autry Museum of the American West (2018); Foto Forum Santa Fe (2018); Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile (2018); Marlborough Contemporary, New York (2017); MOCA Pacific Design Center (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016, 2015 and 1995 Biennial); Delaware Art Museum (2016); Utah Museum of Fine Arts (2015); Princeton University Art Museum (2015); Centre d'Arts Plastiques Contemporain, Bordeaux, France (2014); De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2014); Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz, Austria (2013); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England (2013); Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. (2013); Le Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France (2017, 2013); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (UNAM), Mexico City (2013); Tate Liverpool, Liverpook, England (2013); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (2011, 1981); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011, 2010); Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (2009); Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA (2011); Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England (2009); Museo de Arte Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico (2009); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2011, 2008, 2001); Fowler Museum, UC Los Angeles (2011); Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City (2008); Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles (2008); El Museo del Barrio, New York (2008, 2010); The Huntington Library, San Marino, California (2008); Museo José Luis Cuevas, Mexico City (2006); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2006); Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City (2005); International Center of Photography, New York (2003); MIT List Visual Arts Center (2000); Queens Museum of Art (1999); Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (1997); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark (1996); Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1994); Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (1994); LAX/CSU Los Angeles (1994); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (1981); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1979); Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City (1978); Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ (1977).

He has received numerous awards from institutions including the Rockefeller Foundation (2004), the Durfee Foundation Artist Award (2001), the Flintridge Foundation Visual Artist Award (2000), the Gluck Foundation (1998–1999), the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts (1990), the California Arts Council (1996), Art Matters, Inc. (1996), and National Endowment for the Arts (1978 and 1980).

Hilda Solis, Los Angeles County Supervisor, First District presented Harry Gamboa Jr. with a County of Los Angeles Commendation, August 1, 2017:

"In recognition of dedicated service to the affairs of the community and for the civic pride demonstrated by numerous contributions for the benefit of all citizens of Los Angeles County."

Harry Gamboa Jr., See What You Mean, 2016/17 Getty Artist Program invitee, The J.Paul Getty Museum

2010 Latino Heritage Month was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by a wide spectrum of supporters in Council Chambers at the famed Los Angeles City Hall, where Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa presented the Latino Heritage Awards: Spirit of Los Angeles Willie Herrón III, Patssi Valdez, and Harry Gamboa Jr. accepted the award on behalf of Asco), Dream of Los Angeles Tony Plana, Hope of Los Angeles Plácido Domingo.

Gamboa founded/directed Virtual Vérité (2005-2017), an international ensemble performance troupe.

Sidewalk Quinceañera

Calibre Libre

Thin Line

Borderless

He is Co-Director, Program in Photography and Media, California Institute of the Arts.

He has taught, lectured, and/or delivered artist talks and/or panel discussions at various universities and art institutions, including: California Institute of the Arts; University of Houston; University of California, Los Angeles: University of California, Riverside; University of California, Irvine; University of California, Santa Barbara;  University of California, San Diego;  Otis/Parsons;  Occidental College; Maine College of Art; Temple University; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum; Harvard University; UC Berkeley; Stanford University; Dartmouth College; Cornell University; Scripps College; Claremont Graduate University; School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Centro Cultural de España, Mexico City; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda", Mexico City; Nottingham Contemporary, UK; Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium; Williams College Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Triangle France, Marseille; SixtyEight Art Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark; Middelheim Museum, Antwerpen, Belgium; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo/UNAM, Mexico City; and Universitair Centrum Sint Ignatius, Antwerpen, Belgium.

In Plain Sight, conceived by Cassils and rafa esparza, is a coalition of 80 artists fighting migrant detention and the culture of incarceration. The performance occurred July 3, 2020 appeared in the sky above Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility & Detention Center, Bakersfield, California.

NO ICE NO ICE NO ICE

He served as a juror for Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Outwin Boochever Competition 2019

In Spring 2018, From ‘No Movie’ to ‘Fake Buzzers’ and The Sixth Expanse, Harry Gamboa Jr. in conversation with Hugo Hopping , SixtyEight Art Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.

In Fall 2017, he delivered keynote, Summer School #2 MAKING PUBLIC DOMAIN, Middelheim Museum, Antwerpen, organized by Nico Dockx (Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten) and Pascal Gielen (ARIA).

In Fall 2012, Universitair Centrum Sint Ignatius Antwerpen - UCSIA sponsored Gamboa to present, La La Land: Deflections and Recollections, an artist talk at Universiteit Antwerpen. He also worked with students and faculty of Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) along with Belgian artists Ria Pacquée and Nico Dockx to produce "actions" in Antwerpen and Brugge.

His photographs are in the permanent collection of Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

His photographs are in the permanent collection of Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

His photographs are in the permanent collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

His photographs are in the permanent collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

His photographs are in the permanent collection of Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, CA

His photographs are in the permanent collection of Wiliams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.

His photographs are in the permanent collection of Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, Williamstown, MA.

His photographs are in the permanent collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY.

His lithographs are in the permanent collection of Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, University of California, Los Angeles.

His oral history is included in Smithsonian Archives of American Art (1999). His oral history is also included in Alternative Projections, Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945-1980, a project of Los Angeles Filmforum (2011).

A permanent collection of his media works/papers has been established and archived at Green Library, Stanford University.