Jacqueline Valenzuela: Con Safos, Con Fuerza
Dezember/Cunningham Gallery 
September 26, 2024 – January 4, 2025 
Sponsored by California Resources Corporation, the Bryce & Florence York Fund, Latina Leaders of Kern County, and Kern Family Health Care. 

Con Safos, Con Fuerza announces artist Jacqueline Valenzuela’s position among the vanguard of feminist art. Valenzuela subverts male-dominated lowrider culture by placing women in central positions in her work. Blending fine art with street culture through her "Mujeres de Lowriding" series and innovative use of automotive materials, Valenzuela challenges stereotypes and elevates diverse voices within the art world. Her approach democratizes the art world, elevating the aesthetics of lowriding—an element of street culture typically marginalized by mainstream art institutions—to high art. This exhibition underscores the transformative impact of inclusive representation in art, demonstrating how merging cultural and artistic traditions can redefine artistic boundaries. 

Cesar Martinez: Drink Cultura  
Ablin Gallery 
September 26, 2024 – January 4, 2025
Sponsored by Ira & Carole Cohen/UBS Financial, AGM Community Partners, and Kern Family Health Care. 

Drink Cultura catalogs Cesar Martinez's journey of self-discovery, cultural reconnection, and quest to create a visual language fluent in cultural heritage that also speaks to diverse audiences. Fueled by feelings of isolation, due to a lack of Spanish fluency and not fitting in with his ethnic identity, Martinez found solace in Jose Antonio Burciaga's book Drink Cultura: Chicanismo. By integrating Aztec and Mayan iconography to explore themes of identity and belonging, Drink Cultura celebrates the richness of the Chicano experience while confronting the complexities of navigating between two cultures. 

Bakersfield Built: Architecture of the 1950s 
Chevron Gallery  
September 26, 2024 – January 4, 2025 
This exhibition was created in collaboration with the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter. Sponsored by BMW of Bakersfield, Bakersfield Built Foundation, Curtis & Peggy Darling Fund, Bakersfield College Foundation & Archives, Kelly Archer Interiors, Inc., and Kern Family Health Care. 

In the wake of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that devastated downtown Bakersfield on July 21, 1952, and facing a growing post-World War II population boom, masters and students of architecture embraced the Mid-century Modern style in their vision of a city reborn, heralding a new era of architectural innovation. Local architects, many educated under Clarence Cullimore's groundbreaking high school program, and renowned figures from Los Angeles such as Richard J. Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright, contributed to this transformation. Their work, characterized by clean lines and modern materials, helped Bakersfield become a prominent center for Mid-century Modernism on the West Coast. Bakersfield Built: Architecture of the 1950s highlights how the city’s post-disaster rebuilding and economic boom fostered a unique and cohesive architectural identity.