Fifty-foot palm trees line the main boulevard in Wilmington, California, inspiring visions of a postcard surf fantasy. When reaching the ocean at the end of the street, one would presume to see young people in swimsuits and families playing in the sand. Rather, each person is greeted by the harsh reality of shipping docks, train yards and diesel trucks. Two miles before the shore, a massive breakwater stops all the waves you would expect from a Californian coastline. The Only City on the Whole West Coast Without Beach Access hopes to re-imagine the lost waves that would have, or better yet, should have crashed along the shore of Wilmington, home of North America’s largest commercial seaport.

Mario Ybarra Jr. works across a wide range of media including installation, painting, performance and video. His work often engages with the social conditions of modern Los Angeles, reflecting his personal experiences as a Mexican-American artist living and working in the city.

Mario Ybarra Jr. was born in 1973 in Los Angeles. Past exhibitions include solo exhibitions at Bob van Orsouw, Zurich; Black Squirrel Society at Lehmann Maupin, New York; and Focus: Mario Ybarra Jr. at the Art Institute of Chicago. He has also been included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, and The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, London. He received his MFA in 2001 from the University of California, Irvine, and his BFA in 1999 from the Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles. He is the founder of the art collective Slanguage, based in Wilmington, California. This is his first exhibition with Brown.