Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Drawn from The Dean Collection of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, The Dean Collection Presents: Hometown Heroes showcases selected works by local photographers–MJ Pimentel, Oscar Cruz, and Chata–alongside MCASD Collection works by artists from our region, including, Andrea Chung, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, and Fox Maxy. Works in this gallery evoke the border region’s cultural and ecological landscape and the communities who have long inhabited and shaped it.

Works by Pimentel, Cruz and Chata capture facets of life in San Diego with images that speak to the encroachment of gentrification, a longstanding history of Chicana/o/e activism, lowrider car culture, and community pride. With an eye towards the natural environment, Chung’s cyanotypes of lionfish shed light on the enduring effects of colonialism, while Cabeza de Baca’s layered painting and Maxy’s sculptural video installation point to the cultural and ecologic forces that have shaped the US/Mexico border region.