LEO LIMÓN Nicknamed the “L.A. River Catz” artist by former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, Leo Limón is well known for his cat faces painted on the cement walls channeling the Los Angeles River. His work on paper primarily deals with the indigenous ideals of the corazón (heart) and incorporates many Aztec symbols. Limón considers himself a cultural worker and an arts ambassador for East Los Angeles and the Chicano community. While still in high school, he was influenced by and involved with Los Four,
especially Carlos Almaraz. During his time with Self Help Graphics, a community-based visual arts center, Limón helped to develop the annual celebration of Día de los Muertos and the Atelier Printmaking Program. In addition, he helped to establish the Aztlan Cultural Arts Foundation, Inc., to pursue his commitment to youth in his community. He has also worked with the MeChicano Art Center and the Centro de Arte Público. Limón was born and still resides in East Los Angeles. To request more information, contact mamacat428@aol.com.
JOSÉ LOZANO Born in Los Angeles, José Lozano spent his early childhood in Juarez, Mexico. His work is fueled by what he calls his “cultural touchstones” acquired as a child in Mexico—things such as bad Mexican cinema, fotonovelas, wrestling, crime magazines, ghost stories, and musical genres such as rancheras, and boleros. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1967 where he attended Belvedere Elementary. With encouragement from various teachers, he began focusing on drawing and painting. As a graduate student at California State University, Fullerton, he began creating not-always-flattering depictions of his neighborhood residents in situations such as quinceañeras, weddings, demonstration parties,
and baby showers. He received his Master of Fine Arts in 1987. Lozano’s images are humorous and sarcastic, yet removed from satire. His depictions of everyday Chicano men and woman are sharp and unvarnished. The viewer is left to ponder his or her own sympathy for the vulnerability for these people. There are no easy solutions found in his images, nor are there hostilities or indictments. His images conjure up what we think we know, yet on close inspection, the familiar becomes a foreign and contradictory terrain. To learn more, contact scorpio_squared@msn.com.
CÉSAR A. MARTÍNEZ Based in San Antonio, César A. Martínez is usually recognized as a Chicano portraitist by others. However, he states that he “paints characters, not actual persons.” While described often as portraits, his works are really more of composites of individuals he has known or seen in the barrio over the years. Other sources are high school yearbooks, obituary photos, and other photographic visual material he has collected over the years. Best known for his Batos and Pachucos series, Martínez’s work has been included in landmark exhibitions, including La Frontera/The Border: Art about the Mexican-U.S. Border Experience; CARA– Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation 19651985, Chicano Visions: American Painters on the 90
Verge, and Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors. Among other major institutions, his art has been shown at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. Martínez also deals with other subject matter pertinent to Mexican-American issues of cultural identity in work such as his Mestizo series, South Texas series, and Sarape series, all of which are in varying mediums and modes that best express their respective themes. To learn more, contact guey44@yahoo.com.