UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center's video: Talk: Gronk and Peter Sellars in Conversation at the LA Art Show 2020

Two legendary L.A.-based artists, Gronk and Peter Sellars, met at the 2020 LA Art Show to discuss their theatrical and operatic collaborations over the last three decades. They also shared their experiences and thoughts on the role of art in a time of profound social upheaval and inequity. The conversation took place on the stage of Gronk’s installation Pyramids, a full-size re-creation of a theatrical set that the artist painted on site during the five-day show. The installation was curated by Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director, and was presented by the CSRC and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). "Pyramids" re-imagines Gronk’s 2013 set design for Sellar’s Purcell’s "The Indian Queen," an innovative updating of the 1695 semi-opera. For the LA Art Show, Gronk brings the piece into 2020, while also on providing visitors with a behind-the-curtain view of his artistic practice. Rather than enter a theater where the stage is already set, visitors will be able to interact with the artist, participating in the process of making a “political theater” for our contemporary moment. Gronk was a featured artist in DIVERSEartLA, where his project brought together elements of his lifelong work as painter, muralist, performance artist, set designer, sculptor, and printmaker. His expansive art flows out of his DTLA studio into the hallway, where the resulting 40-foot long wall mural has been declared a city landmark. Peter Sellars is a renowned theater, opera, and festival director. He is co-organizer of the exhibition Inside the Mask, on Central American masks after the Conquista, which opens at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on February 15, 2020.