LCA Artist in Residency Program
Jorge Javier Lopez
Closing Reception
October 15, 2021​
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
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Artist Statement
"My works are an illustration of humanity. These beings, or beasts, are drawn to capture development through the human condition. To reflect upon the complexities of existence in line and shape. Though sometimes unfinished or without dimension, these creatures display an unfulfilled, incomplete part of us that is reaching beyond the confines of ink-stained paper. Each line, heavy-handedly drawn, is a mistake, has flaws, Is worked and reworked with the purpose to echo our same imperfection, our inner conflict, and fragility as human beings. I primarily use white paper, black ink, and paint for my work to further depict the stark contrasts in the perpetual flux of clashing emotions encapsulated in all of us."
Artist Essay
"Obsolescence frequently occurs because a replacement has become available that has, in sum, more advantages compared to the disadvantages incurred by maintaining or repairing the original."
Modernity is forcing the retirement of not only antiquated technology but our archaic way of existing. We are continually evolving, compressing the speed at which we embrace the new and discard the old. Creating an existential crisis of being obsolete. I plan to focus primarily on these feelings in my future work. To explore the complex emotion of aging. Of being deteriorated, faded, lessened with the passing of time. To detail the confusion and anxiety surrounding a sudden lack of purpose and sense of abandonment within oneself, particularly in the wake of 2020.
The scale of my current work, when observed, seems like insects pinned on boards. A passing curiosity to glance over. For my upcoming series, I want to enlarge the scale. For the viewer to be confronted with a beast at eye level, at nearly life-size. For them to find the weight of each piece within themselves and see their own apathy and ineffectiveness mirrored back. I will be working to integrate muted pastels to diffuse the harsh black lines and to contrast the aggressive, anxious nature of the subjects themselves. To show a vibrancy of life on the outside of something that seems void of it.
My art in itself is my own internalization of the world and how I decipher the observable complexities in our nature that are harder to understand or define. It is self-exploratory but also a means to understand others. Finding the commonality in humanity when so much seems fractured and bewildering. Not an intellectual study of mankind, but stripping it down and taking it back to the primitive attributes that delineate us as simply human.
