Opening Reception: Saturday, February 9, 2019, 7-10PM
Exhibition Dates: February 9 – March 2, 2019.
Closing Reception: Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 2-4PM.

(Artist Sandra Vista with our gallery director, Kathy Gallegos. Photo courtesy of Sandra Vista.)

Artist Insights:
“If you are lucky a change in location will bring a change in your art.  I am one of those people who is grateful for the creative gifts living in downtown Los Angeles has given me.  Moving from Venice Beach twenty years ago, has reunited me with my Mexican and Californian ancestry. The “Los Angeleno” influence is prevalent in downtown Los Angeles and has presented itself in my artwork through bolder-florescent colors, and mixed-media sculpture.  Dreams, neo-spirituality, “baby-boomer” nostalgia, and feminism are an integral part of my art in the past twenty years. There are more stories to tell, each piece of art is a contribution to my art practice.

Since my college years, my paintings have been influenced by the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970’s and the Memphis Art Movement of the late 1970’s.  My undergraduate years at the University of Arizona and San Diego State, both stressed painting techniques that called for a palette of bold colors and patterns.  The desert of Arizona and the ocean of California create obvious horizon lines that I use as a starting point in all my paintings. I am also attracted to man-made stripes that are seen on business canopies and on hazard signs throughout the cities.  The renaissance of downtown Los Angeles has created a flashing metropolis in front of my eyes. The construction warning stripes as well as the lightning of graffiti, multi-cultural pop imagery of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, are part of the framework of my art.   Additionally, living with the ancestral voices of immigrants from China, Japan, Mexico and other countries, have enriched my work and spiritual integration. I never had an altar until I moved downtown. Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist icons live communally on my altar.

The zipper tab pieces included in the show are influenced by my field trips to the salvage yards with a group of artists in 2009-2010.  These pieces would not have existed without my transplant to downtown Los Angeles. The zipper tab pieces are part of the development of mixed- media, labor intensive pieces that began in 2001.  First, with beads and pins that I adhered to canvases, and three-dimensional pieces using dried gourds, and everyday objects like “Altoid” tins. Also, the zipper tabs are related to my family’s livelihood.  My father was a buyer for fabrics and notions, and my maternal grandfather was a tailor. My father would frequent the downtown fabric mart for purchases and in my revisionist history, saw my grandfather nearby.  Hopefully, every generation improves. I see these pieces as my interpretation of my family history and its development. And most important, I am an educated-creative woman who helps to keep the family legacy moving forward with my alternative definition.”

Sandra Vista, February 2019

(Photo courtesy of Sandra Vista.)

CV:

SANDRA VISTA
1250 LONG BEACH AVE #116-LOS ANGELES, CA 90021
213-324-5867 c
sandravista17@gmail.com,  www.sandravistafineart.blogspot.com

EDUCATION

1982   MFA (Painting) California State University, Long Beach
1979   California Single Subject Teaching Credential (Art) (SDSU)
1978   BA (Art) San Diego State, San Diego, CA

CURATORIAL EXHIBITIONS

2010   FOUND-Santa Monica Art Studios-Arena I (6 LA Based Mixed-Media Artists)
2005   Chocolate Rococo –I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles (5 LA Based Artists-Labor Intensive Works)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019   Veinte, Ave 50 Studios, Los Angeles, CA
2013   Meow Buddha, Vincent Price Art Museum, East Los Angeles College
2002   Minty Sculptures, Coagula Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2001   100 Paintings, Coagula Projects, Los Angeles, CA
1986   Tropical Pyramids, Jama, Venice, CA
1983   The First One is For The Cat , Pt. Loma College, San Diego, CA
1982   Tropical Heat Waif, Gallery C, Cal State University, Long Beach

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019   Evolutionary DNA- The Solship Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018   She Loves- curated by Adrineh Bagh, Coagula Curatorial, Los Angeles, CA
2018   Perfect Imperfect-curated by Jennifer Faist Hill, TAJ Art Studio Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018   Per Proscenia –curated by Jeanne Dreskin, JOAN Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017   Full Assembly Required, California Fine Arts, Santa Ana, CA
2017   Modern Art Blitz-The LA Invasion, California Fine Arts, Santa Ana, CA
2017   Coagula LA Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA
2016   Dog and Cat Show, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA
2016   Women Spirituality, Self Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA
2016   Annual Mask Exhibit, Beyond Baroque Gallery, Venice, CA
2016   Summer Exhibit Art Share La , Los Angeles, CA
2016   DADA Show, Fauxism Group, MuzeuMM, Los Angeles, CA
2015   Bunnymania, Chung King Studios, Los Angeles, CA
2015   Bunnymania, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013   Running Amok, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2009   Women of Juarez, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL
2009   Deadly Stylish, Self Help Graphics, Diane Gamboa, Los Angeles, CA
2009   Insight/Inside LA, Mt. Saint Mary’s College, Los Angeles, CA
2006   Women’s Intl. Art Exhibit, Latino Art Museum, Pomona, CA
2005   Chocolate Rococo, I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2003   East LA College Faculty Art Exhibit, Vincent Price Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2002   Complexity of Simplicity, OIA, New York, NY
2002   This Ain’t No…, Coagula Projects Gallery, Los Angeles
2001   Eight Intl. Artists II, Vizivarosi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2001   OK to Touch, Angeles Gate, Los Angeles, CA
2000   Red Colors and Emotions, Gallery 214, Montclair, NJ
2000   Y2K-atotic, The Art Club, New York, NY
1999   Four Artists, Harrisburg Art Assoc. , Harrisburg, PA
1999   Circular Logic, I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1998   10 Artists-Critic’s Choice, OIA, New York, NY
1998   Salon Exhibition Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA
1998   Eight Intl Artists-Galleria East, Baltonfured, Hungary
1997   Mass Mediums, OIA, New York
1996   (1996) Open Gallery 825, LA Art Assoc., Los Angeles,CA
1996   3rd Intl. Female Artists, Art Addiction, Stockholm Sweden
1984   Metro Rail, 45 Artists, Los Angeles, CA
1979   CSULB Juried Exhibition, Gallery C, CSULB, Long Beach, CA
1979   Costa Mesa Art League, Costa Mesa, CA
1978   San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA

AWARDS
1998   Artists in Residency, Hungarian Multicultural Center (July 1998 Budapest, Hungary)

PREVIOUS POSITIONS
1983   Art Instructor-Secondary, Los Angeles Unified School District. 1983-2015
2000   Art Instructor, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA. 2000-03

OTHER INTERESTS
2007    Art review writer, White Hot Magazine Online, www.onehundredpercentrag.blospot.com (personal blog)