Los Angeles artist Yolanda González is celebrating 150 years of art-making created by her Mexican/American family dating back 150 years ago at the Vincent Price Art Museum.
Yolanda González: Sueño de Familia, Dream of Family centers around Yolanda’s art practice and features her great-grandfather Juan Nepomuceno López (Mexico, b. 1860 - d. 1940), grandmother Margarita “Mague” López Ibarra (Mexico, b. 1906 - d. 1999), mother Yolanda “Yola” López González (Mexico, b. 1930), and niece Lauren Stacia González (USA, b. 1988).
(Above photo: Margarita López Ibarra bottom row, far left sitting and Juan Nepomuceno López bottom row, second from far-right sitting, 1927).
Dream of Family is inspired by Yolanda Gonzalez’s ongoing, and iconic series of Surrealistic portrait paintings,
Sueños or
Dreams. The
Sueños series of paintings features strong autobiographical components as they collectively address issues of feminism, Chicana/o, and metaphysical states.
“Art is transformational. Luckily for me, at an early age, I studied my great-grandfather’s artworks. They’re so beautiful, and it’s such an honor to have lived with these amazing drawings, especially since they were created in Mexico during the 1870s and still around.”
Yolanda goes on to share, “My grandmother, Mague, was so inspirational to me too. Her passion for painting and entertaining really inspired me and contributed so much. I was lucky enough to have her visit me at my first art studio, where she really felt exactly what I felt...a genuine love and appreciation for art.”
“Yola, ” Yolanda’s mom reconnected with ceramics at the young age of 83. Working at her daughter’s
Ma Art Space in Alhambra “Yola” rediscovered her love for art, “I always wanted to make art but was always focused on being a Mother and supporting my family at home.” Jokingly she shared, “I can’t make my work fast enough because everything I do sells!”
Lauren Stacia González is the niece of Yolanda and granddaughter of “Yola.” From an early age, she visited her aunt’s studio and interacted with established artists. Within her practice, her work employs a graphic style and references New Image and Pop genres. Mixing fantasy, animal figures, and the macabre, her subjects are often inspired by Heavy Metal music culture and horror cinema.
Yolanda González: Sueño de Familia, Dream of Family opens Saturday, November 16, 2019, and exhibiting through March 14, 2020, at the
Vincent Price Art Museum featuring drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics created by five-family-members over 150 years.
This just might be the very first multi-generational art exhibition shared between multiple generations of artists from one family.
An illustrated hard-cover exhibition catalog will be available in February 2020. Major support for the
Yolanda González: Sueño de Familia, Dream of Family publication was provided by AltaMed, courtesy of Cástulo de la Rocha and Zoila D. Escobar. The exhibition catalog is currently in production and measure seven by nine inches, HC, 112 pages, and feature 134 illustrations and written contributions by
Curator and museum director Pilar Tompkins Rivas,
Latin American Art Research founder Jimmy Centeno,
Karen Mary Davalos Professor and Chair of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota, and attorney and writer Guadalupe González. Catalog design by Mark Murphy of Murphy Design Inc.
Yolanda González is a Los Angeles-based American artist known for her dynamic paintings, ceramic works, and numerous public and private art commissions. She has exhibited extensively internationally, with exhibitions in Africa, England, France, Italy, Japan, Russian, Scotland, Spain, and throughout Mexico, including presentations of her work at the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, and at the Centro de Las Artes de Monterrey, Monterrey. Within the United States, her work has been shown at the Hammer Museum, Japanese American National Museum, Monterey Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum of Latin American Art, National Museum of Mexican Art, San Diego Museum of Art, Self Help Graphics & Art, Skirball Cultural Center, and the Vincent Price Art Museum.
