Closing Reception; Por El Río

Por El Río Closing Reception
Saturday, January 25, 2024
2:00–4:00 PM
Los Angeles State Historic Park

Clockshop welcomes you to celebrate the closing of Por El Río by Christopher Suarez in collaboration with Carlos Agredano, Diana Yesenia Alvarado, and timo fahler. In a group exhibition designed to facilitate gathering, the artists meditate on the hostile architectures that regionally connect and borderize the Los Angeles landscape. Interpreted reproductions of civic infrastructures like public benches, traffic barriers, and freeways—two of which can be sat on, one leaned on, and one laid under—span registers of materiality, utility, and access. Collections of found organic objects and sourced industrial materials were compressed, cast, and inscribed upon to improvise the ways people and wildlife adapt interstitial spaces for shade, leisure, and life.

The artists Christopher Suarez and Carlos Agredano will join the curator, Cat Yang, for a conversation about the making of their sculptures and their learnings from working in the public sphere for the first time. They and timo fahler co-led a two-part workshop series that invited the public to co-create complementary structures to extend and iterate the exhibition—all of which are on view. 

The conversation with the artists will begin at 2:30 PM. We will also be joined by DJs Sonido Sapo and Bianca Lexis. Light refreshments will be provided. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Christopher Suarez (b. 1994) is an artist born, raised, and based in Long Beach, CA. Foundational to Suarez’s work are examinations of his personal and familial memories of home, the histories of place, and the ways they are lived vis-à-vis built environments. He employs clay and mixed media sculptures to simultaneously celebrate immigrant working-class communities' aesthetic and cultural identities and to reveal their precarious state. Suarez’s work has been exhibited at the Art, Design, and Architecture Museum; Jeffrey Deitch Gallery; Sebastian Gladstone Gallery; and Stanley’s Gallery. Suarez was included in Made in LA 2023: Acts of Living at the Hammer Museum. Christopher Suarez received a BFA in Ceramic Arts from California State University, Long Beach.

Carlos Agredano (b. 1998 Los Angeles, CA) is an artist from Southeast Los Angeles. He uses readymade and process-based artworks to record and reveal environmental racism, such as paintings documenting the cumulative buildup of pollutants and smog on surfaces or found objects such as dust-caked window air conditioners. In his research practice, Agredano interrogates how policies like redlining and private racially restrictive covenants enabled freeway construction and manufactured air pollution disparities in racially diverse, low-income neighborhoods. Agredano has exhibited at Human Resources, François Ghebaly, and SculptureCenter. He holds a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles.  

Eduardo Camacho, dubbed Sonido Sapo, is a Los Angeles-based musician from Pacoima, CA whose recent work focuses on the relationship between music and diasporic communities across Los Angeles. Banda Sinaloense, Norteno, Quebradita, Cumbia Sonidera—the music of Mexico travels north to Los Angeles and begins to take a different form as it is embraced by new generations and the diasporic communities that exist there. 

Bianca Lexis is a Los Angeles-based DJ. Since inheriting her dad’s new wave records and immersing herself in the underground dance music scene, she has played anything from house and disco to EBM and post-punk from all over the world. Her versatile approach to finding music is echoed in her monthly radio shows which produce some of her most eclectic recorded sets.

ARRIVAL

Arrival: Los Angeles State Historic Park is located at 1245 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012, directly adjacent to Chinatown and the Metro Gold Line. The reception will take place to the west of the Roundhouse Bridge in the center of the main lawn. The park is located just 1 mile away from Los Angeles Union Station, making it accessible from several Metro routes. We highly recommend using public transportation, rideshare, biking, or carpooling.

Parking options: There is paid parking at 1501 N Spring Street, the main parking lot of the park, at $2/hour, up to $8 daily. The park will open the dirt overflow parking lot directly in front of the orchard, located at 1315 N Spring Street, which is free and first come, first served. There is also free street parking around the park. Please avoid parking near residential homes on the east side of Main Street and give yourself plenty of time to park and walk over!

Restrooms: There are several all-gender public restrooms and portapotties on site. 

SUPPORT
Por El Río was commissioned by Clockshop and supported through our long-standing partnership with California State Parks. The production of this work was generously supported by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, the Angeles Art Fund, and ARLA, with additional support from Los Angeles Department of Arts and Culture and Clockshop’s generous community of supporters.