After a torturous hiatus, Latin American Contemporary Art Projects is finally reopening, and not without some fanfare. When the Charlotte home of LaCa Projects welcomes visitors once again this fall, it will do so as part of an ambitious, multi-institution collaboration featuring contemporary Mexican photography. Oh, and it’ll have a café.
LaCa joins The Light Factory, The Mint Museum, The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, The McColl Center for Art + Innovation, SOCO Gallery, and the New Gallery of Modern Art in an exhibition initiative that will expose the work of more than 50 contemporary photographers from Mexico and the United States. This collaboration, dubbed In Focus/Enfoque, will address a wide array of themes, including gender, activism, identity, globalism, and borders—a mass of contemporary art in dialogue with the Queen City.
LaCa’s In Focus/Enfoque, featuring award-winning photographers Alejandra Laviada, Humberto Rios, and Karina Juarez, represents the gallery’s first-ever photography exhibition. The various works in the show concern themselves with topics ranging from loss to identity, creating visual narratives of the artists’ personal experiences.
LaCa’s part in the extensive exhibition shows until early November, but the gallery’s got another new installation that will last: Basal Coffee, headed up by coffee nerd and art enthusiast Bryce Laguer, now shares LaCa’s property. Juxtaposing responsibly sourced coffee with contemplative art, the café looks to ensure that the gallery is, more than ever, a place to linger.