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Pistolitas de Azúcar
5/11/2007 - 6/30/2007 | Pistolitas de Azúcar is a multi-media exhibition featuring 9 artists who play with the whimsical magic of the everyday. Participating artists include: Mitsy Avila Ovalle, Monica Canilao, The Date Farmers, Amanda Lopez, Txutxo Perez, Juan Carlos Quintana, and Michele Munnig. Curated by Raquel de Anda. |
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Pistolitas de Azúcar: Cultura, Pop, y Whimsy features nine artists who tinker with various perceptions of pop-culture and play with the whimsical magic of everyday. While divergent in medium and form, the works build bridges between cultures and individuals whose roots lie in California and Mexico.
The title, Pistolitas de Azúcar [Sugar Pistols], is drawn from a Mexican dicho, or saying, which states, ‘No qué no tronabas pistolita?’ [which loosely translates to: “Hey, I didn’t realize the power in your gun!”] Filled with a wry sarcasm, the saying pokes fun at a person’s hidden strength and power of character. In the context of this exhibition, the sugar pistol becomes a weapon of strength; a weapon not meant to harm, but rather to remind one of the other’s powerful, quirky, and spontaneous presence.
Despite stylistic differences, most of the works in the exhibition share a persistent use of iconic imagery which is layered and interwoven, bringing to light a cultural hybridity that is ephemeral while everchanging, and grounded in a rich, multilayered, historical background.
Each artist seems to approach an understanding of reality through an exaggeration of the real and familiar, drawing us in through humor, mystery, and innocence. Much of the imagery is inspired by the artists’ relationship with their cultural surroundings. Images of beauty queens and lucha libre wrestlers are coupled with perversely intriguing works inspired by sexy Mexican foto-novelas and political illustrations taken from children’s coloring books. All at once, Mexican poster art, advertisements, religious icons, animal spirits and urban landscapes are integrated with and influenced by one another, creating a playground of dreamlike whimsy and biting sarcasm.
While the works featured in Pistolitas de Azúcar are all highly individualized, they are informed by the synthesis of a political, cultural and symbolic history from both Latin America and the U.S. Coming from an integrative polycultural place of creativity, Pistolitas opens a passageway where cultural trends and individualized identities converge.
Raquel de Anda
Curator
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