A Fair Pair Do ‘Fare Trade’

The Immigrant Experience Via Taquerias and Lunch Bars

[Click to zoom] Left, La Super-Rica Taqueria by Patricia Houghton Clarke; right, Mira Lunch Bar by Brett Leigh Dicks

“This is the perfect time to create art, right? With the current sociopolitical climate, you couldn’t be anywhere better to create meaningful work,” said Brett Leigh Dicks, whose photography exhibit FARE TRADE, a collaboration with Patricia Houghton Clarke, opens on Friday, March 21, at the Architectural Foundation Gallery.

Patricia Houghton Clarke and Brett Leigh Dicks | Photo: Courtesy

The pair — whose professional relationship and friendship goes back to a 2008 exhibition in Santa Maria’s Betteravia Gallery and Santa Barbara’s Channing Peake Gallery called The Essential Worker — have both long embraced the notion of shining their unique lens on everyday life in a way that’s both unique and thought-provoking. Those characteristics can certainly also be attributed to the work on view in FARE TRADE, which pairs Clarke’s photographs of taquerias in Central California with Dicks’s photographs of lunch bars in Western Australia.

While The Essential Worker focused on portraits of people and FARE TRADE focuses on architecture, both bodies of work share themes involving immigration and social justice. The lunch bars, as the longtime Santa Barbaran and Independent contributor Dicks explained via Zoom from his current home in Australia, are a common phenomenon in that part of the world. “They’re in industrial areas. It’s where people go, you know, to get lunch. So, they open early, they close mid-afternoon, and they basically feed the working class.”

The Lunch Bars photography series has had four exhibitions in Australia, but in aiming to bring it to the U.S., Dicks realized he needed to provide some context for an American audience. “The point of reference is things like hamburger joints or taquerias,” he said. He soon turned to Clarke to “see if she’d be interested in photographing taquerias.”

“He basically gave me an assignment,” said Clarke, a Carpinteria resident.

“It sort of took off from that. And it’s just amazing how well it came. Together in the synergy between these two different styles of eateries on different sides of the planet,” said Dicks.

“I lived on the east side for 30 years. Taquerias were just part of our regular life,” said Clarke. “So, when Brett asked me to do this, I thought it would be a fun challenge, and I love the idea of being able to do a project with him. We have always loved working together on different things.”

[Click to zoom] Left, La Flor de Michoacan by Patricia Houghton Clarke; right, Le’s Cafe & Lunch Bar by Brett Leigh Dicks

Patricia Houghton Clarke and Brett Leigh Dicks at a previous artist talk collaboration | Photo: Courtesy

The contrasting taquerias and lunch bars are presented in the show as pairs, adding an additional dimension to the work.

“When he pulled those pairings together, it blew my mind, really, because he did such a good job finding the synergy between the establishments,” said Clarke, adding, “But also just to think that across the world, there would be that kind of synergy that we didn’t consciously look for in the work. … I wasn’t trying to find whatever looked like a lunch bar, but I was trying to find authenticity and creativity in the way that they’re created.”

Clarke shared that she was also pleased with the serendipitous timing of the exhibition of images of businesses primarily run by and for immigrants, with the struggles that immigrants are currently facing here. “I’m just so pleased that Brett and I are of the same mind, and we wanted to make it a fundraiser for the Immigrant Legal Defense Center, and that we can use it as kind of a Talking Stick,” she said.

With that goal in mind, 10 percent of all art sales will be donated to the Immigrant Legal Defense Fund. In addition, Dicks and Clarke will give an Artist Talk on Saturday, March 29, at 2 p.m. with Maria Salguero, a Senior Staff Attorney from the Immigrant Legal Defense Center.

[Click to zoom] Left, El Charrito by Patricia Houghton Clarke; right, Sheffield Lunch Bar by Brett Leigh Dicks

[Click to zoom] Left, Efrens Mexican Food by Patricia Houghton Clarke; right, MacBeths Lunch Bar by Brett Leigh Dicks

There will also be an opening reception at the Architectural Foundation on Friday, March 21, 5-7 p.m. Drinks and appetizers will be provided, with the local taco truck serving tacos for purchase (cash or Zelle only). Clarke met the owners through her work on this project.

Dicks said that exploring these venues helped him with the sense of dislocation he felt moving to Australia after being in Santa Barbara for more than two decades. He’s excited to return for the exhibit, which is on view from March 22 to May 17 at the Architectural Foundation Gallery (229 E. Victoria St.) in Santa Barbara.

See afsb.org.