September 11 - November 18
Daniela
García Hamilton
Sundays in Lake LA
Opening Reception: September 11, 2022
Artist Talk: October 2, 2022
Location: IVAN Gallery | 2709 Robertson Boulevard, LA CA 90034
Image: Daniela Garcia Hamilton, Hasta aquí llegamos, gracias a ti pa, 2022. Oil and marker on linen. 46x38 in.
Sundays in LAKe LA
Daniela García Hamilton revisits anecdotes and images that defined much of her upbringing as a first generation Mexican-American and a child of immigrant parents. The exhibition includes a body of new paintings and drawings derived from family celebrations and long afternoons in the artist’s childhood hometown of Lake Los Angeles; the outlying Antelope Valley town on the northeastern edge of Los Angeles County was the nexus point for her mother and father who traveled from Mexico to the US under very different but similarly difficult circumstances. Largely barren and on the distant outskirts of the county, her family chose this land out of necessity, and it became as much a sanctuary as it did a home. It was the centerpiece of celebrations, large family gatherings, and life events. From birthday parties to baptisms, all milestones were celebrated to their fullest. García Hamilton recalls growing up in that same house with her parents, siblings, cousins, and extended family, “it was like a home for all of us when we were there”. It was a haven and a safe landing for family members coming from Mexico and deciding their next moves, making the sense of family and community deeply felt.
Daniela Garcia Hamilton
Sundays in Lake LA
by Eve Wood
How does one paint one’s heritage, or more specifically, the shared and often complicated legacy of shared family experience and basic human identity? Daniela Garcia Hamilton in her recent exhibition entitled Sunday’s in Lake LA on view at Luna Anais gallery, tackles these deeply personal questions with grace, wit, and nuanced recollection. As a first-generation American painter of Mexican descent, Garcia-Hamilton mines the rich and fertile territories of her youth, growing up between lake LA and Guanajuato, Mexico. These themes are represented in a lush tapestry of patterns and colors that further suggest a deeper more personal resonance as she navigates her experience as the child of immigrant parents. But these are by no means dark and sinister recollections, though there is a palpable tension at the heart of these paintings that serves to remind us of the difficulties inherent in the immigrant experience, specifically as it refers to a shift in US immigration policies, one that put many families at risk. But Hamilton is not building a case against US Customs and Border protection laws but is in fact creating a platform wherein she might transform her own understanding of the world as she sees it into a more universal visual language.
Garcia-Hamilton’s universe is both luminous and tender as expressed in the painting entitled Ni de aqui, Ne di haya (Neither from here nor there), where a small child wearing a quintessentially American costume, an Angels jersey, appears awkwardly alone. The jersey indicates that he is not only a “fan,” decked out in this emblem of Americana, but is also ironic in that he is seen here as a vulnerable child, untouched by the ugliness of the surrounding world. In essence she is indeed an “angel” in every way.
These kinds of juxtapositions are central to Garcia-Hamilton’s visual vernacular wherein intimate moments of reflection merge with a broader aesthetic that hints at an ever shifting and often painful world stage. If nothing else, Garcia-Hamilton has managed to encapsulate her lived experience within the scope and breath of today’s political unrest, all the while remaining true to her origins.
Daniela García Hamilton in her studio