Latina Portraits from the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College
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This exhibition presents an intergenerational group of portraits by Los Angeles-based Latina artists, who collectively explore portraiture and cultural identity through diverse forms of creative expression. Through intimate portraits, the selected artists carefully render their subject’s strength and likeness while referencing broader themes of Latine culture, pop aesthetics, genre painting and matrilineal and interpersonal relationships.
Del Alma showcases artworks dating from the 1980s to the 2000s, drawn from the Vincent Price Art Museum’s expansive art collection of more than 9,000 objects. Works on view inside the Founders’ Room at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion feature vibrant and saturated renderings, such as those by Yolanda González, whose portraits often reflect her immediate community, and Patssi Valdez, whose paintings unveil a more intimate and domestic interior space. Gloria Longval, Isabel Martinez, Sara Palacios and Sonia Romero depict images of children or mothers in their work, emphasizing the importance of family within Latine culture, while Diane Gamboa and Cici Segura González incorporate Mexican, Indigenous and pop iconography for a contemporary audience. This exhibition demonstrates the complexity and vibrancy of Latina artists’ contributions to the County of Los Angeles, while placing these women in dialogue with the historic space inside The Music Center.
The exhibition’s title, Del Alma, is a Spanish language idiomatic expression that translates to “from the soul” and pays homage to a featured painting by renowned artist Margaret García. The exhibition is presented by The Music Center, organized by the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College and curated by Gloria Ortega.
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