FA4
Cart 0

Jenny Aguirre

Painting and Collage

Growing up in Los Angeles, Jenny Aguirre’s vision of art is influenced through a cultural diversity that has been a historical trademark for the City. She maneuvers through her work inspired by the vision she receives from colors and shapes largely chosen from the cultural phenomenon that is spread throughout the city.  Using different mediums, such as, oil, acrylic on canvas, and collage on paper, she is able to manifest an abstract world which represents her identity as a Mexican-American female artist.

Social Media:

IG: @jenagui

Website:www.jennyaguirreart.com

email:jenagui.artist@gmail.com


JennyAguirre.PrettyBird.24x19. collage on paper.jpg

Emily Babette

Drawing, Painting, Paper-cut

A contemporary figurative artist who is dedicated to working with traditional media such as oil painting and drawing, yet seeks to push the content of her images by incorporating less traditional and more “crafty” medias such as collage, paper-cut, and Straw Marquetry. The figures in her work are chosen due to their camaraderie with the artist and their mutual dedication to their expression of subculture. Her ongoing ambition lies in discovering what a subculture reveals about an individual in relation to society, and how fashion becomes costume, gesture becomes performance, and the gaze becomes a window into a tailored psyche.


Social Media:

Instagram: @emilybabette

Website: www.emilybabette.com

Email: emilybabette@yahoo.com

Nigredo_CharcoalandCollage_38X50_2017.jpg
delcastillo_theartistinherstudio copy.png

Romina Del Castillo

Born in Lima and raised by her grandmother, a beloved mentor that she continues to visit annually, Romina Del Castillo’s artistic practice remains close to her Peruvian roots. She has produced a Self-Portrait as Santa Rosa de Lima (the patron saint of Peru) and a series depicting Peruvian camelids (llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña) which interrogates the various semiotic associations that are tied to those animals (for example, Incan royalty wore vicuña fur garments and vicuñas appear on the Peruvian coat of arms, but today the term is a pejorative; synonymous with ‘cholo’ or Indian, highlighting a virulent anti-Indigenous undercurrent in contemporary Peruvian culture). In her most recent travels back to Peru, Del Castillo has become increasingly concerned by the growing social injustice experienced by the indigenous peoples of the region. Her latest series, Maimantataj Kanki? (Quechua for “Where are you from?”) is inspired by traditional Andean aguayos, rectangular woven textiles used by the indigenous people to keep warm and to carry all manner of burdensome loads from groceries to children. Though the designs are inspired by traditional Andean textiles (never from living designers, Del Castillo asserts, to avoid unintentional cultural appropriation), the distinct straw marquetry technique she employs stems from her time as an assistant to the French artist, Paulin Paris (the great-grandson of Carolus Duran, himself a noted mid-19th century painter). Paris’, and now Del Castillo’s, straw marquetry technique, originally developed in 18th century Europe, is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. Del Castillo has recently begun to utilize this marquetry technique to create “ribbons” from straw. The final textile-like image invites the viewer to imagine caressing the colorful surface, a celebration of indigenous design and European ingenuity.

Romina Del Castillo was born in Lima, Peru, raised in Santiago de Chile, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 16. She obtained her Bachelors of Fine Arts with an emphasis on Drawing and Painting at California State University Long Beach. She works in a variety of mediums that include oil, acrylic, graphite, chalk, and charcoal, with observational drawing at the core of her practice. Romina was a recipient of the Orval Dillingham College of the Arts Scholarship and her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Latin American Art, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach, the Brand Library in Glendale. She painted a large mural on the outside of the Cerritos College Fine Arts Building for the FAR Bazaar in 2017. Del Castillo remains an active member of Long Beach’s FA4 Collective, though she has recently relocated to Portland, Oregon.

012.jpg

Oscar Duarte

Interdisciplinary/Multimedia

I am a Mexican-born artist based in LA. My work explores issues related to uneven power structures, such as systematic racism, problems arising from post colonial power struggles, identity politics and disparities between modern democratic ideals and action in the West. These issues have informed my more recent work and they drive me to present projects that promote dialogue about these types of topics.

Website: http://oduar001.wixsite.com/oscarduarte

Email: oduar001@ucr.edu

NopalesStates_printedflag_5x3_2017.jpg
Flaggots.jpg
Glitter is the Herpes.jpg
Last Labyrs.jpg
IMG_0847_edited.jpg
Uhaul.jpg

 

Stevan Dupus

“I create paintings that depict the social interactions within San Diego’s LGBT+ bar communities. Having worked extensively as a bar manager and bartender for over 15 years, I have witnessed the shrinking role of the LGBT+ bar as a safe space. I have been exploring contradicting emotional responses as well as the influence of queer coding on the LGBT+ community. Common themes explore joyful human interactions refuting the underlying theater of loneliness and depression. Single loners pair themselves amongst groups of people while other paintings challenge public verses private through moments of passion. Viewers are then both brought into and pushed out of these rapturous spaces.” 

Stevan Dupus was raised in a small suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. Being a child of divorce he traveled a lot of his childhood from Kansas City, Missouri to Albuquerque, New Mexico and back. At the age of 17, he came out to close friends as gay. After high school, he searched for a place to belong. Taking the advice of a good friend he took his last paycheck of $650 and headed West. Through chance and random luck, he ended up in San Diego, California and began taking night classes at San Diego Community College and in 2010 graduated with an Associates Degree. He continued his education at California State University Long Beach and in 2014, he become the first person in his family to earn a Bachelors Degree. During this time that he began a job working in a small gay bar named Cheers. The fifteen years of working in a the bar has been one of the largest influences on his work as a painter. In 2019 Stevan became the first Masters Degree holder in his family, He is proud to look back at all the obstacles he was able to overcome in order to be an educator. It has been his goal to be able to give back to the community and help others accomplish their academic goals so that they too can find their own success stories. Stevan is currently teaching at College of the Desert in Palm Desert California. He has also had the opportunity to teach Introduction to Painting at California State University, Long Beach. His work has been seen in a KPBS documentary titled, “San Diego Gay Bar History” as well as in group shows at “The Studio Door” in San Diego and “Leimin Space” in Los Angeles. 

Flaggots_banner.jpg

Chris Hernandez

Painting

I aim to create tension and dialog with the elements of what painting can give me. Painting abstractly helps disguise certain references and ideas to help the audience determine their own narrative about the paintings. Hints are dropped in the form of the title, color schemes or personified shapes and gestures to get the dialog started, but are not too specific where the hint becomes the answer. I use line and transparency  to help create movement and catalyze my impulse to rework, layer and finetune the painting.

CHernandezArt1@gmail.com

ChrisHernandezArt.net


Cloud_Oil on Panel_40 x 30_2018.JPG

Ciana Lee

With a philosophical eye, intellectual grind, and slightly morbid curiosity she has used her hands to give voice to her senses. She believes art improves our quality of life, because it makes us stop, open our eyes and expand understanding. It lifts up humanity and challenges individuals to think differently about the world around them. She creates work that explores the nature of perception and gazing into different spaces and beings. Her expression serves as a statement to what she has no specific language to describe.

Hamsa on Handpan, Acid Wash Patina on Steel.jpg

Yee Li

Drawing and Painting

Yee Li is a Los Angeles based mixed media artist whose work contemplates, navigates, reconfigures, and redefines the ambiguous definitions of space. Her work is directly related to her own experiences of finding comfort in the discomfort within small and large physical, mental, and psychological spaces and what that entails.

Website: www.yeeli.org

Instagram @artsyee

3Yee Li_Laughy Taffy_10x8_2017.jpg

Cynthia Luján

Interdisciplinary

Luján is an interdisciplinary artist who depicts works that confront the viewer to stop and take a closer look at symbols that direct urbanites in public and social spaces. Current themes they explore are identity politics and power dynamics. They aspire to merge their interest in languages with their career in fine arts by pursuing connections that lead them to community based mural projects along with local and international artist residency opportunities.

Social Media:

Instagram @desfigurados

Website – www.cynthialujan.com

Email – cynthialujan.studio@gmail.com


#cautiondimlessdim 001_instax polaroid_1.8 in×2.4__2018.jpg

Megan Kinney

Drawing and Painting

Megan Kinney is a painter residing in southern California, who paints landscapes and the spaces

we inhabit in our day to day lives. Her work explores how we take up space and how we

identify places as a space of comfort. She holds a Bachelors in Fine Art from California State

University, Long Beach and recently received her Masters in Fine Art at Claremont Graduate

University.

Website: MeganKinney.com

Instagram @Megzykin

IDidntBelieveThem_OilonCanvas_60x72_2018.jpg

Elaine Kwak

Elaine’s art is focused on conceptual landscapes which are inspired by the nature surrounding her past home.

Uphill Rewind, Oil Paint, 45x65.jpg

Vanessa Gamboa

Medium: Mixed Media

Social Media:

Inst - fungus_queen

Website - www.vanessagamboa.com



Amanita_CottonandPolyfill_4x8__2016.jpg

Francis (Frankie) E. Greco

Painting, oil on canvas, mixed media, collage

At a time of reevaluation of my work, I have been painting smaller scale abstract paintings.

There’s blues in making rent. There’s a jazz of LA traffic. These all inform this period.

Social Meida:

IG @frastamon

Frankiegreco.com

ThreeBrothers.jpg

 

Francisco Palomares

Drawing and Painting

Palomares paints the clashing streets and diverse BLVD’s of the city’s urban landscape. Palomares invites the viewer to take a walk in the shoes of the artist to understand—through the complex images documented in his paintings—what it truly means to work, live, and play in the City of LA.

INSTG @ PalomaresBLVD

WWW.PALOMARESBLVD.COM

Frnk.j.p@palomaresblvd.com

Palomares_Francisco_12.jpg

Gloria Elisa Margarita Sanchez

Drawing, painting, weaving, sculpture

Gloria is a Xicana-Filipina artist who works in painting, weaving, sculpture, and mixed media. Her use of everyday material invoked the Xicanx concept of ‘Rasquache,’ which signifies a resourceful, working class sensibility. Hair is a potent material for the artist, who describes its capacity to hold memories memories and trauma. Gloria makes art as a form of resilience and therapy to process painful experiences. Sanchez received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach in 2014. She works, teaches, and resides in the harbor area of Los Angeles, CA.


Social Media:

Instagram: glorie_elisa_mague

Email: gloria.em.sanchez@gmail.com


Sanchez_G_10.jpg

David De Mendoza

Oil paint, drawing, and digital art

De Mendoza brings supernatural or unnatural elements into his work. Through oil paint and

digital art, the artist morphs human form into monstrous depictions representing the darkness

in humanity. Color is used to evoke a sense of aesthetic beauty, contrasting a dark scene with

beautiful imagery.

Social Media:

Instagram @d_de_mendoza

Email davidmdemendoza@gmail.com

Isolation_Digital_art_9x12_2018.jpg

Elizabeth Munzon

Drawing and Painting

Artist Statement:

Munzon’s most recent series “Centzon Totochtin: 400 Rabbits” focuses on pre-

Hispanic Mexican mythology in relation to contemporary, and imaginative

narratives. Her travels to Mexico, and desire to learn about her culture’s myths and

mythologies inspired the start of this body of work.

Social Media:

Facebook - emunzon

IG - @emunzon

Website - elizabethmunzon.com

Drunk Portrait #2- Daniel_oiloncanvas_8x10__2017.jpg

Marlene Tafoya

Presents Aim high Aim low, an interactive installation inspired by a hybridization of Aztec, Catholic, and Native American rituals that make up her cultural background. The centerpiece of her performance is a piñata in the shape of a seven-point star. During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire, Catholic priests used seven-point star piñatas to indoctrinate the Aztecs in the seven deadly sins and to provide a metaphor for the heavenly rewards that await those who resist sinful behavior. This tactic and others like it were used to colonize the Aztec people and replace indigenous ceremonial rituals. The piñata was a particularly effective tool as the Aztecs engaged in a similar activity to celebrate the birthday of Huitzlopochtli, the god of the sun and war. The Aztec ritual featured a clay pot filled with feathers, suspended above a statue representing Huitzlopochtli. When the clay pot was broken, after several attempts by blindfolded participants, the feathers would fall to the feet of the god like so many fallen warriors.Tafoya's piñata will be filled with sage bundles that she and friends have gathered in the tradition of Native Americans; offering tobacco in exchange. For Tafoya, the breaking of this sage-filled piñata is an act of protest against the colonization and cultural erasure of her ancestors.

Aim high Aim low_Performance at Honor Fraser_2017.jpg

Cindy Vallejo

Interdisciplinary

Cindy Vallejo communicates various attitudes towards identity, culture and individuality. She uses the photographic platform to create discussions around her personal experiences and aspects of society. Although photography is where she began, her motivation to question pushes her to explore different forms of medium and representation. Her most recent works include: “Don’t tell me art does not move us,” a performance piece for Cuerpos Unidos at Vincent Price Art Museum as part of Pacific Standard Time. As well as, “Guisa Huisa Jaina,” a photo work for Barrio Logos at Residency Art Gallery.

Social Media

Cndy.l.v@gmail.com

Instg: @cndy_v

www.cindyvallejo.com

Dont Tell Me Art Does Not Move Us_Performance_6minutes_2018.jpg

Jamie Villatoro

She is an intuitive painter inspired by the urban environments, nature and

animals she researches. The most vital aspect of her process is responding to

color, form, and brush stroke. The constant push and pull of these elements

create a visual symbiotic relationship her art.

Color activates the energy in her paintings. The process of mixing colors and

applying them to the canvas is the basis of her search to create harmony and

make something beautiful.

She seeks to communicate stories and her personal experiences. Using an

expressive color palette, she aims to convey mood and feeling. Music,

photographs, memories and various collected objects are important tools in her

creative ritual.

Social Media

Website www.jamievillatoro.com 

Email: jmev24@gmail.com

Instagram @Jamie_Villatoro

bodegon.jpg