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| Rosy Cortez, Work Ethic, 2022. Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, gift of Frank Heyming |
This June the Cheech Marin Center opened the third annual reinstallation of its core display. "Shifting Perspectives: Cheech Collects" debuts works not previously shown, including recent gifts and loans from Marin as well as the Cheech Center Collection of the Riverside Art Museum, the legal umbrella for works donated by third-party collectors. The Cheech's long-term health will depend on cultivating a broad donor base, and "Shifting Perspectives" shows how that's already happening.
One example is Rosy Cortez' Work Ethic, an acrylic and oil painting recently donated by sculptor Frank Heyming. Cortez' stoic worker seems to inhabit one of the Amazon warehouses ("fulfillment centers") that dot the Inland Empire. Her badge #000000001 would make her an eCommerce Eve, and her improbable work assignment is filling boxes with flowers. Work Ethic is a meditation on the postindustrial workplace with roots in the previous century's socially conscious Magic Realism.
"Shifting Perspectives" will remain on view through Apr. 27, 2025.
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| Marta Sánchez, Retablo for Uvalde, 2023. The Cheech, gift of Cheech Marin |
Marta Sánchez'
Retablo for Uvalde is one of series of painted prayers on metal sheets.
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| Luis C. Garza, On Our Way to E.L.A., We Will Not Be Intimidated, Junto, and If You Love Your People, each a 1971 image printed 2022. The Cheech, anonymous gift |
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| Roj Rodriguez, Rodolfo con Gallo, 2006. Courtesy of Cheech Marin |
In his photoessay
Mi Sangre, Texas-based photographer Roj Rodriguez documented the resilience of Mexican traditions on both sides of the border.
Rodolfo con Gallo is the cover image of the book. |
| Margaret Garcia, Fire From Within, 2017. Courtesy of Cheech Marin |
Burning palm trees have become an icon of a damaged planet. I praised
Margaret Garcia's paintings of incendiary landscapes last year. Her burning palms remain on view in this rotation, along with an amazing trio of various small conflagrations. The room also has Perry Vasquez'
Three Studies of Palm Trees.
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| Installation view of Perry Vasquez' Three Studies of Palm Trees, 2021. The Cheech, gift of Hugh Davies and Faye Hunter in honor of Cheech Marin |
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| Carlos Almaraz, Freeway, 1980. Courtesy of Cheech Marin |
The Cheech owns one of the best Carlos Almaraz crash paintings anywhere,
Sunset Crash (1982). It's now contextualized with a number of related works, including a pastel
Freeway from 1980.
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| Wenceslao Quiroz, East LA Metal Pickup Cruise, 2013. The Cheech, gift of Cheech Marin |
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Jesse E. Rodriguez, Dalé Shine, 2017. The Cheech, anonymous gift
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Jesse E. Rodriguez'
Dalé Shine is made from a 1928 dance floor from a Hispanic community hall. Twenty-nine chrome butterfly knives suggest the heavenly rays of a
Lady of Guadalupe.
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| Geraldo Monterrubio, Heaven, 2009. The Cheech, anonymous gift |
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