272 Jackie Castillo: Southern California Light, Class, & Installation Art | ICA LA

In this episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza sits down with Los Angeles–based artist Jackie Castillo, whose practice transforms the overlooked landscapes of Southern California into sculptural, spatial interventions that challenge how we see, inhabit, and remember place. Born and raised in working-class neighborhoods of Orange County, Castillo’s perspective is deeply rooted in the lived realities of the region—its immigrant histories, economic divides, and the architectural patchwork that defines its suburbs. Trained as a film-based photographer, she has evolved her practice to merge photography, sculpture, and installation, creating works that slow the act of looking and demand sustained engagement. Her use of reclaimed materials and references to site-specific histories reframes the photographic image as an object in dialogue with its environment. Castillo traces her influences to classic cinema, the New Topographics photographers, and the conceptual rigor she developed in community college and at UCLA. Through these intersecting frameworks, she examines the formal language of geometry, light, and tonality while embedding questions of class, labor, and urban change. From photographing the quiet interventions of working-class residents in limited outdoor spaces, to producing large-scale installations that reference architecture, demolition, and construction, Castillo captures the poetics of transition—whether in a falling roof shingle or the shifting demographics of a neighborhood. The conversation traverses the sensory memory of California light, the politics of housing and displacement, and the role of critique in art education. Castillo speaks candidly about her commitment to making the work she wants without bending to external pressures, and the importance of artist-to-artist support networks in sustaining a creative practice. Her current exhibition, The Return, is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles through August 31, with additional work featured in the group show Back to the Earth at Roberts Projects. Discover how Jackie Castillo transforms the overlooked corners of Southern California into a visual language of place, memory, and resistance.   Listen now on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Follow the artist: Instagram: [@jackiecastillo] More at: ICA LA Keywords for SEO: Jackie Castillo artist, Jackie Castillo ICA LA, Southern California photography, working class art, Los Angeles artist interview, New Topographics influence, site-specific installation, contemporary sculpture, California light in art, art and gentrification, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Roberts Projects.