Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement is the first major artistic consideration for the legacy of Chicano art in almost two decades. Traditionally, Chicano Art is described as work created by Mexican-Americans, established as a politically and culturally inspired movement during the counterculture revolutions of the sixties and seventies. This art form included traditional platforms like painting and sculpture; extending into tattoo art and low-rider art. Unlike most exhibitions of Chicano art that have preceded it, Phantom Sightings moves away from efforts to define a distinct identity or style and instead focuses attention on conceptual strategies that artists use to intervene in public spaces or debates. Phantom Sightings seeks to add a new dimension to understanding of Chicano art history and notions of ethnic identity, cultural politics, and artistic practice.

The exhibition's title was inspired by the "phantom culture" of Chicanos within American society which is largely unperceived, unrecognized, and un-credited by the mainstream. Historically, Chicano art was established as a politically and culturally inspired movement during the 60's and '70s; stressing ethnic pride and political empowerment. Although Chicano art was primarily represented by the traditions of painting; including murals and other graphic arts; there has always existed a simultaneous, if less historicized, experimental and conceptual tendency. These art forms encompassed performance video, photography, film, and "guerilla" interventions into daily urban activity. This direction has proved to be of particular interest to many Chicano artists coming of age in the 1990s and beyond.

While attentive to this historical context, Phantom Sightings places an emphasis on a newer generation of emerging artists across the United States, many who do not work under the label of "Chicano art." These artists engage local and global politics, mix high and low cultures, and sample legitimate and bootlegged sources within a conceptual framework. Phantom Sightings seeks to explore the ways in which these artists situate their work at the crossroads of local struggles over urban space, transnational flows of culture, and global art practices.