Sitting on Chrome: Mario Ayala, rafa esparza, and Guadalupe Rosales

In this collaborative exhibition, artists Mario Ayala, rafa esparza, and Guadalupe Rosales engage the visual language of lowriders and explore cruising as a practice of resistance and community visibility. From pinstriped, stylized exteriors to lush, upholstered interiors, these customized cars are modified over time by drivers, their families, and communities for the sake of joy and visual pleasure. Designed to be seen, they express individual and collective identities and transform public spaces.

Reflecting on their own early experiences cruising through the streets of Los Angeles, Ayala, esparza, and Rosales have transformed four Floor 2 galleries through vibrant, multisensory installations. Celebrating and unsettling the lowrider, the exhibition opens with a newly commissioned mural by all three artists, followed by immersive galleries featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs, archival materials, and a sound installation. Each space engages the senses to evoke the experience of lowriding while examining themes of memory, self-authored histories, queer experiences, issues of surveillance, and the relationship between humans and machines.

Related performances by rafa esparza will occur during the run of the exhibition.

Image Credit: Guadalupe Rosales, Drifting on a Memory (a dedication to Gypsy Rose), 2022 (detail); courtesy the artist; photo: Chad Redmon