Raul Guerrero
David Kordansky Gallery is pleased to announce a solo presentation of new paintings by Raul Guerrero at ADAA: The Art Show 2022. For over four decades, Guerrero has made work informed by his experiences navigating cultures as an American of Mexican ancestry in Southern California. In his paintings, photographs, video, and performance works, Guerrero utilizes language and cultural signifiers to examine notions of place as a way to understand personal concepts of self.
The works featured in this presentation are a continued exploration of Guerrero’s iconic bar paintings, a series he began over two decades ago. Inspired by a biography of Spanish Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel, who often edited his film scripts in bars, Guerrero began depicting artist-frequented bars and taverns across Southern California. In this latest iteration of paintings, Guerrero expands his research to include historically significant establishments in New York, including King Cole Bar, The Oak Room at the Plaza, Fanelli’s Cafe, Odeon, Bottino, and the Ear Inn. Guerrero’s paintings concretize the importance of these sites as places of assembly, reconciliation, inspiration, leisure, and refuge.
The exhibited works can be seen in person from November 2 – 6, at Booth D28, Park Avenue Armory, New York.
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Raul Guerrero
Dan Tana’s: West Hollywood, 2022
oil on linen
36 x 46 x 1 3/8 inches
(91.4 x 116.8 x 3.5 cm)
Raul Guerrero
The Tower Bar: West Hollywood, 2022
oil on linen
50 x 53 x 1 1/4 inches
(127 x 134.6 x 3.2 cm)
Raul Guerrero
The Ear Inn: New York, 2022
oil on linen
46 x 36 x 1 1/4 inches
(116.8 x 91.4 x 3.2 cm)
Raul Guerrero
Portrait, Fanelli Café: New York, 2022
oil on linen
46 x 36 x 1 1/4 inches
(116.8 x 91.4 x 3.2 cm)
Raul Guerrero
The Oak Room c. 2010 (B): New York, 2022
oil on linen
53 x 50 x 1 1/2 inches
(134.6 x 127 x 3.8 cm)
Raul Guerrero
The Oak Room c. 2010 (A): New York, 2022
oil on linen
56 1/4 x 76 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches
(142.9 x 193.7 x 3.8 cm)
Raul Guerrero
The Odeon (A): New York, 2022
oil on linen
50 x 53 x 1 1/4 inches
(127 x 134.6 x 3.2 cm)
Raul Guerrero
The Odeon (B): New York, 2022
oil on linen
36 x 46 x 1 3/8 inches
(91.4 x 116.8 x 3.5 cm)
Raul Guerrero
Bottino: New York, 2022
oil on linen
40 x 50 x 1 3/8 inches
(101.6 x 127 x 3.5 cm)
Raul Guerrero
King Cole Bar: New York, 2022
oil on linen
56 1/8 x 76 1/8 x 1 1/2 inches
(142.6 x 193.4 x 3.8 cm)
Raul Guerrero
Fanelli Café: New York, 2022
oil on linen
56 1/8 x 76 1/8 x 1 3/8 inches
(142.6 x 193.4 x 3.5 cm)
Photo by Elon Schoenholz
For over four decades, Raul Guerrero (b. 1945, Brawley, California) has made work informed by his experiences navigating cultures as an American of Mexican ancestry in Southern California. In his paintings, photographs, video, and performance works, Guerrero utilizes language and cultural signifiers to examine notions of place as a way to understand personal concepts of self. An aspect of his work depicts—and critiques—colonial narratives in the Americas such as the settlement of the Great Plains, the history of Latin America, and imposed notions of the American “West.” With compositions fusing Mexican, American, and European visual traditions, he incorporates influences ranging from the readymades of Marcel Duchamp to conceptually-oriented practices associated with a preceding generation of California artists (including John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha) who emerged from Guerrero’s alma mater, the Chouinard Art Institute. A long-time exhibiting artist on the West Coast, Guerrero reflects an intellectually rigorous approach suffused with humor and a deep engagement with legacies of visual art from Southern California and the Southwest.
Raul Guerrero was the subject of a solo exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, in 2021. Other solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at Ortuzar Projects, New York (2018); Air de Paris (project space), Romainville, France (2014); Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, San Diego, California (2001, 2007, and 2013); CUE Art Foundation, New York (2010); Long Beach Museum of Art, California (1977); and San Francisco Art Institute, California (1977). In 1989, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego presented a retrospective exhibition of his work. Guerrero has been the recipient of an NEA Photography Fellowship (1979) and the San Diego Art Prize (2006). He lives and works in San Diego.
To learn about Raul Guerrero, please view these articles from the Los Angeles Times, Carla, Frieze, Artforum, Flash Art, and The New York Times.
Photography by Jeff McLane