Shared starting points don\u2019t mean shared destinations \u2014 especially when it comes to art, and especially when it comes to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
At the Long Beach Museum of Art, the exhibition \u201cMario Ayala and Alfonso Gonzalez Jr.\u201d brings together six years of collaborative-yet-divergent work by two L.A. artists whose practices investigate how shared images shape our understanding of identity and history.<\/p>\n
The exhibit, which runs through Feb. 28 at LBMA, 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., traces the artists\u2019 shared practice from 2020 to 2026.<\/p>\n
For those six years, Ayala and Gonzalez have worked as neighbors in the same Los Angeles studio building, developing their work through proximity, shared references and encounters with the same aesthetic environments.<\/p>\n
Their painterly approaches, however, diverge.<\/p>\n
Born in L.A. in 1991, Ayala draws from the visual culture of the West Coast, incorporating references to murals and tattooing into his work. He brings together forms in surreal compositions that reflect the constant interplay of images that shift from personal experience to the wider world and back again.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez, born in L.A. in 1989, approaches the city\u2019s visual landscape through the traditions of commercial sign painting, a craft he learned to appreciate by observing his father\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
His layered paintings examine weathered signs and everyday public surfaces as records of labor and hard-won memory.<\/p>\n
Together, the two artists reveal how connections between fine art and commercial craft, family history and public space, and representation and abstraction can emerge from the seemingly ordinary details of our city.<\/p>\n
The exhibition at LBMA extends these connections beyond the artists themselves through selections from the museum\u2019s permanent collection, chosen by Ayala and Gonzalez.<\/p>\n
By placing historical works in conversation with contemporary art, the presentation treats the collection as a living archive in which unexpected relationships emerge.<\/p>\n
For more information, go to lbma.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Sediment\/o\u2019<\/p>\n At the Long Beach City College Art Gallery, \u201cSediment\/o\u201d explores migration, memory and the layered realities of life along the U.S.-Mexico border through photography, video and art installation.<\/p>\n On view through this Saturday, Oct. 24, the exhibit takes its title from artist, poet and scholar Omar Pimienta\u2019s 2024 poetry collection, continuing his longstanding investigation of the relationship between geography and personal experience.<\/p>\n As a poet, Pimienta brings language and personal experience into conversation, considering how human and nonhuman movement leaves lasting marks on the borderlands of the United States and Mexico.<\/p>\n Raised in Tijuana, Pimienta draws on his experience of life between these two countries to explore the ways borders shape both individual identities and collective history.<\/p>\n Can forms of resilience, for example, develop across national boundaries? If so, can they survive an ever-shifting landscape?<\/p>\n In \u201cSediment\/o,\u201d the idea of \u201csediment\u201d offers a way to understand history as an accumulation: layers that remain present even as natural landscapes \u2014 and personal circumstances \u2014 change.<\/p>\n While he is a poet and author of five poetry collections, Pimienta also holds a master of fine arts in visual arts, with work appearing in exhibits like the Getty Foundation\u2019s \u201cPacific Standard Time: LA\/LA,\u201d the Casablanca International Biennale and the Transborder Biennial in El Paso and Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n Pimienta will discuss his interdisciplinary work during an artist talk and closing reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the LBCC Art Gallery, 4901 E. Carson St.<\/p>\n