IMPERFECT CONTINUUM

Steven Vasquez Lopez

The first-generation son of a Mexican-American seamstress and mechanic, my early obsession with architecture, manual labor and bold fashion continues in my studio practice of hard-edged graphic acrylic painting and meticulous ink drawings. Pushing the cannon of Chicano art beyond graffiti or large-scale murals, these works investigate identity through the lens of a richly traditional infrastructure.

My acrylic paintings on wooden panel create an iconography, symbolically operating on the micro-level of the personal, while able to be inserted into a larger historical and cultural dialogue. This process extends from super-controlled acrylic painting into laborious experimental ink drawings on paper, continuing an abstract investigation into line, color and pattern – an homage to his mother and reminiscent of a childhood play area in her sewing room piled with fabric swatches. The vulnerable process of creating “swatch-drawings” in ink celebrates accidental moments and mishap when man imitates machine. Through both painting and drawing, my cultural and personal history is explored, questioned and celebrated.

William Edwards

This work began 16 years ago as a series of trompe-l’oeil sculptures of paintings that were based on our consumer and corporate culture. Through my fascination of the alchemy of ceramic materials these ceramic paintings soon transformed into flat slabs of clay with the glaze taking over as the subject. The natural phenomenon of the glaze creates a chaotic surface of patterns. Through the inherent transmutation of chemicals the uncontrollable and unexpected occurs; instability creates a game of chance. Like a toss of the dice, a moment in time is captured. As a mark outgrows it’s bound set by a brush, drips crawl and overtake a surface like oil slicks spreading over the ocean. Within the kiln, each glazed work comes alive, seeming to have an innate sense of purpose. Then in an instant, all is frozen. What is left is a window of chaotic patterns of uncertainty, irregularity and imperfection, a result of a vast shifting set of unique circumstances.