For the 2nd Los Angeles SUR:biennial, the Torrance Art Museum decided, upon reflection, to concentrate our emphasis on presenting as wide a range of works as possible. This allowed our audience, and in particular a younger generation, the opportunity to see that the art world is not only diverse in location, but in age and interests too. We sought to maintian a significant input and influence from the international art world as a whole, while at the same time remaining relavant to the respective issues of each artist - of race, class, gender and sexuality, etc - though all have a distinct connection to a Latin American perspective. The artists we selected did not conform to any specific curatorial vision, as we felt that the spirit of the SUR:biennial was more closely aligned to one of a reflective range of approaches, led by what the artists were drawn at the moment, rather than to what I, myself, as a curator, might dictate. We wanted their work to speak in their own voices about their own concerns, regardless of the need to fit into the parameters of an exhibition set by another. We were extremely excited by the painting, drawing, sculpture, video, performance, and installation that found their way into the project for its TAM portion, and we feel that a myriad of ideas and methodologies were presented by these works, produced by some of the finest artists in the biennial and, in fact, from anywhere. We thank all concerned, the other organizers in particular, and we look fforward to the 3rd Edtion in 2015!

-Max Presneill
Director / Curator, Torrance Art Museum