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Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

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Painting of cartoonish figures in a landscape, with a black crow in the foreground

Victor Estrada

Back to Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living

Victor Estrada’s artistic practice spans thirty years and several mediums, among them sculpture, painting, and drawing. His works are an amalgamation of seemingly disparate creative traditions, including the Chicano movement, pop art, and California conceptualism. Shaped by Los Angeles–based artists such as Ed Kienholz and Mike Kelley, his work is itself an important continuation of a tradition with deep roots in the artistic experimentation of post–World War II L.A. Estrada’s practice is defined by an uncanny relationship with materials and a syncretic understanding of image making that merges cartoon aesthetics, punk influences, and figurative illustration. His works picture a vast universe of expressive and delirious forms, creatures, and abstractions that illustrate the artist’s deep commitment to subverting expectations that Black and Brown communities should represent themselves with strategies of realism. Nevertheless, Estrada remains in dialogue with Latinx and Chicano culture, and his works are intimately related to his life, his experiences as part of the vibrant academic community at ArtCenter College of Design, his work as an English teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District during the Reagan era, and his engagement with communities in East L.A. Estrada merges intense tonality, amorphous form, and community memorialization in a practice that manifests limitless imagination and social commitment.

Bio

Victor Estrada (b. 1956, Burbank, California) received a BFA in 1986 and an MFA in 1988 from ArtCenter College of Design. He has had solo exhibitions at Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena (2022); Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York (2022); and Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles (2019, 2017). Group exhibitions include those at SITE Santa Fe (2018); Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, California (2011); El Museo del Barrio and Americas Society, New York (2010); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2008, 2000); Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (1996); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1996, 1993); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (1995); Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (1995); and Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany (1993).