Cerritos College Art Gallery Exhibit “unprimed" Opens Feb. 6

WHAT: "Unprimed," an exhibition of art work by Gary Garay, Xavier Cazares Cortez, Pedro Rios Martinez and Shizu Saldamando opens at the Cerritos College Art Gallery on Tuesday, February 6. For the purposes of this exhibition, "primed" refers to the primed canvas a traditional artists’ substrate; "unprimed" therefore refers to works on materials other than canvas.

Found and non-traditional materials are used in Gary Garay’s mixed media works. Album covers, upholstery material and found hand-painted signs and cardboard are used as grounds for his paintings, drawings and sculptures. Xavier Cazares Cortez’s installation for the exhibition uses found wood, cutouts from plastic containers and found paper as a comment on our commodity-oriented culture. Pedro Rios Martinez uses a black sharpie to selectively draw in the grain on plywood, creating fantastical environments and tableau. Shizu Saldamando’s handkerchief drawings reference the drawings of prisoners on the same material while simultaneously mixing references to popular culture and portraiture.

An artists’ talk will be held Wednesday, February 28. The artists will speak on their work in an informal lecture format with a question and answer period following.