Downtown…Luis De Jesus Los Angeles celebrated three new exhibitions by artists Aaron Maier-Carretero, Jackie Milad, and Roya Farassat with an artist reception on February 26, 2022. You still have time to view the exhibition through April 9, 2022.
Aaron Maier-Carretero down, 2021, Oil on canvas 55 x 72 x 1.5 in.
Aaron Maier-Carretero, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery features narrative oil paintings which dance between realism and caricature in their representation of the human form and condition as a way to understand and reconcile his relationship to latinidad, whiteness, Jewishness, and maleness. He delves into his own family as a source of inspiration, interrogating the occurrences of his upbringing, tapping into personal memories, journals, and photographs to critically examine the way in which his family has bought into a belief that to be white (or close to it) is to be more important, more beautiful, and worthy of love.
Jackie Milad: “Birth (ميلاد),” is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Motivated by a need to record and tell her story, Milad assert stories like her own into the collective history. As a child in a multi-cultural immigrant family, she struggled to connect the history of her Egyptian and Honduran ancestry to her life as an American. For this reason, she deeply considers authors of history and how those stories are recorded and shared across generations and borders. Through her process in the studio, Milad models the recording and sharing of her own history on a personal scale.
Roya Farassat: “As Near as Memory” is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Born in Iran, Roya Farassat’s work is concerned with existential questions and the human condition woven from her personal history and rich cultural heritage. An experience of displacement shaped by complex political, social and religious forces continues to inform her identity and work. Rendered in heavy impasto, Farassat’s portrait series, The Forgotten Children, presents subjects fabricated from her imagination and memory, outcasts of society whose distorted features convey a humanity lost and conjure a sense of foreignness. While her subjects may seem alien to us, their intentions, emotions, and desires are clear. These caricatures of the human psyche are disconcerting, but comical in their familiarity, too. In balancing discomfort with humor, she allows us to identify with these figures—a reminder for having empathy in a society that often neglects it.
On view: February 26 – April 9, 2022; Appointments are optional and may be made at http://luisdejesus.com/contact
What: Opening Reception, New Exhibitions
Where: Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, 1110 Mateo Street, Los Angeles (in the Arts District)
Phone: 310-838-6000
Website: https://www.luisdejesus.com/
