The Los Angeles River in the paintings of Victor Hugo Zayas’ is rendered through changing light, through different levels of smog and pollution, through neighborhood lines, through time, lucidly and dreamlike, and yet the works manage to make the river feel coherent.
Earth tones emerge as the unifying color palette of the river. Lines smudge, bleed and create networks. The metaphor is clear: humans and nature are inextricable. They are part of the same ecology. Our infrastructure and chemicals merge with the natural world to create a hybrid landscape.
Zayas’ dedication to the Los Angeles River rivals that of Claude Monet’s to his lily ponds. Zayas, whose studio is located just a few miles from the river, has been painting the river for over 20 years.
“We live in a concrete society where we are surrounded by buildings. One day I walked down to the river and started seeing how beautiful it was. Even the areas that are ugly were beautiful to me,” Zayas said during Art & the L.A. River: A Panel Discussion at the Museum of Latin American Art, where his paintings are currently being displayed.
But unlike Monet, Zayas is not an impressionist. His paintings, which are mostly oil on canvas or wood, are abstract landscapes. They straddle dimensions; close up, the mounds of paint create a ripple-like topography of ridges and depressions, as if the painting itself is a product of the river.
In seeing beauty where most see only a concrete wasteland, Zayas’ art exemplifies what poet Lewis MacAdams, who has been called the Best Friend of the Los Angeles River, wrote:
“Whether its ugly or beautiful, / poisoned and imprisoned, / or flooding fresh and free, / the Los Angeles River will always flow; / and lovers will always walk / along its banks holding hands.”
Art & the L.A. River broached the questions of what the artist’s role is in the revitalization of the Los Angeles River. During the panel, Zayas said he hopes his art raises awareness of a natural resource that is largely unknown to many Angelinos.
Long Beach is home to approximately 9 miles of the Los Angeles River, which originates in Canoga Park. In August, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia requested that the city manager update a plan, drawn up by the city in 2007, to create continuous green space along the banks of the river. A project to restore 39 acres of wetland adjacent to the Los Angeles River in North Long Beach began earlier this month.
This is part of a larger master plan to have the entire 51-mile river revitalized by 2025. And so ultimately, Zayas may be doing the work of a clairvoyant, his lush paintings envisioning the future of the Los Angeles River.
“In the years to come,” said Zayas, “I hope to see the river unify communities usually divided by the river.”
Victor Hugo Zayas: The River Paintings can be viewed at the Museum of Latin American Art Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.