Luis De Jesus Los Angeles invites you to a special Artist Talk in conjunction with our current exhibitions, Frank Romero: California Dreaming and Karla Diaz: Mal de Ojo, moderated by Idurre Alonso, Head of Modern and Contemporary Art and Curator of Latin American Collections at the Getty Research Institute.

This program will be held on Saturday, October 18, 2025, from 2:00–3:00 p.m. Gallery hours are 10am – 6pm, you are welcome to arrive early to view the exhibitions in before or after the program, the talk will begin promptly at 2:00 p.m. Seating is limited; RSVP advised.

About the Exhibitions:

Frank Romero: California Dreaming invites viewers to a nighttime drive—from the glimmering boulevards of Hollywood to the vast openness of the Sonoran Desert, which straddles both the Northwest of Mexico and the American Southwest. Through abstracted nightscapes illuminated by Romero’s signature expressionist color palette, galvanized by bold brushstrokes, iconic vintage cars cruise beneath starry skies and glowing neon, driving past palm trees, saguaros, and landmark symbols of Los Angeles’ cinematic golden age. Throughout his prolific career, Romero has cultivated a visual vocabulary that embodies shared experiences, pride, notions of identity, home, belonging, and the many complexities and joys of Chicanx life, resonating with Angelenos and beyond.

Karla Diaz: Mal de Ojo presents a series of self-portraits that delve into the many facets of her identity, from familial bonds and cultural heritage to her alter egos, and with them, her fears, hopes, and dreams. Employing watercolor on paper and acrylic on canvas, the artist transforms the genre of self-portraiture into a powerful space of storytelling and collective memory—an invitation to see identity as both deeply individual and inherently shared. Visit: www.luisdejesus.com/exhibitions for more information on Karla Diaz: Mal de Ojo.

About the Speakers:

Frank Romero (b.1941, Los Angeles, CA) is among the most influential pioneers of the Chicano Art Movement. Romero employs various media—including painting, neon, sculpture, and murals—to explore narratives related to the Chicanx experience, Latin American heritage, and American Pop culture. Pulling together a diverse cast of signs and symbols to invent a visual language reflective of the multiculturalism at the core of the Chicanx community, his works provide insight into his life as both an artist and a Mexican American from East LA.

Romero’s works are included in such prominent collections as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, Riverside, CA; The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA; The Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA; the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, and others. He has completed over 15 murals throughout Los Angeles and was a key contributor to the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival with Going to the Olympics, a large-scale mural painted along one of Los Angeles’ busiest freeways, the Hollywood Freeway (U.S. Highway 101) in Downtown Los Angeles, a scene loved by millions throughout the decades.

Karla Diaz (b. 1976, Los Angeles, CA) is a writer, teacher, and multidisciplinary artist who engages in painting, installation, video, and performance. Using narrative to question identity, institutional power, and explore memory, her socially engaged practice generates exciting collaborations and provokes important dialogue among diverse communities. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2003 and a BA from California State University, Los Angeles in 1999. Diaz is a co-founder, alongside Mario Ybarra Jr., of the collective and community artist space Slanguage in Wilmington, CA. Diaz’s works (including Slanguage) have been exhibited nationally and internationally at the 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, LAXART, Hollywood, CA; Pitzer College, Claremont, CA; California State University Los Angeles, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI; the Serpentine Gallery, London, U.K.; and Museo Casa de Cervantes, Madrid, Spain. Her work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL; and Inhotim Museum, Brumadinho, Brazil. She has received numerous grants and awards, including those from The Latinx Project at New York University, New York, NY; Art Matters, New York, NY; Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY; City of Los Angeles, CA; Riverside Art Museum, CA; and CalArts, Los Angeles, CA.

Idurre Alonso is Head of Modern and Contemporary Art and Curator of Latin American Collections at the Getty Research Institute, where she has played a pivotal role in advancing scholarship, acquisitions, and curatorial innovation in the fields of Latin American and Latinx art. Prior to this role, she served as Curator at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) from 2003 to 2014, where she organized a wide range of exhibitions.

Her exhibitions at the Getty have received widespread recognition, including Alfredo Boulton: Looking at Venezuela, 1928–1978 (2023) and Reinventing the Américas: Construct, Erase, Repeat (2022), both celebrated for their groundbreaking scholarship and for challenging traditional exhibition narratives. In these projects, Alonso introduced new methods of display while incorporating local and Indigenous perspectives, reinforcing her commitment to reframing dominant histories. Ms. Alonso’s leadership has also extended internationally. She co-leads the Latin American and Latinx Art Initiative (LALAI), fostering scholarly and institutional collaborations to strengthen global networks in the field.

During her tenure at the GRI, Ms. Alonso has spearheaded the acquisition of more than 150 new additions to the collection, including significant archives that have helped reshape the institution’s holdings. Her curatorial approach has focused on diversifying the Latin American and Latinx collections by amplifying the voices of underrepresented artists—particularly women such as Alice Rahon, Grete Stern, and Gertrudis de Moses—and addressing historical omissions.