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diversions
Human
Conditions exhibit highlights Latin art museum
By Miguel Lopez and Adrienne Figueroa
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Finding the good
and evil in an uncomfortable or tragic situation is the theme
artist Jose Garcia Cordero has captured in his surreal paintings,
on display now through July 21 at the Long Beach Museum of
Latin American Art.
“Human Conditions,” his first solo exhibit in the United States,
the native of the Dominican Republic uses images of teeth,
eyes and severed fish heads in an attempt to portray his dismal
perspective of mankind.
Three additional reoccurring elements are evident in the artist’s
exhibit. The dog, symbolized many times, is an alter-personality
for Cordero and for all of humanity, as well as a metaphor
for contemporary times and the human condition.
Many observers can be scared away by the artist’s dark paintings
of life. “Boat People IV” is successful in his eerie approach
to the world. The painting shows a small wooden boat full
of wolf-like dogs crossing a red sea, surrounded by shark
fins. According to Cordero, the painting symbolizes how the
Caribbean people have left their homeland across the sea for
the better.
Another piece with an icy undertone is “Laughing Chairs,”
a work which reveals Cordero’s anti-death penalty stance.
The painting is a composition of about 30 sets of teeth and
gums on a black background in the shape of an electric chair.
In creating this, the artist struggles with the conflict of
sentencing a man wait on death row for 20 years, only to be
executed for a crime he can no longer remember committing.
“Only Fillets Matter,” one of a series of paintings in which
Cordero has incorporated the use of fish heads, depicts a
childhood experience in which the artist witnessed the display
of the dead animal before it was converted into evening soup.
As horrifying as the situation was, the young boy could not
help but think that this event could also double as an amazing
spectacle.
In addition to seafood, Cordero also uses his own portrait
in many of his art pieces. “Waiting for You,” a painting with
11 figures of the artist inside a creek during the night,
is his interpretation of universal likeness and the desire
to look like everyone else. In accomplishing this, jealousy
of the world would dissolve because everyone would be replications
of each other.
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