San Jose artist Sam Rodriguez has been painting nearly every day for two months to bring to life what he is calling his breakout show: “Typefaces: Caras de la Misión.” Opening June 3 at Acción Latina’s Juan R. Fuentes Gallery, the exhibit will demonstrate fully who Rodriguez is as an artist.
“Caras de la Misión” is not only a celebration of Bay Area homegrown arts, but also a continuation of a decades-long exchange between San Francisco and San Jose, at a time when both cities facing gentrification and cultural erasure. The show will be the first that Josué Rojas has overseen from start to finish, since assuming his role as Acción Latina’s executive director in March of 2017, and from the initial conversation, it has had the vibe of family coming together, of a car club or graffiti meetup steeped in informal tradition.
Rojas and Rodriguez have known each other for more than 15 years and share a similar background of being exposed and initiated to art in the streets, and later receiving formal arts education and working professionally.
To get to the series of paintings that make up the show, Rodriguez and Rojas walked through the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District. They met business owners, street vendors, folks hanging at bus stops, old graffiti writers and kids, and they connected with them to get into some of the soul of the Mission.
“He treats it like very real, delicate and profound pieces of research,” Rojas said of Rodriguez. “And he’s able to give these different figures dignified representations.”
Rodriguez said the heart of the Mission is a beacon for the rest of us in the Bay Area, as a designated place for Latinos where history gets recorded and preserved, and the people who help preserve it is what matters the most.
“The people who are there, that’s why people are so hurt about gentrification, because without them you just have pretty looking places with no soul in them,” said Rodriguez.
Because things are always changing and disappearing, and because some of the elements of the life stories that come through in the paintings weren’t captured in photos or videos, Rodriguez is presenting an alternative documentation of people who might otherwise not be recognized in this moment in the Mission.
This show is the first of its kind for Rodriguez because it is location specific and there was no premeditation on what the content would be. Through this collaboration there’s been a converging of the artist’s experiences and interests, bringing him to complete the approach to his art that he’s been looking for.
“I’ve always had an interest in journalism, in people’s identity, how they sense their environment, but I’ve never really specified it until now.” He said, adding that this was also the first time, despite years of work, that he’s had so much confidence while painting. “It was all instinct, feeling.” There were many moments like that during this process, that lead him to declare: “This is what I was made to do.”
Rodriguez’s work is a mixture of portraits, which are loose, and lettering with a lot of clean shapes and sharp edges.
“I used to do graffiti and just wanted to get up—bomb and I didn’t even consider it art,” he said. “Then I went to school and got exposed to world history and it helped me to see how what I do applies to the larger context.”
Rodriguez has taken the last several years to intentionally place himself within a global context. By 2015 he felt he had discovered his intent, and spent 2016 developing better and repeatable ways to do it.
Now in 2017, Rodriguez said, “I feel happy when I work, like the way I used to feel when I did graffiti. I used to have fun because I didn’t have to think about it.”
The method he’s taken with “Caras de la Misión” is something he says he can apply to the rest of the work he creates because the content is endless. Just as the inspiration for “Caras de La Mision” came from sharing experiences and having conversations, Rodriguez can remember many such moments where he learned from or was inspired by people he encounters.
“I never realized that it was me who should do something with it. That I should be making my paintings about that stuff,” he said
These paintings will at least be a starting point for people in the future to dig deeper and reintroduce themselves to the moment.
For Rojas, this experience is an extension of the solidarity that the Chicano community and the Mexican American community have had with Central Americans in San Francisco, making one community in the Mission. “I feel compelled to continue that thrust and commitment to our experience as Latinos, even more in these days, as dark as they may get, we have to continue to let our light shine and bring out the best in us as people,” Rojas said.
Music, poetry and being heard in the political arena are key parts of shining our light, Rojas said. “When you see Sam’s art and Mission artists’ art it gives you courage to face our realities.”
This will be a moment not only of celebration, he continued, but of healing too, as Latinos in both cities realize their similar experiences and share this solidarity in changing the narrative of gentrification.
A version of this article was first published in El Tecolote.
Check out more of Sam's work at: samrodriguezart.com
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