Ken Gonzales-Day

Xican-a.o.x Body centers on the political and creative resistance of Xicanx artists from 1968 to the present. Presenting new histories of Xicanx art, the book illustrates how some seventy artists have foregrounded the Brown body to explore, expand, and complicate the Mexican American, Latinx, and Xicanx experiences, emphasizing the term Xicanx for greater acknowledgment of indigenous roots and intersectional identities. Thematic essays by renowned scholars address how Xicanx art lies at the intersection of the politics of identity, race, and class, and interrogate questions of “high” and “low” culture. Taken together, the texts and images celebrate artistic communities who have pushed against the systemic racism of mainstream art institutions. The catalog appears in tandem with a touring exhibition’s inaugural presentation at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum.