Artist Statement: 

The son of a seamstress and mechanic, my art-making process continues a family history of labor through the meticulous hand-made acrylic paintings on wooden panel and ink drawings. As a first-generation middle-class American growing up in the 80's & 90's under the influence of MTV, Nickelodeon, plastic toys, candy and bold fashion – my work construct and unravel my landscape, architecture and interior spaces with flat color, line and intricate patterns.

Pushing the cannon of Chicano art beyond graffiti or large-scale murals, these works also investigate identity through the lens of such a richly traditional infrastructure. My work, create a new kind of iconography, symbolically operating on the micro level of the personal, able to be inserted into a larger historical and cultural dialogue.

Like clocking in and out of my very own studio sweatshop, my process extends from super-controlled acrylic painting into laborious experimental ink drawings on paper, continuing an abstract investigation into line, color and pattern- an homage to my mother and reminiscent of a childhood play area in her sewing room piled with fabric swatches. The vulnerable process of creating “swatch-drawings” celebrate accidental moments and mishap when man imitates machine; one of life's lessons which forces us to make lemonade out of lemons. Through both painting and drawing my cultural and personal history is explored, questioned and celebrated.

Mediums: 
Artist Display Name: 
Steven Vasquez Lopez