Manuel López (artist)

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Manuel Lopez
Born1983
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
EducationSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago
Known forLandscapes, cityscapes
Notable workFor The Love Of L.A. series
MovementChicano art scene

Manuel López (born 1983)[1] is an artist and educator based in Los Angeles, California. He is an emerging artist in the Chicano art scene and has shown his work at museums and galleries in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. He specializes in traditional drawing and painting. López's cityscapes express the details he observes in his surroundings such as run-down houses, palm trees, and silent and still neighborhoods.[2][3] Along with his surroundings, he also expresses the memories he holds of the experiences within his area.[4]

Early life and education[edit]

Manuel López was born in 1983 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. His father encouraged him and his sisters to draw and create art. López recalled drawing cereal mascots such as Trix the Rabbit and selling his first work, a drawing of The Rocketeer, to a neighbor.[5] López transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after attending East Los Angeles College.[6]

He received a Bachelors in both painting and drawing from the Art Institute.[6] His early influences were the murals and streets of East L.A., cartoons, comics and the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.[5]

While at the Art Institute, López lived in the Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen. His artistic sensibility was influenced by Philip Guston and Willem de Kooning. People have called his work "tropical", "exotic" and "very Latin", as well as "not your culture" when he veered away from vernacular Latino or Chicano content.[5]

Career[edit]

After earning his BFA, he returned to East Los Angeles to a new home his father had bought, and there he continued to paint and draw while also working to develop his style.[5] López has lectured and shown his art throughout the greater Los Angeles area. He currently works as a substitute teacher at elementary schools.[6][7]

His subject matter focuses on the East L.A, El Sereno and City Terrace neighborhoods of greater Los Angeles. Lopez has been recognized by Transformative Arts, a non-profit organization that supports community visual literacy and arts programming.[6] His meticulous cityscapes have been described as "daily diary entries".[8]

In 2020, López began distributing at no cost the Eleven Drawings for SHG coloring book during the early days of the pandemic.[9] as well as the Not So Typical Coloring Book as a stay-home activity to do with loved ones during the COVID pandemic. It was published by Self Help Graphics & Art; the drawings were inspired by López's day-to-day life.[7]

In 2021, the Los Angeles Times Image Magazine featured, as part of its L.A. – We See You! series, Manuel Lopez wants you to see the Tongva land on which this L.A. handball court sits, a photo essay with descriptive text authored by the artist, of a site-specific outdoor drawing installation.[10]

Exhibitions[edit]

López's work has been widely exhibited in museums and institutions, including the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH);[11][12] the Vincent Price Art Museum,[13] Los Angeles, CA; New Image Art, in West Hollywood, CA;[12][6][14] Self Help Graphics & Art, Boyle Heights, CA;[12][6][15] Abrazo Interno Gallery, New York, NY;[12][6] the Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago, IL, and Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL, among others.[16][17] López's work was included in the 2019 SUR:Biennial, Cuentista (storyteller), organized at the Río Hondo College Art Gallery.[4][18]

López's first solo exhibition, So Mundane and Incomplete, was held in 2018 at Eastern Projects Gallery in Los Angeles.[4][12] The exhibit featured a series of plein aire cityscapes and landscapes drawn on location in East L.A. The work expressed an attention to detail and close observation of the environment such as: "shifting landscape(s), and the fleeting appearance of an everyday object(s)." Imagery included views of East L.A. such as City Terrace, Boyle Heights, and El Sereno, depicting run-down houses, a stranger lost in thought, crooked palm trees, a serene terrain that is ever-changing, and various man-made objects.[19]

Group exhibitions include the Dark Progressivism show in 2018 at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History. The exhibit focused on the notion of rasquachismo, a term in Mexican culture meaning "low-class" or "beneath respect." The artists included in the exhibition use rasquache or "low-brow" sensibilities to reflect on street life.[20] The Vincent Price Museum show, Regeneración: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology , explored the transnational circulation of ideas and artistic practice between the U.S. and Mexico in relation to activism and revolution.[13][12][6][21] The IN COLOR exhibition at Quotidian gallery and Klowden Mann gallery featured a selection of López's watercolors and oil paintings along with the work of five other artists.[22][23]

The Los Angeles Music Center showcased López in its digital series For the Love of L.A. that included more than 35 artists. Running from August 11, 2020 to October 27, 2020, the showcase was a means for artists to share their views of the city of Los Angeles that would be shared on social media such as Instagram.[24] López's video depicts a hilly Eastside community drawn with white on a black background, different than his usual pencil on paper. The artwork was turned into a four and a half minute video of a slowly changing cityscape with a purple gradient sky in multiple variations. This created the effect of motion; the visuals were paired with sound to evoke feeling, such as the laughter of children, the ringing of bells, the passing of cars, and the barking of a dog.[25]

Marvella Muro, the curator of the series, writes that López's "meticulous drawings capture the hilly settings of the Eastside with old rooftops and sky views filled with palm trees, the tops of tall pine trees, and electric lines."[26] The Boyle Heights Beat describes the sound track as a mix of "the jingle of paleteros selling their wares, birds chirping, traffic passing by."[26]

Public art work[edit]

In 2021, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority commissioned Lopéz to produce a new "tribute poster" for the transit system. The artwork is based on a poem by Joseph Rios, An Ode to the Essential. It is on display in print and digital display forms in bus, rail and platform locations, as well as in maintenance facilities, offices, and customer care centers.[27] Metro Art states that it honors the "workers includ[ing] our own employees — who have kept L.A. County moving — and our riders, many of whom are also essential workers. The poster also honors all those we have lost during the COVID-19 pandemic."[28]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dávila, Arlene (2020). Latinx Art Artists, Markets, and Politics. Duke University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9781478008859. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  2. ^ Mejías, Antonio. "Images of East L.A. launch online arts series". The Eastsider. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Manuel Lopez". Eastern Projects Gallery. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  4. ^ a b c "For The Love Of L.A.: Manuel López". Los Angeles Music Center. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d Bermudez, Esmerelda (April 14, 2018). "An artist finds his subject in the hills of East L.A." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h "East LA". transformative arts. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  7. ^ a b "A Not So Typical Day-to-Day Coloring Book by Manuel Lopez". Self Help Graphics & Art. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  8. ^ Muro, Marvella. "For the Love of L.A., Curatorial Statement". Los Angeles Music Center. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  9. ^ "Self Help Graphics & Art, 1300 e 1st St, Los Angeles, CA (2022)".
  10. ^ López, Manual; Arias (documentary photographer), Christian. "Manuel Lopez wants you to see the Tongva land on which this L.A. handball court sits". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Recap: Dark Progressivism - MOAH Lancaster". Museum of Art and History. 17 November 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Manuel Lopez". Eastern Projects Gallery. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  13. ^ a b "Regeneración: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology". Vincent Price Art Museum. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  14. ^ "Group Exhibition - Friends, Do Not Fear". NEW IMAGE ART. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
  15. ^ "Día de los Muertos 2016". Self Help Graphics & Art. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
  16. ^ "Manuel Lopez: So Mundane and Incomplete". Curate L.A.: Eastern Projects Gallery. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  17. ^ "Heart Coloring Page, Day 18 Featuring Manuel Lopez". Plaza de la Raza. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  18. ^ "Río Hondo College Art Show Presents Works Influenced by Traditions of Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean". Río Hondo College. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  19. ^ "Manuel Lopez: So Mundane and Incomplete". Curate LA. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  20. ^ "Preview & Essay: " Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment"". Landcaster Museum of Art & History. 10 November 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  21. ^ "Vincent Price Art Museum | Exhibitions | Regeneración: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology". vincentpriceartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  22. ^ "IN COLOR". L.A. Review of Books. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  23. ^ "IN COLOR". L.A. Quotidian. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  24. ^ Staff, LA Downtown News. "The Music Center showcasing local artists this fall". Los Angeles Downtown News - The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  25. ^ "Music Center | For The Love Of L.A.: Manuel López". www.musiccenter.org. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  26. ^ a b "Eastside artists help launch 'For the Love of L.A.' series". Boyle Heights Beat. 11 August 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  27. ^ "An Ode to the Essential". L.A. Metro. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  28. ^ Hosseinzadeh, Maryam (10 May 2021). "Tribute poster honors essential workers and those we have lost". Metro - The Source. Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority. Retrieved 24 May 2021.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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