Getty Foundation Awards CSUDH $180,000 for Brackish Water Los Angeles

(Carson, CA) The California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) University Art Gallery has been awarded $180,000 by the Getty Foundation for support of Brackish Water Los Angeles, co-directed by gallery director and co-curator Aandrea Stang and co-curator Debra Scacco.This art and research project is part of the Getty Foundation’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative and will culminate in a public-facing exhibition at the gallery next year, alongside a robust slate of programming, off-site activations, and a catalog. 

“We are very excited that CSUDH is participating in the PST ART initiative for the first time,” Stang said. “It is meaningful to be involved in such a wide-ranging multidisciplinary program.”

Brackish Water Los Angeles looks at the ecosystems, infrastructures, and politics surrounding brackish water, which refers to the space where salt and fresh waters meet. The project also considers the larger implications of “in-betweenness” which includes issues of access, inclusion, ecological racism, and cultural/class system interchanges along Los Angeles’ waterways. In the culminating exhibition, slated to open August 2024, visitors will be introduced to scientific content through an exploration of art and objects, offering an engaging experience that raises questions about inequality and ecological justice, prompting new and important conversations. Confirmed artworks to be displayed include selections from Catherine Opie’s Freeway Series, Alfredo Jaar’s Untitled Water (E), and Nancy Baker Cahill’s groundbreaking augmented reality work Mushroom Cloud LA / Proximities, with additional objects from the collections of the Autry Museum of the American West and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 

The adjoining publication will capture several years of multi-layered research and expand the footprint of the Brackish Water Los Angeles exhibition. The book will help audiences better understand the relationship between brackish water and the city, and will weave research, writing, and art from scientists, artistic practitioners, and cultural workers, among other contributors.

Brackish Water will be on view at the University Art Gallery from August 12 to December 14, 2024 concurrent with the approximately 50 other exhibitions that will be presented around greater Southern California as part of The Getty Foundation’s PST ART. Launched in 2007, PST ART (formerly Pacific Standard Time) is Southern California’s landmark arts event. Dozens of cultural, scientific, and community organizations will join the latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, with exhibitions on subjects ranging from ancient cosmologies to Indigenous sci-fi, and from environmental justice to artificial intelligence. Art & Science Collide will share groundbreaking research, create indelible experiences for the public, and generate new ways of understanding our complex world. Art & Science Collide follows Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (September 2017-January 2018), which presented a paradigm-shifting examination of Latin American and Latinx art, and Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 (October 2011-March 2012), which rewrote the history of the birth and impact of the L.A. art scene. 

This exhibition is made possible with support from Getty through its PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative.