Artwork showing in two cities this autumn can be traced back to Santa Maria. Allan Hancock College fine arts instructor Gabriel Navar has been invited to display his work at an exhibit in Richmond, Calif., and in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Two pieces will be on display in the Richmond Art Center’s 75th Anniversary Celebration. The exhibit will run through Nov. 12, with a reception to take place Saturday, Sept. 24.
The anniversary celebration was designed to recognize the center’s past and future by inviting back artists who have shown there before. Navar brought more than 50 of his paintings to the center in 2001 for “Intermedios: Solo Exhibition by Gabriel Navar.”
For the anniversary exhibit, curators requested one of Navar’s older pieces, a large square painting created in 1993 and titled The Big Stairs, and a more recent piece, youtube.com/unexpectedpeel.
For the International Art Show for Peace in Guadalajara, Navar was commissioned to create a special piece to raise awareness and protest drug-related violence in Mexico and Central America.
He created youtube.com/pinchenarcos specifically for the show. Navar said the piece fits in with his most current work, the “YouTube series” depicting his take on current events. Curators also chose one of his existing pieces, youtube.com/hoarder, to join the exhibit.
The International Art Show for Peace is currently on display at the University of Jalisco in Guadalajara. Following the exhibit, Navar’s paintings will remain a part of the university’s permanent collection and will travel to other major cities throughout Mexico, including Mexico City.
Check out Navar’s art at gabrielnavar.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/gabrielnavar.
This article appears in Sep 22-29, 2011.