Michael Alvarez: I See You

Michael Alvarez’s paintings have the resonance of processing lived experiences through hazy recollection. The artist describes his paintings as an effort to acknowledge moments of beauty and humor, alongside the complexity and struggle of daily life. As he paints the people, creatures, and places he spends time with, these memories become shared stories.

The paintings in the exhibition serve as visual records of potent memories from the past several years. Several of the works take the form of a daily journal. The images largely feature his family, friends, and the cityscape of the east side of Los Angeles. I Think I’ll Call it Morning (The Road to Peace) is based on his daily bicycle ride from his home in Whittier to his studio in Alhambra. He paints the demolished, but fondly remembered, skate spots and Sunday family outings in Hollenbeck park.

One of the most poignant paintings in the exhibition is Moving Away, which documents his family moving out of the house where his grandmother lived for sixty years. Material from the move is collaged into the painting. Many specific details were considered to tell a whole story.

Alvarez has been drawing since childhood. An essential part of his artistic formation was his participation in the creative subcultures of graffiti and skateboarding. His painting technique fuses his study of illustration at ArtCenter College of Design, his mastery of oil painting, and the application of spray paint from his graffiti background. Many of the works are collaged with palette scrapings (paint scabs), collected debris, and repuropsed paint peelings from the city’s walls. The paintings have a soft focus rather than a photographic sharpness.

Michael Alvarez was born in 1983 in Los Angeles, California and has lived on the east side of Los Angeles his entire life. In addition to his artistic practice, he spent many years as a teacher at ArtworxLA, ACTA (Alliance for California Traditional Arts), and at UCLA. His work was included in Made in LA at the Hammer Museum in 2023 and was featured in At the Edge of the Sun at Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles in 2024, which won the first Art News “Best Gallery Group Show of the Year” award.