Oxy Arts builds community through innovative and inclusive arts experiences.
Oxy Arts presents the work of Shizu Saldamando, the Wanlass artist-in-residence for 2019-2020. Drawing from her personal cultural perspective (Mexican-American and Japanese-American ancestry), Saldamando offers an intimate take on formal portraiture; presenting portraits of friends, fellow artists, queer and of color activists — individuals that are not often highlighted or uplifted in contemporary culture. Her work functions as homage, as well as documentation of countercultures within and around Northeast Los Angeles.
For Parents and Caretakers
Download the activity pages below for creative ideas around portrait making and storytelling from the exhibition.
Shizu Saldamando's drawings, paintings, sculptures, and videos have been exhibited both locally and internationally and experiment with a broad range of surfaces and materials. She has had solo exhibitions at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ; the Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, CA; Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA; Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Selected group exhibitions include shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the official collateral exhibition of the Venice Biennale; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA. Saldamando received her B.A. from UCLA’s School of Arts and Architecture and her M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts.
Visualizing the scope of L.A. Latinx subcultural communities, L.A. Intersections presents a selection of works by Los Angeles-based artist Shizu Saldamando that reimagines alternative Chicanx and Indigenous identities through portraiture and video-based work. The exhibition's multimedia and cross-generational composition offers both a critique of traditional figures in art and a celebration of in-between spaces and the bodies that inhabit them.
