Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at Rice University Art Gallery, 29 September -11 December 2011.
Summary:
"A first-generation Mexican-American who was born and lives in Los Angeles, artist Ana Serrano is largely inspired by her everyday life in Los Angeles' diverse, urban neighborhoods. Much of her work bears references to those in low socioeconomic positions, with a particular interest in the customs, beliefs, informal economies, fashion, and architecture within these communities....Serrano saw the title, Salon of Beauty, hand-painted on the side of a small beauty salon. She was struck by the phrase's slightly awkward, yet poetic quality. Later she realized it was a literal translation of the Spanish phrase, Salón De Belleza, which normally would be translated into English as "Beauty Salon." The circumstances of how she found the phrase and the word "beauty" resonated perfectly for Serrano in her hope to point out what she calls "untraditional beauty." Far from a reproduction of a Los Angeles block, Salon of Beauty is Serrano's imaginary version of a neighborhood where the smallest details have been plucked away from the maelstrom of the city and playfully mixed together. As she explains, "I wanted to pull out everything that I liked in the city and then condense it." When visitors enter the gallery, they are confronted by a home's green façade with stacked white bricks and a brown fence below two windows with crisscrossed trim on top of horizontal stripes. The façade could almost read as an abstract field of form, line, color, and pattern...." -- Rice University Art Gallery website
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.