The New York Times names Rafa Esparza '01 (B.A., Art) one of four up-and-coming LA artsists to know.
UCLA Art Alumnus Rafa Esparza '01 (B.A.) caught the attention of the New York Times T Magazine with tierra, his installation in the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only.
"Around the corner is a new installation by Rafa Esparza, “tierra.” Its foundation is a swarth of roughly hewn adobe bricks which he fashioned with the assistance of his father and others in northeast Los Angeles, following a tradition of brick-making common in Mexico. Before moving to the United States, Esparza’s father constructed a home in Mexico by the very same means. Here, it serves as a kind of stage upon which a silent play unfolds: Esparza invited peers and collaborators to dig up items buried in Elysian Park — the site of the Dodgers Stadium, which was once a traditionally Mexican neighborhood. Those they elected to contribute to the exhibition — a cactus, a tin mailbox, a retro blue armchair — sit on the brick flooring as a metaphoric reoccupation."— Kevin McGarry, June 15, 2016
"Around the corner is a new installation by Rafa Esparza, “tierra.” Its foundation is a swarth of roughly hewn adobe bricks which he fashioned with the assistance of his father and others in northeast Los Angeles, following a tradition of brick-making common in Mexico. Before moving to the United States, Esparza’s father constructed a home in Mexico by the very same means. Here, it serves as a kind of stage upon which a silent play unfolds: Esparza invited peers and collaborators to dig up items buried in Elysian Park — the site of the Dodgers Stadium, which was once a traditionally Mexican neighborhood. Those they elected to contribute to the exhibition — a cactus, a tin mailbox, a retro blue armchair — sit on the brick flooring as a metaphoric reoccupation."— Kevin McGarry, June 15, 2016
