Title: Justice is in the Eye of the Beholder Artist: Conchita Villalba & robertkarimi Exhibition Dates: J an 20 – March 23, 2001

Galería presents “Justice is in the Eye of the Beholder,” from a series of digital murals by two artists that are participating in Galería's Atlas(t) exhibit. This will be the Digital Mural Project's first collaboration between artists of Latino/a and Asian descent. Robert Karimi, an Iranian-Guatemalteco graphic designer and performance poet, and Conchita Villalba, a graphic designer, video artist, and community arts activist of Chinese and Mexican descent, have teamed up to tackle the issue of racial profiling. Karimi and Villalba trace the origin of racial profiling within Latino and Asian communities to the legalized mistreatment of immigrants, such as in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment camps, and the deportation of unwanted braceros (Mexican migrant farm workers). If unjust practices of racial profiling continue, the artists say, "We will end up like the figures on our billboard: stuck in the crosshairs of the hunter, waiting for our imminent fate." “ This public mural comes at a crucial time when solutions for discriminatory police practices are being considered in California’s legislature and the ACLU is encouraging victims of racial profiling to report incidents,” says Digital Mural curator John Leaños. The artists are attempting to broaden the debate by acknowledging that Asians and Latinos have suffered a long history of state-sponsored discrimination. The ACLU’s campaign to report incidents of racial profiling is ongoing. Complaints can be filed by calling the hotlines 1-877-PARALOS (for Spanish) and 1-877-DWB-STOP (for English).