Mexican artists to display art in Downey

DOWNEY - This Saturday, Sept.8, Art on the Vine kicks off its second year as Downey's monthly art exhibit with the thrilling paintings of Sergio Vasquez and Jose Lopes. Both originally from Mexico, Vasquez and Lopes started their studies as artists at Los Angeles City College. Vasquez focuses on faces and the human form in his portraits and Lopes uses shadow and light in his landscapes, abstracts, and oils on canvas.

They both followed their instincts as artists in their journey from Mexico to Los Angeles.

Lopes' work is strong, not only with use of glowing color and piercing images, but in his ability to almost ask the viewer to finish telling his story. "In an effort to engage the viewers' own personality and individual ideologies, I have opted to leave some shapes unresolved," he said.

"I am captivated by faces and the human form," Vasquez wrote in his 2010 book, The Language of Portraits. "There is nothing like voluptuousness, the flesh, the light and shadows (on it), the presence, the proportions, and the positive and negative space of the body shape."

The Cheech Marin Art Collection, parts of which were shown in a 2006 exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, and the George Lopez Collection house Vasquez's work along with museums in Mexico and a collection in Italy. Join the artists and Downey Arts Coalition at 7 p.m., Saturday, at Mari's Wine Bar.

If you are interested in having your art exhibited, send an e-mail to artist.submission@downeyarts.org

********** Published: September 6, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 21