Julio César Morales uses food to examine California’s conquest and migration history

di Rosa SF and Minnesota Street Project Foundation will open Invaders: Vallejo, Food, and the Making of California on Nov. 7, 2026, with work by Julio César Morales centered on food, power and historical memory. The show runs through Feb. 6, 2027, and expands Morales’ long-running Interrupted Passage project with new video, sound and live public events.

Why it matters: - The exhibition turns food into a lens for understanding California’s history of conquest, migration and cultural exchange. - Morales uses the table as a site where politics, identity and memory collide. - The show pairs contemporary art with the di Rosa collection, creating a new model for how a museum collection can be activated. - The exhibition also broadens public access through live programs that extend the art into shared meals and discussion.

What happened: - di Rosa and Minnesota Street Project Foundation are presenting Invaders: Vallejo, Food, and the Making of California at di Rosa SF in San Francisco. - The exhibition opens Nov. 7, 2026, with a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. - The show remains on view through Feb. 6, 2027. - Tijuana-born, Bay Area-based artist Julio César Morales is using food to explore the histories and politics tied to California’s formation. - The exhibition centers on Morales’ ongoing project Interrupted Passage, which he has developed with Max La Rivière-Hedrick since 2006.

The details: - The exhibition presents the most extensive view to date of Interrupted Passage. - Morales’ project takes inspiration from a 1846 feast hosted by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the Mexican military commander of Northern California, during California’s transition from Mexican to U.S. control. - When an armed militia arrived to take Vallejo prisoner, he invited his captors into his home and negotiated through hospitality rather than armed resistance. - The historical episode left Vallejo in the position of both host and hostage. - Morales and La Rivière-Hedrick have reimagined that encounter through eight-hour meals performed for audiences across California and Mexico over the past 20 years. - The exhibition includes a two-channel video installation made with filmmaker Daniel Gorrell. - The video was staged and filmed at Vallejo’s historic home with costumed actors. - The installation uses images and sound instead of dialogue, including a hand knocking on a rose-colored door, soldiers waiting in the parlor, cleavers moving through vegetables and utensils circulating around a table. - The exhibition brings together video, sculpture, photography and ephemera, plus new video and sound installations. - Works by Joan Brown, Enrique Chagoya and Carlos Villa, among others, are shown alongside Morales’ work from the di Rosa collection. - di Rosa SF is located at Minnesota Street Project, 1150 25th St., in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. - Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. - The opening reception on Nov. 7, 2026, is open to the public. - More information is available at di Rosa’s website and Minnesota Street Project’s website.

Between the lines: - The title asks who counts as an invader and who counts as a local, pointing to how labels shift over time in California. - Morales said the exhibition asks how histories of invasion and migration settle into the body, linger in taste and memory, and travel through the people who prepare and share meals. - Minnesota Street Project co-founder Andy Rappaport said the exhibition puts the organization’s idea that art belongs at the center of civic life into practice. - The pairing of Morales’ work with the di Rosa collection frames California history as a continuing argument about belonging, power and exchange. - The absence of dialogue in the video installation pushes the focus toward gesture, sound and atmosphere rather than a straightforward historical reenactment.

What's next: - Morales will discuss his food-based practice at an Interactive Artist Talk on Dec. 5, 2026, from 5 to 7 p.m. - The talk will be followed by homemade food and continued discussion with visitors. - Morales will lead a Caesar Salad Making Workshop on Jan. 12, 2027, from 1 to 3 p.m. - An experimental multicourse dinner on Feb. 6, 2027, at 7 p.m. will use the table as a site for examining California’s history of invasion, settlement and exchange. - The final event will bring together artists, historians and food practitioners around a shared meal. - Morales’ and La Rivière-Hedrick’s collaborative projects have already been shown and commissioned by institutions in the U.S. and Mexico, including the California Biennial, LAXART, Museo Tamayo and the Andy Warhol Foundation. - Morales’ solo work has also appeared at major venues including SFMOMA, LACMA, the Istanbul Biennial and the Singapore Biennale.

The bottom line: - Invaders treats California history as something tasted, remembered and contested through food, turning a historical feast into a contemporary conversation about power and belonging.