• MSJC
• MSJC Art Gallery
• Current Exhibition

Current Exhibition

The MSJC Art Gallery presents a very special two person exhibition Decolonial Narratives: Tales of Land and Belonging by William Camargo and Alkaid Ramirez. This exhibition brings together the conceptual photographic works of two artists from Southern California. They ask us to reframe how we view our relationship to our area and how the colonial history and the current gentrification changes could be challenged through new narratives. This exhibition is part of our Mt. San Jacinto College Latinx Heritage Month celebration. The gallery artist talk and exhbition are supported by PUENTE.

Both William Camargo and Alkaid Ramirez are born and raised in Anaheim, CA with studios in Santa Ana. These two artists reflect on what it means to have long Hispanic family history in their area as rents raise, as history is erased, as neighborhoods change in what noted Los Angeles Times writer Gustavo Arellano calls “this most-Latino of big cities.”

The artists present ideas, ask questions and take pictures in ways that can be very humorous and touching at the same time. In a diptych, Ramirez shows two images: one picture, taken in 1880, is of the oldest settler of the area, a Mexican man standing next to his donkey. Beside that image he presents a photograph of his father standing next to his pickup truck. Ramirez’s father is a working class handyman who has provided for his family through his washing machine repair business. Ramirez asks us to think about how both of these men are proudly standing next to two versions of their tools and transportation with 150 years separating them but the place where they live and work is the same.

William Camargo has become well known for his conceptual photograph practice that addresses gentrification and the erasure of Chicanx/Latinx histories from the area. In one of his pieces, a man with brown skin, wearing black Converse and grey Dickies stands in front of a construction fence holding a sign above his face with the words “THIS AREA WILL GENTRIFY SOON”. This concept has become universal in Southern California and in the Inland Empire. Camargo’s photographic gesture is a powerful reminder of those who have been in this area for generations. He asks us to consider the history of displacement and to think about what gentrification means not only as a word but as a socioeconomic action.

William Camargo (born 1989, Anaheim, CA; lives Anaheim) William Camargo is a lensbased artist and educator raised in Anaheim, California. He is a lecturer in photography at Pasadena City College and Cal State Fullerton. William is the founder and curator of Latinx Diaspora Archives, an archive Instagram page that elevates communities of color through family photos. His work focuses on gentrification, police violence, and Chicanx/Latinx histories and comments on the hegemonic history of photography through archival research and performative interventions that live as photographs. William has held residencies at the Latinx Project at NYU, Light Work in Syracuse, NY, TILT Institute in Philadelphia, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Penumbra Foundation in NYC, Aurora Photo Center in Indianapolis, and Satisfactory Casa in San Jose, Costa Rica. William’s works are in several public and private collections, including S.F MOMA Library, Huntington Library, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Harvard Library, MSU Broad Art Museum, LACMA, and the J Paul Getty Museum.

Alkaid Ramirez (born 1995, Santa Anna, CA; lives Anaheim) work has been featured in publications such as Negotiable Frontiers by William Camargo and The Latinx Project, and they are the author of Anaheim Blvd: Hood to Suburb, published by Seaton Street Press in July 2024. They have received several accolades, including the Community Engagement Grant (2023) and the Individual Artist Fellowship 'Emerging Artist' Award from the California Arts Council (2023). Their participation in group exhibitions includes Counter Archives (2020), Visions of Aztlan (2023), and Reencuentros: Seeing You Again (2024), while their solo shows include El Jale (2021) and Anaheim Blvd: Hood to Suburb (2024). Ramirez's work has been featured in media outlets like Voice of OC and the LA Times, and their art is part of the AltaMed Private Collection.