‘Home Grown’ at Latino Arts

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Photo: Latino Arts - latinoarts.org

Latino Arts ‘Home Grown’

Latino Arts ‘Home Grown’

Impatience set in as I sat in a long line of stationary cars on Ninth Street on my way to Latino Arts to see the exhibition “Home Grown.” I decided to visit the exhibition in the middle of a weekday precisely to avoid traffic. Instead, this. As the grid-locked cluster slowly began to move, and I made my way to the intersection, I realized I had arrived at the Art Center right as the Bruce Guadalupe Community School to which the gallery is connected had just let out. I suddenly felt a little crummy for my impatience as I watched mothers and fathers meet their K-8 children in the loading area with gaping smiles and warm hugs. 

The exhibition I had come to see, “Home Grown,” running through June 7, features work by artists who attended the very school whose next generation was impeding my progress. I approached the Art Center briskly when two grade school children playfully opened the doors for me, pretending I was someone from a game only they knew about. Once inside I was directed toward the art gallery by a polite staff member who thanked me for coming to see the exhibition. 

The show looks home grown. It’s modest and approachable, with a work in a variety of media and subjects. The artwork is presented in groupings that highlight each individual’s offerings rather than an intermediary’s secondary conceptual vision, which is often the case in group exhibitions. Of the seven artists in the show, six are working in 2-dimensional media, and one artist, Paula Lovo, offers three digital videos on monitors. Lovos’ narrative videos, La Abeja, La Araña, La Hormiga, each originally filmed on 16 mm film, feature allegorical tales of environmental degradation through the point of view of a bee, a spider, and an ant, respectively. They offer soft, efficient, and thoroughly engaging 5-minute cautionary tales about our society’s relationship to the environment. 

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Photo via Latino Arts - Facebook

Latino Arts ‘Home Grown’ exhibition

Latino Arts ‘Home Grown’ exhibition

It’s also a welcome contrast to the rest of work in the show, which leans more toward image and material. Artist David Granados, aka OG David’s work is primarily interested in the possibilities of his medium and how it is applied in the service of familiar pop-subject matter such as Kobe Bryant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Woody from Toy Story. Woody del Vaquero sits in an elaborate frame lit from behind by led lights. It’s technically challenging and kind of spectacular, as is all of Granados’s fine airbrushed work. Nearby, Antonio “Tone” Gomez lights up the space, literally, with backlit and pixelated images of his own set of popular symbols, from a Nike swoosh to an 8-bit video game character. They effectively bridge the gap between the history of analog image-making and our inevitable digital future. Yesi Pérez contributes the piece that gripped me the most on that afternoon: a five-foot-by-five-foot stylized panel of flowers, cacti and members of the indigenous American community painted loosely but with clear purpose. It’s vibrant and uplifting and less concerned with righteous criticality than most of the contemporary fare in which I’d been engaged of late.  

I’d been listening to a new book by Bianca Bosker on the way to the gallery about the machinations of the contemporary art world in all its flamboyant contradiction. It might have contributed to my impatience now that I think about it. Among other questions it leads one to consider how much sanctimony and social salvation can the hold of a Cessna Citation on the way to Basel Miami carry? A near infinite amount, it turns out. Facing such unappealing questions, and less savory answers, will make one naturally wish for an alternative. And Milwaukee’s tight-knit Latino community, as I saw it reflected in the energy of the Latino Arts’ gallery on South Ninth and West Mineral Street, is a fine place to begin one’s search.

Event Listings: March 24–March 30, 2024

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Sunday, March 24, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Tours: Architecture and Collection Highlights
• Sunday, March 24, 2–3 p.m.

MARN ART+CULTURE Hub

• Voting Rights Restoration Summit
• Sunday, March 24, 2–4:30 p.m.

MARN ART+CULTURE Hub

• MARN Trivia with Sculpture Milwaukee
• Monday, March 25, 6–8 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Tuesday, March 26, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

The Studio Arts & Craft Centre at UWM

• Fiber Arts Social Night
• Tuesday, March 26, 6–8 p.m.

Museum of Wisconsin Art

• Mini Makers
• Wednesday, March 27, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Wednesday, March 27, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

• Work from Home Wednesday: coworking session at the Villa
• Wednesday, March 27, 12–3 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Thursday, March 28, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Gallery Talk: “Life Captured in Line: 17th-Century Dutch and Flemish Prints”
• Thursday, March 28, 12–1 p.m.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

• Guided Tour of the Villa
• Thursday, March 28, 3–4 p.m.

MARN ART+CULTURE Hub

• MARNexchange with Phoenix Brown
• Thursday, March 28, 5:30–7:30 p.m.

Jewish Museum Milwaukee

• They Wanted us to Find Them: Discovering the Book Smugglers of the Vilna Ghetto
• Thursday, March 28, 7–8:15 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Friday, March 29, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Museum of Wisconsin Art

• Teen Spring Break Studio Afternoon
• Friday, March 29. 2–4 p.m.

MARN ART+CULTURE Hub

• Exhibition Closing Ceremony featuring Anna Rose Menako
• Friday, March 29, 5–8 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Saturday, March 30, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Story Time in the Galleries
• Saturday, March 30, 10:30–11 a.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Tour: Celebrating Women Artists
• Saturday, March 30, 2– p.m.

MARN ART+CULTURE Hub

• ‘Special Guests’ Performance(with Lorna Dune, Tim Russell, Dan Schuchart and Liz Sexe)
• Saturday, March 30, 5–8 p.m.