A seminal figure in LA Chicano Arts, Carlos Almaraz was born in Mexico City but spent most of his life in Southern California blending elements of Mexican, Southwest Native American, and LA Chicano culture into his own highly personal plethora of symbols and iconography. As a member of the arts collective, "Los Four", he created murals and worked with Cesar Chavez, but later decided to focus on his own mythical and shamanistic explorations, using stage-like settings, cinematic grid storytelling and floating reveries. A retrospective of his work, curated by Howard Fox, is currently on view at LACMA in conjunction with the Getty Initiative, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a series of exhibitions exploring Los Angeles and Latin American art. The exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery, Domestic, will focus on the relationship between Carlos and his muse/wife, Elsa Flores Almaraz, two artists that shared a studio, a child and a love story. The exhibition will include works by both artists, featuring images of domestic bliss, nudes, dreams, and anthropomorphic animals. Carlos' box-like houses with circles of smoke rising from the chimney, or even homes in total flames, allude to his ideals of family and nightmares of loss.

Another member of the legendary L.A. Chicano arts collective, "Los Four", Gilbert "Magu" Luján and his compatriots Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, and Robert De La Rocha, drew attention to Chicano art in the 70s with murals and public art projects. Luján invented a world of mythical/fanciful creatures and cultural oddities; dogs shaped like pyramids, brilliantly colored low-rider cars inflated like balloons, strutting stick figures and anthropomorphic rabbits in sunglasses. They populated an imaginary place called "Magulandia" but were drawn from the essence of Chicano and Mexican culture. The exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery, Tracking Magulandia, will explore the sources of Luján's iconography in traditional Mexican folklore and Pre-Columbian Art. Luján is the subject of a major retrospective at UCI, curated by Hal Glicksman as part of the Getty's LA/LA initiative.

Dora De Larios is an American ceramist and sculptor who has been working with clay for over 60 years. Born in Los Angeles in 1933 to Mexican immigrants, her heritage and relationship to Pre-Columbian Art is evident in her work, which embodies themes of spirituality, nature and mythology. Dora graduated in 1957 with a major in ceramics and a minor in sculpture from USC's School of Fine Art, where she studied under noted ceramists Vivika and Otto Heino and Susan Peterson. Over time, Dora broadened her focus to include work in cast concrete, brass, stainless steel, acrylic and wood, completing a variety of large-scale architectural commissions. Dora's ceramic sculptures were featured in three major exhibitions as part of the J. Paul Getty Museum's 2011 Pacific Standard Time, and she was honored with a 50-year retrospective at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles in 2010. Her work will also be included in Found in Translation, a PST: LA/LA exhibition at LACMA this fall.



Craig Krull Gallery is pleased to be participating in The Getty's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA.