It’s a celebration, low and slow

 

The new lowrider exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is so popular that they’re adding four more cars to the show through Jan. 14. The rest of the exhibit will go on through next summer.

The new cars are:

1963 Impala Convertible “Slippin’ Into Darkness” by Cleto Sanchez

1987 Olds Cutlass “RM Series” by Bobby Garza

1958 Impala “Lemonlaid” by Danny Arriaga

1972 Monte Carlo “Fatal Attraction” by Jose Alvarez

 

 

The exhibit itself goes beyond just the cars, though. There are 50 artists represented from all media. The exhibit is about the artistic and cultural expression of which lowrider cars are just one part.

“'The High Art of Riding Low: Ranflas, Corazon e Inspiracion' examines the diversity and complexity with which 50 artists visualize and celebrate the lowrider car through vehicles, paintings, sculptures and on-site installations,” wrote the exhibit’s guest curator, Dr. Denise M. Sandoval, a professor of Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge. “The lowrider car (ranfla) inspires many artists, but it is especially celebrated by Chicano artists throughout the Southwest.”

Corazon, another Spanish word in the exhibit’s title, in this case refers to cultural pride while inspiracion means artistic creativity. All play a part in cultural expression in the community.

 

 

Among the cars present at the exhibit’s opening on June 29 was Gypsy Rose, perhaps the most iconic of all lowriders. It had been on display in a glass case last summer on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of the Historic Vehicle Association’s showing of iconic and important cars (the other two cars in D.C. were the McGee Roadster hot rod and the Hirohata Merc, pretty good company). Next to Gypsy Rose in the Petersen’s lobby last summer was artist Mr. Cartoon’s 1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe four-door, which he nicknamed Gangster Squad after the mural he painted around the car. It’s not clear how long those two will be in the lobby so you might want to hurry down and check them out.

 

 

Inside the hall that used to house the BMW art cars were three real cars and a piñata. Yes, a piñata. It’s a full-size mockup of a 1964 Chevrolet by artist Justin Favela hanging by a rope from the ceiling. We asked and were told that it is not full of candy, but it’s pretty festive nonetheless. Three other lowriders fill the room: “Our Family Car,” a brightly painted 1950 Chevrolet art car by Gilbert “Magu” Lujan; “El Rey,” a classic 1963 Impala lowrider by Albert de Alba Sr.; and “El Muertorider,” a black and white muraled ’68 Impala by Artemio Rodriguez and John Jota Leanos.

But those were just the cars. The art surrounding them represented everything from paintings to sculpture and everyday objects brought to new life with detailed paint jobs you’d expect to see on cars alone.

 

 

“The cars are a jumping-off point, a portal to other art forms,” said museum curator Leslie Kendall.

This is the third lowrider exhibit the Petersen has featured in its more than 20-year history.

“Lowriding tells a story, expresses identification, expresses a culture,” said Sandoval. “These cars express our place in Los Angeles.”

The exhibit runs through May or maybe June of 2018. For updates on the exhibit, see www.petersen.org. 

 

 

SOURCE: AutoWeek

AUTHOR: Mark Vaughn