Petersen opens low-rider exhibit
LOW-RIDER inspired art is featured at the Petersen.
The Petersen Automotive Museum launched its summer exhibit featuring low-rider cars from the 1940s and 1950s called “The High Art of Riding Low” on June 19. The exhibit, curated by Cal State Northridge professor of Chicano studies, Denise Sandoval, takes a look at Chicano and Latin culture in Los Angeles through the premise of classic cars.
The Petersen Museum has hosted low-rider exhibits in 2007 and 2008, but Sandoval explains that it is the art that makes this exhibit different from its predecessors.
“With this show, it’s a completely different conversation because we are focusing on the cars as art objects and how cars have inspired artists in their form and in aesthetics,” Sandoval said.
The exhibit is in the Armand Hammer Foundation Gallery at the Petersen and features car-inspired art in the form of sculptures, paintings and installations.
The low-rider exhibit opens in what Sandoval is calling “the year of the low-rider,” with Hispanic artists like Frank Romero and Gilbert Magu Lujan showcasing low-rider inspired art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), across Wilshire Blvd. from the Petersen. Eva Longoria’s film, “Lowriders,” also came out in May.
Sandoval adds, “2017 also happens to be the 40th anniversary of Lowrider Magazine. It was just very serendipitous. I think there is just such a fascination with low-riders right now.”
Sandoval said she thinks museum guests will be surprised by the nature of the exhibit.
“People might be expecting to come and see a traditional low-rider art show that features cars and women, but I think the way we are presenting it by focusing on the car as an art object inspiration as well as subject will elevate the experience for the viewers.”
The exhibit will run through June 3, 2018. For information go to Petersen.org.
By Nina Adams, intern
* June 29, 10:30 a.m.: This article was edited to correct the name of the curator.
Category: Entertainment
