ART REVIEW : A Look at Latino Diversity

“Chicano and Latino: Parallels and Divergence--One Heritage, Two Paths,” brings together the work of 18 artists of Latino descent, including six who live in the United States.

Part I at the Daniel Saxon Gallery (Part II comes next month and Parts III & IV follow next summer at the Kimberly Gallery in Washington) demonstrates that Latino art doesn’t divide neatly into coherent styles or consistent themes. If anything, ambivalence toward tradition unites its divergent works.

Rather than separating into two categories--works made inside or outside the United States--the art here embodies internal divisions. Most struggle between being empowered by the past and enslaved by its authority. They waver between celebrating their cultural heritage and trying to break free from the suffering that has accompanied their history.

For example, Patssi Valdez’s altar pays homage to the power of the Roman Catholic Church, while distancing itself from that institution’s rituals. Her musical shrine is made of glitter-covered Christian figures balancing miniature mirrored disco chandeliers and plastic fruits on their heads and hands.

Although her work is pure kitsch, it doesn’t mock belief as much as it preserves it as a lost dream. A thin scrim hangs, like a veil of tears, in front of Valdez’s theatrical extravaganza, shrouding its glitz in the vagueness of old memories.

Figurative images by Paul Sierra, Miguel Padura, Luis Serrano, John Valadez, Christina Fernandez and Ignacio Iturria also take a sort of split stance toward the past, or a doubled view of contemporary reality.

In their art, businessmen cavort like angels in the sky, a mechanical arm intrudes into an otherwise serene nightscape, mythical figures sprout from the bodies of a couple wearing bathing suits, a prone figure reaches for coins that have been displaced to the photographer’s frame, and tiny cartoons play soccer under a thickly painted stool.

“One Heritage, Two Paths” suggests that any single style of representation is inadequate to the task of capturing the complexity of contemporary existence, especially when one’s culture is not dominant. If “one heritage” emerges from the exhibition, its “two paths” crisscross so many times that they no longer lead anywhere in particular, but catch the viewer in the labyrinth that is today’s world culture.

Daniel Saxon Gallery, 7525 Beverly Blvd., (213) 933-8105, through Nov. 16. Closed Sundays and Mondays.