Shizu Saldamando: L.A. Intersections

February 6 - April 30, 2020

OXY ARTS presents the work of Los Angeles based artist Shizu Saldamando, the Wanlass artist-in-residence for 2019-2020. Drawing from her personal cultural perspective (Mexican-American and Japanese-American ancestry), Saldamando offers an intimate take on formal portraiture; presenting portraits of friends, fellow artists, queer and of color activists — individuals that are not often highlighted or uplifted in contemporary culture. Her work functions as homage, as well as documentation of countercultures within and around Northeast Los Angeles.

Visualizing the scope of L.A. Latinx subcultural communities, L.A. Intersections presents a selection of works by Saldamando that reimagines alternative Chicanx and Indigenous identities through portraiture and video-based work. The exhibition's multimedia and cross-generational composition offers both a critique of traditional figures in art and a celebration of in-between spaces and the bodies that inhabit them.

View images from the exhibition on Flickr.

The Wanlass Artist in Residence Program is made possible by generous support from the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Charitable Foundation.