Pablo Cristi

Artist Statement:

We live in a world where multicultural discourse is becoming increasingly important.  Ethnically diverse societies struggle with unequal power dynamics globally.  I choose to use the Latino experience in the United States as a vehicle to discuss cultural hybridity, post-colonization, and male archetypes.  My current paintings, drawings, and sculptures are based on studies of the past, present, and future of the American Southwest historical narrative and its’ intersection with Pop culture.  America’s legacy of Manifest Destiny and the continued friction with the Mexican border provide the structure through which I employ my lens to discuss issues of cultural liminality, marginalization, and various other border related topics.

Pablo Cristi is an artist born and raised in Los Angeles. Born to Chilean parents escaping the Pinochet regime, Cristi’s work is motivated by an active political awareness and is steeped in a critical inquiry of power, representation and history. His investigations of the colonial past, present, and future often take the form of paintings and sculptural objects that deconstruct and commingle urban visual vernaculars. Informed by Los Angeles mural culture, Cristi’s complex paintings often intermix cultural signs and representations with painterly abstraction, connecting the politics of the canvas to the politics of the street. By articulating strategies of cultural erasure, survival, and transformation, Cristi’s work produces counter-hegemonic narratives that allow a critical reanalysis of the status quo. Cristi is also an educator and community organizer, teaching and leading youths in art and mural projects throughout the West Coast. Cristi is a graduate of the Masters of Fine Arts(MFA) program at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, and was awarded the Barclay Simpson Award in 2009. He has recently exhibited in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.