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The September “Art on the Vine” features talented local artists Jose Lopes and Sergio Vasquez.  The opening reception is this Saturday, September 8th, 7PM to midnight at Mari’s Wine Bar (8222 Firestone Blvd, Downey, CA 90241). Come prepared for art, culture, wine, live music and a raffle to take home an original work.  Both artists come to us courtesy of DAC founding member Carolina Del Toro.

Born in Mexico, Sergio Vasquez resides in Los Angeles. He received his art education from the Academia Jorge Palomar, Guadalajara, Mex. Los Angeles City College and Otis Parsons, Los Angeles, CA.  He has had solo exhibitions in Southern California and has participated in numerous group exhibits. His awards include the President’s Award and Purchase for the Permanent Collection, LACC, for excellence in etching/printmaking; 2nd Place, Los Angeles City College Biennial Juried Exhibition; 2nd Place Plummer Park Juried Exhibition, West Hollywood, CA.

His work is on display in museums and private collections, including: Museo Regional de Tecolotlán, Jalisco, Mexico; Cheech Marin Art Collection; Los Angeles, CA. George López Collection, Los Angeles, CA; Miguel Angel Corzo, University of the Arts,Philadelphia, PA; Lucía Maya, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; Catherine Saxbe Collection, Rome, Italy and various other private collections.  Mr. Vasquez is also an active contributor to many other art auctions and events in the region.

“I paint mostly people, persons I love, and after they have left, I look at my own work and it constantly reminds me that at least the paintings are still with me. My models are ordinary human beings with real and sincere expressions reflected in their faces and body language. I try to paint their personalities, their joys and sorrows,….their souls. I wish I could capture the light and darkness inside and around them with my heart, my eyes, my hands, my brushes and my pigments, because I seek to paint my solitude away.” Sergio Vasquez.

Jose Lopes grew up in Mexico City, absorbing the culture, the smog, the will to live and the drama of all Mexicans. Forever fascinated by the magnificent murals of the great Mexican masters and the pre-Columbian artifacts and architecture, he could not escape the influence of the ancient cultures and their preoccupation with death and the underworld.

In 1991, after finishing high school, Jose begun to study art, first at Los Angeles City College and later (years later) at El Camino College where he received an award for “outstanding academic achievement in the field of art.” Jose’s work hangs on the walls of numerous collectors throughout California and the world.

“I paint as a response to an internal drive, an urgency, a sense of duty to the world and to myself. I paint in an effort to gain that edge the insane have over the rational man. My work is the result of constant exploration and improvisation, so I like to make paintings and murals and I get inspirations from the muraledesign.com. It is the evolution of methods and techniques given to me by teachers and friends to help me find a personal vocabulary that would allow me to engage the viewers’ own personality and individual ideologies.

The viewer can, when presented with the image, find in the shadows his own demons and have them breed with mine to create a third form of reality. As a result, my nagging demons and angels commune with the observers’ own creatures spawning a world that is no longer mine but an addition of both artist and spectator’s subconscious minds.” Jose Lopes.