Curator: Raoul De la Sota

 

Some years ago I did a series of paintings that had fetish figures of cut paper embedded onto the surface upon which I then painted. These were to symbolize the spirits of the ancestors- the people who had come before and were part of the ancient history of the particular region. I named the series “Spirits of Los Angeles” since I was, at the time, particularly involved with the indigenous past of the area. I began to wonder that instead of spirits that formed the past of a specific geographical locale what if I were to deal with those spirits that accompanied the people who eventually would settle in the Southern California area.

 

Thus, the geographical area of Los Angeles has developed over time its strata of cultural and historical beliefs that manifest themselves in the work of contemporary artists. Beginning with the indigenous oral traditions of the first people and continuing into the urban legends of the present-day, each successive layer of society has contributed its spiritual mythology to the city’s urban history. The ether of the city is alive with these forces that compel artists to give them physical form.

 

I began to consider my interest in bringing together artists whose work seemed to consider and use the essence of non-material qualities. I wanted a group that dealt with spirits of the past, memories and ancestral history as well as present-day forces that play an important part in their creative process. I didn’t want a spiritual exhibit with icons of institutionalized religions, but instead wanted to examine the unseen as experienced by artists. I understood that the urban setting of Los Angeles would invite not only wonderful ideas from aesthetic muses, but would also provide insights into those demons, fears and societal and environmental concerns that exist in the work of many artists. I think it important here to define the word spiritual in this context as having, or implying, a sense of connection to the greater whole of life as manifested by spirits of the earth or of a universal consciousness.

 

This exhibit will demonstrate some of these ethereal spirits, legends and stories that either historically, culturally or metaphysically inhabit our Southern California area and that are eventually visualized by the minds of these Los Angeles artists. It is their focus and interest in the illusionary and in many cases the spiritual that has brought this group of fourteen artists together for this exhibition.

 

 While the show is thematically and geographically focused, the concepts used are universal. As we live and exist and persist in an urban concentration, many of our recollections, dreams and thoughts, as well as nightmares, accompany us throughout our lives. As we drive the freeways, sit in waiting rooms and rest moments before falling asleep, these images and thoughts take form within each of us. In this show those manifestations are personified in paintings, installations and sculptures. In some cases the work speaks of our innate connection to the earth and particularly to our specific locale and its historical past. In others, the work focuses on our inanimate surroundings and our interrelations- either imagined or real- with our environment.  In still others, it speaks of the modern urban nightmare and the turmoil of everyday images assaulting our senses.

 

I chose artists from a broad range of ages - mature artists that have worked for years with similar themes as reflected in this show and emerging artists who have newly discovered their fascination with these concepts. I selected artists that would bring to the exhibit a full spectrum of gender-based ideas. Because I also wanted to insure the involvement of cultural variances, I chose artists that represented some, not all, of the ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles: African-American, Anglo, Asian, Chicano, European and Latino

 

Armando Baeza is a veteran sculptor whose work embodies the sacred encased in the female form. These sculptures speak often to the ancient cultures and their beliefs in life forces.  Raúl Baltazar is an emerging artist drawn to painting metaphors focusing on the symbols of our fears of, and threats to our mental well-being and physical survival.  Patricia Boyd developed a passion for the gourd as an art medium after a trip to Africa. Her work blends sacred symbols with gestural figures to create dramatic cultural objects.  Roberto Delgado weaves in paint multilayered images taken from the streets of Los Angeles and of headlines to evoke the mental processes of our very existence.  Kathi Flood uses assemblages to create a sense of dialogue between the audience and her used and found objects, and the spiritual patina connected with those objects. John Jones incorporates in his sculptures universally-based mythic figures to reflect upon our local concerns both real and imagined. Leo Limon paints the Los Angeles River and its environs as alive with those ancient souls and ideas that have passed this way through the millennium of time. Dorothy Magallon speaks in her tableaus of the Anima matrix, the inner moving spirits that infuse inanimate objects and thus move closer to our complex level of existence. Toti O’Brien uses paint to dissolve the time and space barriers to incorporate images that personally bridge her history and merge with our own connections with the ages. Paul Pitsker uses sharply-focused paintings to develop the dichotomy of us juggling the realities of our present-day lives with our desires for a spiritual, if not physical, escape. Annie Sperling seeks in her paintings to personify the rich cultural layers of ancient and modern belief systems and oral traditions that lie just outside of the norm. Cindy Suriyani imbues her diaphanous work with the spirits of the land, the flora and her cultural past as ethereal experiences that create her own iconography of Los Angeles.   Linda Vallejo creates spiritual thoughts and revelations reflecting on our role and relationship with nature and asks whether the earth is our property or an eternal Mother. Jaime Zacarias presents us with paintings of metaphysical urban settings teeming with the jumble of images and noise, texture and color, fear and humor.

 

All the work is symbolic of a greater truth, a truth where the non-material forms a duality with the material; where both do not necessarily exist side by side, but rather inhabit the same form; where color and texture and iconography is imbued with the deeper multilayered meaning of culture and heritage.

 

Raoul De la Sota

Los Angeles, November 1, 2007