Life in recent years has been about increasing family time, appreciation, and resurgence. Americans in general, have had the time to reflect on many of the things we deem important to our everyday survival. As a second generation El Salvadoran, Elmer Guevara merges the journey of his family to the United States with his path of navigation through the fine art world applying those same principles.
Guevara looks toward his pride as the groundwork for who he is and how he represents the root of his existence. Pride has many meanings, in this case, he applies a duality of the word in his education of the viewer. It can refer to families of lions and the presence of regality and elegance in their strength and concurrently firm in their defense. It also applies to self-respect and the respect of those who he calls loved ones. Guevara precisely displays the regalia of his pride in photo-realistic paintings, capturing nostalgic moments of familial history in each stroke.
Guevara uses acrylic, oil paint, and photo transfer to complete his mission, hiding family gems inside little pockets of the work, thus allowing the viewer to dig deeper into understanding what encompasses his subjects. What gets me excited is the narrative you uncover when you take a different perspective. He uses paint and collaged photography in a way that merges beginning and end and where the narrative begins is usually where your eye first meets the canvas. I (try to) contain myself from the excitement of running right at his works and, instead, create a starting point to navigate my way through the story on display, hoping to gather more context on what I’m visually ingesting.
One of my favorite paintings of Guevara’s, Time Passes on the Same Stop, 2020, starts with the different stages of the artist as a youth, with his mother being the vessel that pours water (a reference to life) into her son’s growth. She’s positioned in the center of the painting underneath an umbrella with a beautiful hue of red that immediately draws the viewers’ attention alongside the highlighted “do not park here” red paint that lines California residential streets. The umbrella symbolizes protection, emphasizing the mother’s love and unwavering support of him through trying times (the rain is used as the potential trials).
The family is waiting at the Metro 105 Bus Stop, a bus route that travels through Vernon up to West Hollywood. When I spoke to Guevara about the work at his recent exhibition, he mentioned not having a family car growing up and how taking the bus was the only option. I immediately connected the red in the “do not park here” message with that statement. It’s actually one of those things that appear funny but ironically not funny at all. The Metro Bus stop acted as a starting point for anything that was to be adventurous in the city. As a kid, that bus was a spaceship, taking him to faraway places outside of his normalcy, a new adventure on each ride.
Guevara hints at the progression of family time spent at that bus stop as he scribbles dates into the work (1991, 1996, 2002) to represent each year of life depicted in the self-portraits that accompany the consistency of his mother’s image. It’s very reflective and reminds me of a kid marking the wall to show the growth spurts in height over their adolescent life. He starts with his birth year of 1991 shown as a baby wrapped in his mother’s arms to a preschooler in 1996 scribbling on the ground practicing what would be his artistic voice. Finally, he’s seen in the year 2002 as a grade-schooler, rocking a fresh Kobe Bryant jersey showing his love for sports (Every Angeleno can relate to that as Kobe was and still is L.A. royalty).
The pride that Guevara displays in the work is clearly evident in the respect he has for his family and the sacrifices that his parents made to allow him to practice art. I appreciate the way art and artists allow their stories to be shared and explored through experiences translated through materials. I believe Elmer’s work is grounded in storytelling and his approach is beyond educational. I am excited to see his growth as he completes his graduate education and explores residencies outside of Los Angeles. That’s when we will get to experience the artist’s journey full circle – and be proud.
ELMER GUEVARA is currently featured in the group show STILL at Launch LA gallery thru April 30