Einar & Jamex de la Torre Raul Guerrero

LOOKING BACK / MOVING FORWARD:
CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN-AMERICAN ART

July 31 – October 31, 2010

Looking Back / Moving Forward: Contemporary Mexican-American Art celebrated Mexican culture by examining the recent work of Einar and Jamex de la Torre and Raul Guerrero. The art created by these three artists’ addressed important cultural and historical concepts with very personal perspectives and extremely different mediums. Inspired by Spanish Mexican colonial art, kitsch and the Baroque aesthetic the de la Torre brothers create Pop Assemblage art primarily of glass and found objects. Layers of symbolic and cultural meaning fused with whimsical and humorous imagery told stories reflecting their wide range of social and political interests. Raul Guerrero employed a representational style of painting to comment on themes of history, cultural and social stereotypes and place. The paintings previously on view from his Bars, Women and Fast Food series, represented a variety of images related to California’s history.