Three Angeleno Painters to Debut New Work at Avenue 50 Studio

Avenue 50 Studio has an unusual evening planned for this upcoming Second Saturday Gallery Night. 

Curator Kathy Gallegos doesn't typically feature only male artists, nor does Avenue 50 Studio present various exhibits in the same artistic medium. Yet, on Saturday evening, Avenue 50 will feature new works by painters Oscar Magallanes, Ricard Estrada and José Lopes.

"There's a lot of testosterone in here right now," Gallegos said on Friday afternoon. 

The work of Magallanes and Estrada will be presented in the main exhibition room. 

Gallegos described Magallanes work as "very political, very clean graphically and very blunt and to the point." 

Magallanes' exhibition, titled Heuristic, "[serves] as an exploration of the make up of popular culture and people's movements," according to an artist's statement. 

Estrada, who apprenticed under renowned muralist George Yepes, will present a new series of acrylic portraits. 

"He's an honorable type of guy," Gallegos said. "He likes to show people with a lot of pride, and he Aztec symbols to identify them with their culture." 

In the Avenue 50 Studio Annex, Long Beach artist Jose Lopes presents Compromised. A former high-school wrestler, Lopes uses Compromised to depict traditional wrestling poses and explore themes of power, control and sexual tension. 

"There's a lot of flesh in the annex right now," Gallegos said. 

According to the artist's statement, "Compromised is a dynamic look into the sport of wrestling from an outsider's fascination with the various wrestling positions, names of positions and the contradictions of these elements in this hyper-masculine sport. Double entendres fly as fast as a Naked Choke."