Reclamation: Art in Contested Spaces
ILA
March 9-August 15, 2026
Featured Artists
- NSRGNTS Collective
- Rubén Ortiz-Torres
- LaPiztola
- Gustavo Martinez
Exhibition Statement:
Featuring works by NSRGNTS Collective, Rubén Ortiz-Torres, LaPiztola, and Gustavo Martinez, the exhibition examines how public space, memory, identity, and cultural histories are continually contested, erased, reclaimed, and reimagined. Through mural-scale paintings, installation, printmaking, photography, and projections of erased murals, the artists engage questions of displacement, resistance, migration, gentrification, and the ongoing struggle over who is visible within the built environment.
Works List
Rubén Ortiz-Torres
Ghost Flag / Fantasma de Bandera, 2015
Urethane and pearl on aluminum / Uretano y perla sobre aluminio
96 × 50 ½ × 2 in (243.8 × 128.3 × 5.1 cm)
American Graffiti, 2025
Portfolio of 5 lithographs / Portafolio de 5 litografías
Published by El Nopal Press / Publicado por El Nopal Press
10 ¾ × 27 ¾ in each (27.3 × 70.5 cm cada una)
American Graffiti, 2023
Single-channel video / Video monocanal
Animation / Animación: Miranda Rosales
Production / Producción: Lourdes Villagómez
Raza Cósmica Productions, Los Angeles
Duration / Duración: 4 min.
Black Flag, 2014
Urethane and Metajuls paint on aluminum and Corafoam / Uretano y Metajuls sobre aluminio y Corafoam
Four-part sculpture: 2 aluminum panels and 2 Corafoam panels, each 72 × 24 × 6 in (182.9 × 61 × 15.2 cm) / Escultura de cuatro partes: 2 paneles de aluminio y 2 paneles de Corafoam, cada uno de 72 × 24 × 6 in (182.9 × 61 × 15.2 cm)
Bandera 43, 2016
Urethane, Metajuls, and pearl on aluminum / Uretano, Metajuls y perla sobre aluminio
36 × 24 in (91.4 × 61 cm)
NSRGNTS Collective
City Haul, 2018
Acrylic, spray paint, and oil pastel on canvas / Acrílico, pintura en aerosol y pastel al óleo sobre lienzo
144 × 96 in (365.8 × 243.8 cm)
The Cute Revolution (Po’Pay), 2024
Seven-panel canvas installation / Instalación de siete paneles sobre lienzo
Acrylic, spray paint, and mixed media on canvas / Acrílico, pintura en aerosol y técnica mixta sobre lienzo
72 × 384 in (182.9 × 975.4 cm)
Toypurina, 2014
Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas / Acrílico y pastel al óleo sobre lienzo
48 × 72 in (121.9 × 182.9 cm)
Made in Guatemala and Maid in America, 2014
Diptych / Díptico
Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas / Acrílico y pastel al óleo sobre lienzo
20 × 24 in each (50.8 × 61 cm cada una)
Distractions, Year
Reclaimed street sign / Señal de tránsito recuperada
18 × 24 in (45.7 × 61 cm)
Wagon Burner, Year
Reclaimed street sign / Señal de tránsito recuperada
18 × 24 in (45.7 × 61 cm)
Unc, Year
Reclaimed street sign / Señal de tránsito recuperada
36 × 36 in (91.4 × 91.4 cm)
Amoxtli Tzotzil, Year
Reclaimed street sign / Señal de tránsito recuperada
24 × 36 in (61 × 91.4 cm)
TThe Ancestor, Year
Graphite on paper / Grafito sobre papel
24 × 29 in (61 × 73.7 cm)
You are on Indian Land, 2021
Repurposed Bus Stop Add / Medio
Dimensions / Dimensiones
Pachuca Calaca, 1998
Repurposed Bus Stop Add / Medio
Dimensions / Dimensiones
Sketches and Studies, c. 1998–2025
Selection of original drawings spanning more than twenty-five years of artistic practice / Selección de dibujos originales que abarcan más de veinticinco años de práctica artística
Graphite, colored pencil, ink, pastel, and mixed media on paper / Grafito, lápiz de color, tinta, pastel y técnica mixta sobre papel
Dimensions variable / Dimensiones variables
Installation Views
[Add NSRGNTS Collective installation images here]
LaPiztola
Highway Hypnosis, 2024
Paper mural installation / Instalación mural en papel
Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles
Dimensions variable / Dimensiones variables
Whitewashed Murals Archive, 2006–2024
Digital projection installation featuring murals and public artworks that have been censored, removed, destroyed, or painted over / Instalación de proyección digital que presenta murales y obras públicas censuradas, removidas, destruidas o cubiertas con pintura
Dimensions variable / Dimensiones variables
Selected works include documentation of community murals, political interventions, and public artworks originally created throughout Oaxaca and beyond. Presented at architectural scale, the projections temporarily restore visibility to works that have been erased from public space.
Animated Artwork, Year
Single-channel video with sound / Video monocanal con sonido
Duration / Duración: XX min.
Mural Installation Process, Year
Single-channel video with sound / Video monocanal con sonido
Documentation of mural installation / Documentación de instalación mural
Duration / Duración: XX min.
Gustavo Martinez
Gustavo Martinez is a Los Angeles–based artist working across aerial, digital, and film photography. The son of Mexican migrant parents, his work examines labor, displacement, memory, and belonging within the changing landscape of Los Angeles.
For more than fifteen years, Martinez has photographed Inglewood, documenting a neighborhood transformed by redevelopment, infrastructure projects, and shifting economic forces. Vacant lots, homes, railroads, and construction sites appear throughout his work as traces of a community in transition, connecting personal memory to broader histories of migration, labor, and urban change.
Presented at the entrance to ILA, Roots centers the hands of the artist’s father, a gardener whose labor helped shape the landscapes of Los Angeles for decades. Scarred, weathered, and marked by a lifetime of physical work, these hands stand as both portrait and archive. They bear witness to the generations of immigrant laborers whose work has built, maintained, and sustained the city while their stories remain largely absent from official histories.
In a moment when immigrants are increasingly reduced to political rhetoric and caricature, Martinez returns attention to the physical evidence of a life spent working. The photographs reclaim the dignity, sacrifice, and humanity embedded within labor itself. The outstretched hands welcome visitors into the exhibition while asserting a simple truth: entire communities, neighborhoods, and cities have been built through the efforts of people whose contributions are too often overlooked, erased, or denied.
Across Martinez’s practice, photography becomes a tool for preserving spaces, histories, and relationships threatened by displacement, redevelopment, and cultural amnesia.
Martinez received his MFA from UC San Diego and his BA from UCLA and is a member of 3B Collective.
Title, Year
Photography diptych / Díptico fotográfico
Dimensions / Dimensiones
Inglewood, 2020-2021
Single-channel video / Video monocanal
Duration / Duración: 6 min.
Public Programs
Grand Opening Reception
June 13, 2026
[Add artist talks, workshops, screenings, performances, and other programs here.]
Exhibition Credits
Curator
Óscar Magallanes
Exhibition Design
Óscar Magallanes
Gallery Preparation
Zebulon Zang and Alek Palacios
Art Handling and Installation
Alfredo Diaz, Aaron Estrada, Adrian Alfaro, Francisco Valderrama, and Mark Davila
Lighting Installation and Procurement
Adriana Arambula
Loans
Royal Projects, Los Angeles
El Nopal Press, Los Angeles
Courtesy of the Artists
NSRGNTS Collective
Ruben Ortiz Torres
LaPiztola
Gustavo Martinez