"These paintings reveal the layers of history that undergird modern Los Angeles. Yaanga Lies Under the 101 imagines the city's earliest Tongva inhabitants as they made their home on the land that, in the modern day, runs beneath the Hollywood Freeway. Campos's process mimics this archaeological layering: each canvas begins with a screenprinted underlayer that is then painted over in acrylic, and then once again layered with screenprinted details."
"In his role as artist-historian, Campos reveals the figures, stories, and myths that echo through the city's history, folding Mexican folklore into its fabric and often drawing from primary texts for narrative and stylistic inspiration. In adapting the stylistic conventions of pre-Columbian painting, Campos thins the veil between past and present, physical and mythological, turning the fresh eye of history onto the too-familiar climate disasters and political failings of the 21st century."
Paintings excavate layered cultural histories of Los Angeles through a combined painting and screenprinting technique. Figures, stories, and myths from Mexican folklore and pre-Columbian conventions are folded into contemporary cityscapes. Screens provide flat, stylized underlayers that are painted over in acrylic, then re-layered with screenprinted details to mimic archaeological strata. Works imagine Tongva inhabitants beneath the Hollywood Freeway and retell myths such as a Promethean possum who brings fire and is pursued by warriors wearing both feathered headdresses and hoodies. The imagery addresses climate disasters, political failures, and cultural commingling while suggesting hope in persistent, resurfacing stories.
Read at Juxtapoz
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]