When one reflects on their life and the moments that shape who we are, we often discredit the quiet and solemn moments before or after a big occasion or tragic event. The spaces ‘in between’ all the stuff we place emotional weight on are where we have space to just be who we are, to process all that we have been through, or begin to form dreams of the future. It is in these everyday spaces where life arguably truly takes shape. They can hold everything and nothing all at once.
In the thoughtfully curated duo exhibition, Imagined Long Before at the DMST Atelier Gallery, Andrea Castillo and Will Zeng examine aspects of their own lives and identities in varying ways. While both artists reflect on how the quiet, candid moments can truly capture the essence of who we are, the approaches are quite different.
Andrea Castillo, Storefront I, 2024. Image courtesy of DMST Atelier Gallery. Photo Credit: Monique G. @_amor.duro.fotos_ .
Andrea Castillo’s series of paintings, primarily done in oil on canvas, gives intimate glimpses into the Latina/o/x side of Los Angeles. In Storefront I (2024), Castillo depicts a scene reminiscent of the many storefronts in the fashion or fabric district of downtown Los Angeles. Large blankets with animal prints, synonymously called Mexican blankets by the San Marcos company but now made mostly in Korea and other parts of Asia, line the wall in the background of the painting. In the middle of the work, an employee with empty, or perhaps bored eyes, is hanging shirts that run the gamut of an MF Doom band tee to a Gucci shirt. There is a wall of Nike sneakers flanking the left side of the room and Sanrio and Disney ephemera on the right. In the foreground on the counter is a greatest hits collection of Cumbia songs. If you’ve ever been to the alleys in downtown LA and walked through a store like this, you are instantly transported back by this scene. The sights, the sounds, and the intermeshing of varying products serve to attract a broad clientele. This work is seeped with a level of care and love of the culture.
Andrea Castillo, Hollenbeck Park, 2024. Image courtesy of DMST Atelier Gallery. Photo Credit: Monique G. @_amor.duro.fotos_ .
Castillo does an interesting thing with perspective in her pieces. There is, at times, no true distinction between background and foreground. Things just bleed into one another. The scale of objects and subjects in the work can be either smaller than normal or larger than life. For example, in Hollenbeck Park (2024), the male subject’s body sitting at a park table at the center of the painting is astronomically larger than the rest of the work, while his head is much too small for his body. This juxtaposition is quite interesting when comparing not only the size of other figures in the piece, but also the various body parts as well. The weight that the body commands is prevalent in the work. The figure is looking up towards the sky pensively, as if dreaming. This anti-perspective allows the focus to shift in a myriad of interesting ways. One could see the enlarged figure in contrast to the rest of the scene and get that feeling of dreaming for something bigger in your life, that everything is too small for you. Similarly, seeing how everything is so miniscule in relation to oneself, it can be a reminder that the world, or our problems, are not always as big as we make them out to be. By choosing to play with perspective in her pieces, she allows the viewer to come up with more emotional connections to the work and themselves.
Andrea Castillo, The Visit, 2024. Image courtesy of DMST Atelier Gallery. Photo Credit: Monique G. @_amor.duro.fotos_ .
Many of the pieces play with a monochromatic color pallet that adds to the dreamlike, moody feel of the pieces. In Hollenbeck Park the work is bathed in blue tones, while in The Visit (2024), an orangish hue washing over the subject sitting at the kitchen table, contrasting with the dark blue of the outside world. While the woman’s head is again quite small in proportion to the rest of her body, her hands are exceptionally large and elongated. Like each of the paintings, the subject’s eyes are quite expressive. You can feel the weight in them. Mexican talavera style plates adorn the wall of the room, and a poetry collection by Christopher Rey Perez about Mexico City sits on the table. It is these small details that Castillo adds to the work that add layers of texture and cultural value.
While Castillo’s work is steeped in LA with its use of place and cultural iconography, Will Zeng uses the car culture of the city and how some Asian Americans are quite connected to it. This notion is interpolated with the exploration of queerness and the violence that can come from a car crash. The paintings have a sharpness and depth to them that makes them immediately striking. The subjects in the work are more defined and proportional to the rest of the images in the work. The paintings are not quite photorealistic, but the level of realism in the pieces draws you into a more direct level of reality.
Will Zeng, BOYRACER I, 2024. Image courtesy of DMST Atelier Gallery. Photo Credit: Monique G. @_amor.duro.fotos_ .
Will Zeng, DRIFTCORE, 2024. Image courtesy of DMST Atelier Gallery. Photo Credit: Monique G. @_amor.duro.fotos_ .
In BOYRACER I (2024), you can feel the tenderness and vulnerability of the Asian man contrasted with the more traditionally masculine street racing car. The car itself is painted a pinkish hue that further complicates the gender dynamics in the piece. In DRIFTCORE (2024), seemingly the same man is seen shirtless peering almost blankly over a drift car as it burns out. While the car elicits notions of excitement, the subject’s gaze bathes the work in a deep sense of loneliness.
Will Zeng, OOPS, 2024. Image courtesy of DMST Atelier Gallery. Photo Credit: Monique G. @_amor.duro.fotos_ .
The two pieces, OOPS (2024) and Crash I (2024), explore scenes of the aftermath of a car crash. In the former, a family minivan adorned with stickers filled with hopes and dreams of family— a new child, the academic success of the family’s other children— has very literally been smashed into by an opposing force. The rear bumper is cracked and partially dislodged, but somehow still hanging on. Even though the car has been wrecked, the colors in the piece still remain bright and subtly optimistic, and the “oops” on the license plate adds a little humor to the mishaps of life. The iconography of familial expectations, hopes, successes, and failures captures so much of what it is to be the child of immigrant parents— the weight that one can feel to uphold expectations created before one is even born. In the latter, the viewer is presented with the aftermath of a head-on collision by two cars in the background. The scene is dark and filled with emotional weight. In the foreground, a subject that is seemingly the same one as in two of the previous pieces looks back over his shoulder as if in shame.
Installation image of Imagined Long Before at DMST Atelier Gallery, 2024. Image courtesy of DMST Atelier Gallery. Photo Credit: Monique G. @_amor.duro.fotos_ .
From deep longing, sorrow, regret, shame, hope, connection, and love, it’s the sheer emotional weight of all the work in this show that makes it especially interesting to witness. This is especially poignant with the various ways both artists connect with and reflect with their own cultural identity. Those small touches of slipping in a musical album, book, or blanket, or bumper sticker make all the difference in the work. Ultimately, with their different approaches, both Castillo and Zeng are able to pull the viewer in and reveal a bit about the world, themselves, as well as the humanity that lives within us all. The pairing allows the viewer to reflect on those quiet, in-between moments in life to see how much more impactful they truly can be. Because it is in those moments before or after the storm that the calm can settle on you and let you hopefully feel at peace.
Imagined Long Before is now on view at the DMST Atelier Gallery until January 31st 2025.
Imagined Long Before December 14, 2024 – January 31, 2025 DMST Atelier Gallery 4614 W Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Read More When one reflects on their life and the moments that shape who we are, we often discredit the quiet and solemn moments before or after a big occasion or tragic event. The spaces ‘in between’ all the stuff we place emotional weight on are where we have space to just be who we are, to … Continue reading “Imagined Long Before”
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