Landscapes

ExhibitionPast

Nov 3

Viktor Rosas
Landscapes

961 Chung King Road
NOVEMBER 12 - DECEMBER 17, 2022

SHOW CATALOG (PDF)
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)

Charlie James Gallery is pleased to present Landscapes, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Viktor Rosas opening November 12th, 2022 with a reception for the artist from 6-9pm. The show will run thru December 17th at CJG2, located at 961 Chung King Road in Los Angeles, CA.

In Landscapes, Viktor Rosas presents a new series of works on paper examining the human figure and its relationship to man-made institutional and natural forces. Rosas’s nude figures bear an abject quality born of extreme vulnerability, amplified by the figures’ isolation against institutional, ceramic tile backgrounds. The works employ a consistent visual structure – around each isolated nude Rosas places simple furniture elements beside depictions from the natural world: generally insects, flowers, and birds. Above the figures are an array of “triggers” or symbolic elements Rosas presents to evoke emotional responses and memories in the viewer. These elements can include dangling light bulbs, wheels, coat hangers, nets and more abstract compositions. Uniformly, and importantly, linocut prints of human faces are collaged onto the surface of each piece, suggestive of other people’s watchful eye(s) and possible judgement. The composition of each work suggests a clinical gaze upon each subject, while showing the human figure adrift between the man-made / institutional worlds and the comforts and radiance of the natural world. Collectively the works serve to illustrate the manifold challenges that prevent people from seeing beauty rather than imperfection when regarding the human body.

Viktor Rosas (b. 1962, Veracruz, Mexico) is a self-taught artist and master printer who has worked, taught, and studied at the legendary arts and community institution Self Help Graphics in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles for nearly twenty years. Rosas’s work has been exhibited domestically and internationally at spaces including the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, IL, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA, and at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN, among many others. Rosas’s work resides in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Rosas lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Artist Instagram: @ima_cheesecake2