Monica Arreola
Echoes of Abandonment: Photographs of a Utopia
May 11 - June 15, 2024
curated by Eduardo Lozano
BEST PRACTICE is excited to present Echoes of Abandonment: Photographs of a Utopia, an exhibition of a long-term project by Tijuana-based artist and photographer Mónica Arreola that documents abandoned housing projects in Tijuana. For several years, her work has focused on taking pictures of these contemporary ruins resulting from the 2008 financial crisis that rippled across the entire globe.
Real state speculation led to the abandonment of several housing projects all over Mexico. The images presented in this exhibition are part of the series Valle San Pedro, titled after a sustainable satellite city planned in Tijuana's outskirts. Through the use of images, the artist explores the alteration of the landscape and the social complexities of the people who inhabit these spaces. Arreola produces these works as records which provide evidence of public policy failure around housing development in undeveloped areas at the periphery of the city Themes of echo, ruins, oblivion, and their impact on the landscape all emerge from this work.
Mónica Arreola is an interdisciplinary artist based in Tijuana, Mexico. She is part of the National System of Art Creators (2022-2025).
Arreola’s work has been presented in the Border Biennial 2024, the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Quiet as It's Kept, and was selected for PHotoESPAÑA Discoveries. She has received many accolades and grants, including first place in the “VI Biennial of Photography of the State of Baja California” (2008) and the “IX Biennial of Photography of the State of Baja California” (2014); second place in the "IV International Biennial of Banners" (2006); and the first place in the contest "Billboard of the Mexico Border Bridge" for InSITE (2002).
Her works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum (at Miami University), Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), Secretaría de Cultura de Baja California, Colección Elías + Fontes, and Fundación Colección Kunsthaus AC, among others. Her work has been exhibited in Mexico, the United States, and Spain.
Mónica Arreola holds a B.A. in Architecture, an MFA in Modern and Contemporary Art, and a certification in curatorship. She is currently the co-director of the independent space 206 Arte Contemporáneo located in Tijuana, Mexico.
Eduardo Lozano is an independent curator and researcher. He received the 2024 Fundación Jumex Grant in the research category. He was a recipient of the Baja California Artistic Creation and Development Stimulus Program (2018-2019) in the research category on art in Baja California. Among his most recent publications are “Valra. Cósmica y mecánica de la pintura”, published by Secretaría de Cultura de Baja California (2021), and “Ellos y Nosotros/Them & Us by Marcos Ramírez ERRE, published by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (2021). Select exhibition highlights include After the Horizon Everything Is Blue by Jessica Sanchez (2023), Inhabit Oblivion by Mónica Arreola (2022), and I Have Been Trying for Years to Remember Something that I Cannot Forget by Guadalupe Vidal. (2022), and Threshold. Photography is part of the artistic heritage of Baja California.
He was co-founder and director of Periférica, an organization dedicated to creating, socializing, and preserving content related to Baja California's visual arts. He works in the San Diego-Tijuana transborder region.
UPCOMING
Cat Gunn, Kirstyn Hom, Heige Kim, Jun!yi Min, and Naomi Madreau
July 13 - August 17
Picturing Health (curated by Elizabeth Rooklidge)
featuring works by Maria Mathioudakis, Bhavna Mehta, Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio, Elizabeth Rooklidge, and Akiko Surai
November 9 - December 14
Gosia Herc
January 11 - February 15, 2025
1955 Julian Avenue
San Diego, CA 92113
map
25th/Commercial on the Orange Line
Barrio Logan on the Blue Line
Gallery hours (during exhibitions):
Tuesday - Friday
11am - 4pm