D2 Art is pleased to announce our summer group exhibition, Figuratively Speaking, featuring selected works from Los Angeles based artists Salomón Huerta, Vonn Sumner, Valentin Toledo, and Tony Brown.
Chosen for their ability to transcend direct interpretation, photographs, paintings and mixed media works by these well established artists use the figure as the primary subject but with distinguished ambiguity. In each piece, there is very little information given about the specific identity of the figure or figures depicted besides the most fundamental (i.e.: man, woman, old, young). The viewer is unable to discern culture, religion, politics, or even full expression. In addition, place or setting is purposefully fostered to be unfamiliar or unrecognizable. The lack of these context markers, which normally aid in establishing a story–especially in figurative works, can be considered disconcerting. Yet as the title indicates, these elegant works, through composition and color (or lack there of), lure viewers to engage with the pieces; there by speaking to us, asking us to question the meaning and the overall implications and/or impact of the work in the larger culture.
The works in this exhibition and theme seem particularly relevant, given the current political circumstances and climate. Though it is not the intention of the exhibition or the gallery to make direct statements, one cannot but draw some corollaries to the questionable actions that take place daily by those in power, disenfranchising individuals, communities and groups even further from each other and throughout the nation. Figuratively Speaking will run from July 7th through August 11, 2017.
View exhibition on Artsy