Centro Exhibitions
About Centro Exhibits
Inside Centro Cultural De La Raza!
Video displays a walk around video tour of Centro’s gallery during the Roberto R Pozos Solo exhibition in 2024
The Centro offers a gallery space for emerging and experienced artists to showcase their work to the San Diego / Tijuana Region and international visitors. Our volunteer curators bring diverse artistic visions to life. We feature exciting new exhibits and recurring ones, such as Day of the Dead and Enero Zapatista. Each exhibit opens with a reception where you can meet the artists, enjoy live entertainment, purchase artwork, and support local talent. Most exhibits are free, donation-based, or offered on a sliding scale.
community wall EXHIBIT on view June 27 -october 4 2026
This exhibition by Jesús Montoya explores resilience, identity, and the healing power of art. Painting entirely with a brush held in his mouth, Montoya creates works inspired by his Mexican roots, personal experiences, and the beauty of everyday life.
Through vibrant landscapes and emotional imagery, his paintings reflect perseverance, hope, and transformation. More than a collection of artworks, this exhibition is a reflection of survival, creativity, and the strength of the human spirit.
Through his work, Montoya invites viewers to see beyond limitations and to experience art as a form of healing, expression, and connection.
EXHIBIT on view Sept 5th -OCT 4 .
Centro Cultural de la Raza Presents Agarra La Onda! Selections of Centro’s Collection, on view September 5–October 4, 2026. In commemoration of the Chicano artists who have contributed to the cultural, political, and community life of Centro and its archives, this exhibition honors Chicano art as a practice of cultural memory, resistance, spirituality, and political consciousness. Inspired by David Avalos’ 1985 Ofrenda exhibition at Galería Posada in Sacramento, Agarra La Onda! brings together selections from Centro’s private collection, including photography, prints, paintings, and other forms of visual expression. Together, these works reflect how Chicana/o artists have used cultura, politics, and spirituality to document history, challenge oppression, and imagine new possibilities for our communities.
Agarra La Onda! is a call to understand our history, identity, and the political realities and material conditions shaping our communities. As border militarization and the targeting of immigrant and Indigenous communities continue, the exhibition asks us to “get it” to awaken our political consciousness, confront systems of oppression, and recognize the importance of creating, protecting, and strengthening community. Through cultural remembering and praxis, art becomes an archive of struggle, resistance, spirituality, and collective imagination. The Centro remains our community home, a living archive, and a pillar of our ofrenda de conciencia.
Curated by the Arts Advisory Committee (AAC): Israel “Izzy” Carranza,
Ymoat Luna, and Marce M. Prado.
PREVIOUS Exhibits
Enero Zapatista
Enero Zapatista is a month-long series of politically and culturally conscious events on unceded Kumeyaay land that commemorate the uprising of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN)/Zapatista Army of National Liberation, better known as the Zapatistas, in January 1994. For 21 years, San Diego has held Enero events every January, with over 10 years of hosting a closing concert and art exhibit at the Centro Cultural as part of the month’s activities.
This past January’s exhibit was titled We Teach Life: Towards Other Geographies and Calendars, which was itself the third part in our four-part series Borderlands Visions
Roberto R. Pozos
Solo Exhibition
The Roberto R. Pozos Solo Exhibit featured the works of longtime border resident and artist, Roberto R. Pozos. Pozos, originally from Calexico, really captures the essence of life on the U.S./Mexico border. From individual portraits of fronterizas/os to realistic landscapes depicting the trials and tribulations, the angst and the joy of life en la Frontera, Pozos’ solo show brought much life, laughter and joy to the Centro Cultural de la Raza.
Indigenous BorderLands
Borderlands Visions III
Indigenous Borderlands: Weaving Nepantla, Remembering Sacred Relations at Centro Cultural de la Raza! This exhibition weaves together the connections, community, and history shared by Indigenous peoples, challenging conventional norms to create a space of healing, reflection, and unity.
It is an attempt to situate the historic connection that Chicano Mexicanos have had with our land bases, but also as a tribalized community, acknowledging that we are also on unceded Indigenous Kumeyaay territory. We’ve, historically, always had important political, cultural, sacred, and historical connections to Indigenous peoples of this area.