Santa Barbara, California – Is it possible to define the aesthetic language of California? As a home of nearly 40 million people, its artistic chatter takes thousands of different tones. There is the play of words to tongue John BaldessariOdes to peace by the artistic nun Sister Corita Kentand graffiti carefully reproduced by Afonso Gonzalez Jr., whose artistic sensitivities were in turn influenced by his father's career as a painter of signs.
Instead of shrinking California with a single language, the conservative Alex Lukas makes room for many dialects in his exhibition Public texts: Californian visual languageWho is currently in sight at the Art Museum, Design & Architecture at the University of California in Santa Barbara. The exhibition shows how artists use text and image to play different aspects of Californian culture.
A way in which Southern California is represented is by the Aterograph lettering, generally associated with Lowriders and Automobile Stores, which Ozzie Juarez Capture in “Paradise” (2024). The word stands out behind a paint returned expert from a horse, which has been applied to an oxidized door decorated with barbed wire rolls. Northern California is captured by the presentation of various problems of Black Panther Journal (1967-1980), in which EMORY Douglas Illustrated political caricatures and acts of protests visualized through solid colors, thick black lines and halftone.
Historical works show that California has been a careful screen and a hotspot of signs painting since the middle of the 20th century. There is a showcase dedicated to the Colby Poster Company, which has announced Bachata dance nights and underground raves on fluorescent gradient environments. Lukas juxtaposes these pieces with contemporary works that adopt these techniques. “This always goes” by Eve Fowler (2011-12), for example, bursts with a red, yellow and green colby gradient.
The language of California is also commonplace. In “Wounded?: I” (2024), Gonzalez Jr. uses oil painting to reproduce the telephone numbers and the portraits of the spokesperson for the Omnipresent Insurance Panels in Los Angeles. Glen Rubsamen turns to shopping centers, illustrating a brilliant sign “Food 4 less” among a smoggy sky in “Sorry, bad number” (2023). Orange streaks vibrate just below the surface, giving painting a smoking effect.
Public texts is not only a showcase of 2D works, however. He demonstrates that sculpture can also be a medium -based on the text thanks to the play by Georgina Treviño, “Siéntese Señora” (2024). It reworks the titular sentence in the tight and pointed corners of a black font in a sculpture which recalls both a bench and a collar of signage plaque, a common fashion accessory in the culture of Chicana. The legs form chains, which curl up along a white base, ultimately connecting by a clasp.
As the exhibition progresses, the size of his works increases. In the second gallery, the work of Ana Teresa Fernández “Shhh” (2023), composed of hundreds of small acrylic mirrors, throws reflections like a disco ball. While the exhibition has started almost empty, this part of the show includes a collection of riso -racing buttons and shelves that contain biased texts on bright orange paper. These are class projects that college students have carried out using the exhibition as inspiration. Their inclusion is an intelligent way to link a new generation in the thesis of the show – and a prefiguration of a new slang emerging in art and language.
Public texts: Californian visual language Continues at the Museum of Art, Design and Architecture of the University of California in Santa Barbara (552 University Road, Santa Barbara, California) until April 27. The exhibition was organized by Alex Lukas.
