José Lozano:
House of Mirth

José Lozano, an accomplished printmaker and painter, packs a full house in every image. His subjects are often crowds and ensembles; he pushes people into the frame, where they confront each other in throngs of humanity evoking Reginald Marsh, Paul Cadmus, and James Ensor. As the show’s title suggests, Lozano’s work is subtly and sometimes strangely sarcastic, his humor elevated by the tight contrast of his scenes. Families and friends appear on the beach, at parties, enjoying picnics—but ominous immigration officers lurk on the periphery. Couples embrace, but seem to scowl at the viewer. The printmaking influences are clear in Lozano’s use of lines, sometimes shimmeringly metallic, mirroring the slick, 1930s wavy hairstyles of his figures. It is linework that defines these people, articulating their forms and energies—it is linework that heightens the tension of these gatherings. These are bodies in motion, writhing and twisting, threatening to explode beyond the picture plane.

Raised in Mexico and Southern California, José Lozano has a rich history of drawing, painting, printmaking, curation, writing, and illustration. Lozano attended Art Center College of Design and received his MFA from CSUF in 1987, where he studied with Kim Abeles, Pierre Picot and Leo Robinson. He has participated in and curated numerous exhibitions in Los Angeles and Orange County, including Papel Chicano and Chicanitas: Works on Paper from the Cheech Marin Collection and Open Your Eyes/Abre Los Ojos at Fullerton’s Muckenthaler Cultural Center. He has worked on serigraph atelier projects with Self-Help Graphics, and several of the prints completed there are in LACMA’s permanent collection. Lozano is the recipient of a California Community Foundation Fellowship for drawing and painting, and his public art projects include LA Metro Loteria at the La Brea/Jefferson station and Aliso Dreams, a mural for La Plaza Village in Downtown LA. His most recent children’s book, Little Chancla, was named Best Bilingual Picture Book by the Latino Book Awards Association, and well-reviewed by the New York Times.