iCraft ContemporaryMiracle Mile / Museum Row
Carlos Castro Arias: Vandalismo Artesanal
Colombian artist's first LA solo show, juxtaposing colonial bronze casting with Indigenous weaving to examine the conquest of the Americas.
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Preview: written before the show opened
A bronze head of the conquistador Francisco de Orellana lies on its side in a coiled orange-and-white basket, next to apples and an orange. For the whole run, Castro Arias's sculptures double as fruit bowls: the Hollywood Food Coalition keeps them stocked with produce, and you're free to take some.
The Colombian artist takes bronze, the material of public monuments, and reworks it with the basketry and beadwork of communities across Colombia. Busts arrive in pieces: Columbus's face pokes out of a wicker basket, and Tío, a fragment of a statue of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, is beaded with Inga symbols from Putumayo. The museum says the works lean on dark humor. It is his first solo show in Los Angeles.
When the museum asked to borrow the Columbus statue taken down from Grand Park in 2018, LA's Native American Indian Commission urged the County to refuse, and some commissioners felt the beadwork "beautified and venerated Columbus." Admission is $12, and pay what you wish on Sundays.
Editor's pick
The Colombian artist's first Los Angeles solo show sets colonial bronze casting against Indigenous weaving to examine the conquest of the Americas.
Look for
Orellana in the fruit basket
Look for the conquistador's bearded bronze head lying sideways in a coiled orange-and-white basket, sharing it with whatever produce is in rotation.
Columbus in a wicker basket
A green bronze face of Cristóbal Colón juts out of a tall wicker basket that swallows the back of his head.
Tío
A bronze fragment of a Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada statue, its eyes and cheeks covered in red, yellow and black beadwork in Inga patterns from Putumayo.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
With kids
Children 12 and under get in free, and Sunday admission is pay what you wish.
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Image credits
8
- Carlos Castro Arias: Vandalismo ArtesanalCourtesy of Craft Contemporary
- Alfonso Gonzalez Jr.: In Between Stops© Alfonso Gonzalez Jr., photo © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Charlie Powers
- Danse Macabre: Death in Print from Durer to DixCourtesy of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
- Pablo Picasso—Portraits in Disguise© Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA
- Craft ContemporaryPaul Esposito / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)ArchEyes Magazine / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Academy Museum of Motion PicturesDowntowngal / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Petersen Automotive MuseumDavid Zaitz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0