The new exhibition ‘Chicano Collection/La Colección Chicana Art’ spotlights Chicano art from the private collection of actor and comedian Cheech Marin.
Sitting in a vintage oak jury armchair inside the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento takes a sip of his coffee as he talks about the art that adorns the courtroom walls.
“What better place than here to house an art exhibit where people can come for free and see the legacy of not just the Chicano movement, but incredible Chicano artists,” said Sarmiento, referring to the new exhibition, “Chicano Collection/La Colección Chicana Art,” currently on display at the landmark courthouse. “Santa Ana has a sort of unknown connection to the Chicano movement and specifically this building.”
The Old Orange County Courthouse has been witness to historic events and cases like Doss v. Bernal, the 1943 trial that successfully challenged the residential segregation of Mexican Americans in Orange County, resulting in one of the earliest legal victories against racial housing covenants in the United States. Such cases served as a primer to “El Movimiento” – detailing the experiences of Chicanos and the art created in response.
The exhibit highlights a selection of 26 limited-edition digital reproductions, known as giclées, of original paintings – presented in a variety of media, themes and expressions, paired with documentary ephemera – by prolific Chicano and Chicana artists from the private collection of actor and comedian Cheech Marin.
The prints, created through a national art project led by Marin with the late Richard S. Duardo of Modern Multiples Fine Art Editions and Melissa Richardson Banks of CauseConnect, features images depicting urban life and the Chicano experience between 1969 and 2001 by such Chicano/a artists as Carlos Almaraz, Margaret Garcia, Gilbert “Magu” Luján, John Valadez, David Botello, Carmen Lomas Garza and Vincent Valdez, to name a few.
PHOTO 1: The entrance to the Historical Gallery at the Old Orange County Courthouse where the The Chicano Collection is on display. PHOTO 2: The exhibit highlights a selection of 26 limited-edition digital reproductions by prolific Chicano artists from the private collection of actor and comedian, Cheech Marin. PHOTO 3: Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento sits in a jury armchair inside the Historical Gallery which was previously a courtroom. </