Make ‘Em All Mexican
George Lawson Gallery
Culver City, CA
February 8-March 9, 2013
The George Lawson Gallery 17th exhibition in Los Angeles presents the painted objects of Los Angeles-based artist Linda Vallejo, selections from her series, Make ‘Em All Mexican. Vallejo studied in Madrid and London before getting her BFA at Whittier and her MFA at Cal State Long Beach. She has exhibited extensively since the 1980s, most recently at the Fullerton Museum in San Bernadino. Her work is in the collection of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.
In this recent and ongoing series, Vallejo has forged a simple visual tool capable of powerful leverage. She wields it to debunk embedded social stereotypes, but without subordinating the formality of her art to identity politics. Vallejo has crafted an ostensibly Chicano art, yet one with international address; a topical art, yet one with long shelf life. That she does this with a sense of humor does not detract from the seriousness of her intent. Her art is fundamentally transformative, and the means of her transformation is paint. She uses brown the way Yves Klein, James Lee Byars, and Lita Albuquerque use blue—as a catalyst for change and spiritual alchemy.
Linda Vallejo’s Art Show Makes Pop Culture Icons Look Mexican, LA Weekly, by Eva Recinos, February 12, 2013
Linda Vallejo: Make ‘Em All Mexican, Artweek.LA, February 4, 2013
Make ‘Em ‘All Mexican Purchase MEAM Publication George Lawson Gallery