By Keith Walsh
It’s hard to understand why it could become policy to willfully exclude a majority of people, rather than cultivate understanding. Visual arts on the other hand, are often unambiguous, making statements that allow the creator to be easily understood and valued.
The Cheech Marin Center For Chicano Art And Culture in Riverside brings the attitudes, traditions and views of that California minority into close view, through brilliant and colorful creations, as a universal bridge between cultures who have been at odds for centuries.
by Joe Peña
Unlike the gloomy, serious messages of the European culture that swept through Latin America in the age of Columbus, the works at the Cheech present themes both serious and playful that do anything but reinforce despair. The majority of the works are figurative and representational. The paintings celebrate family, they celebrate neighborhoods, they celebrate sports, and they place faith and history into contemporary settings that bring them into the light.
There are representations of idealized role models, painted in realistic style, such as Bruno and Reina by Arely Morales. There are expertly created homages to artists like Edward Hopper (Last Stop 2:00 A.M. Late Exit In May by Joe Peña) and Charles Schultz (Flores Y Niños by Calendario Aguilar Jr.) that show respect for their inspirations. Complex situational screw-ups are presented in ways that bring understanding rather than assigning blame (Arrest Of The Paleteros by Frank Romero.)
Adán Hernandez depicts the female form in risqué ways, as in Embrujada, while Judithe Hernández captures the complexity of bearing history, tradition and expectations together, in the deceptively bright The Quinceañera. The Mayan headpiece references the brutal weight of history that justified so called holy wars that went beyond realistic bounds, worn by a face mysterious in ways found on ancient Asian statues, and the effect is so stunning that I didn’t notice the grisly red marks on the pink wall until I got home and looked at the photo. Riffs on real estate are present, such as Portait Of A Gentrifier by Josué Ramírez, while around the corner, works of pastels on black roofing paper by Vincent Valdez represent the irony that those who often build and repair homes work double shifts to afford them.
In times and places where we’re all too closely packed together, when there’s too much misunderstanding, too much trouble, we can be thankful there’s art by those and for those who are our brothers and sisters.
(Photos by Keith Walsh)
KfW 10_22_25
Riverside Art Museum & The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture
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