Surreal Artwork of the de la Torre Brothers Takes Center Stage at the Cheech
As far as the past couple of years go, nothing seems certain and many things feel surreal. The news, our social media feeds and our changing interactions with others (masks on or off? Full hugs or quick waves?) have shifted how we relate to the space around us. The work of Einar and Jamex de la Torre seems to fit right into this strange, unpredictable time — which, really, is also just the nature of being a human trying to find meaning over the course of a lifetime.
Take their 2017 mixed media piece, "Tongue in Cheek," a slightly open mouth reveals a long tongue, with a small ear nearby. A series of eyeballs float above, sitting across the length of a yellow bottle. Their 2010 work "Me'Escalera al Cielo" features elements like a plastic doll sitting on a black cactus, made of strips of tires, decorated with black skulls and two round eyes with long lashes.
Some of the duo's work also explicitly references art historical classics, like "Border Park of Earthly Delights," a piece that uses an LED light box, found materials, cast resin and lenticular to re-interpret Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights" as a scene set at the instantly recognizable fence on the border between Tijuana and San Diego. No combination of materials, cultural references or tongue-in-cheek humor (pun intended) is off limits.
"Part of humor is not taking yourself too seriously," Einar says. "And if somebody doesn't get it, that's totally fine, too. We are completely cool with that."
Nearly three decades of their work will go on display in the upcoming exhibition "Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective," opening at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture on June 18 in partnership with the National Museum of the American Latino. Guest curated by Selene Preciado, it will feature more than 70 mixed media pieces. After it closes at the museum on January 22, 2023, the exhibition will travel to the Corning Museum of Glass, Crocker Art Museum and the Art Museum of South Texas. The duo also designed a 26-foot-tall lenticular installation that will greet visitors as they walk into The Cheech.
Layered Lives
Jamex and Einar migrated to the United States from Mexico in the 1970s, and today they split their time between Baja California and San Diego. This bi-cultural vantage point often serves as a lens to view their art, as they bring in imagery from various visual cultures. In fact, the brothers revel in the complex, layered possibilities of making art loaded with meaning from various cultures. This type of work fuels their practice, as they sketch their ideas out; each new iteration comes to life when one brother adds something new. They often explore the ways in which a single piece can capture multiple narratives, namely through the use of puns and the visual references to a number of cultural symbols.
If the pieces feel kaleidoscopic in nature at times, the brothers clearly embrace that. "Collidoscope" — both the pun-ny title and the show — exemplifies the many layers contained within the artworks. The brothers' lenticular installation at the Cheech showcases how this particular medium works well with the brothers' conceptual approach. Depending on which position you view the piece from, you'll find yourself looking at something new. The brothers left plenty of Easter eggs for people to find.
At this point in their career, the artists have shown internationally. And their work isn't limited to museums or galleries; they boast multiple commissions for public artworks, everywhere from San Ysidro, California to Toulouse, France. They also appeared on the PBS documentary series "Craft in America" in 2007, working alongside students to create glass works.
It's no coincidence that their show will be the first major exhibition at the Cheech. Before they even formed a relationship with Cheech as a collector, the artists listened to Cheech & Chong records their cousins played for them. The two remember this as their first introduction to Spanglish as young artists settling into the U.S. — and to Chicano and pochismo culture. A couple decades later, in 1996, the brothers had a show at the Daniel Saxon Gallery, which became their connection to Cheech Marin. In his San Francisco home, with a view that framed the Golden Gate Bridge, the duo delivered their first piece to Marin.
"We showed up with one piece that's in this exhibition, this mid-career retrospective that we have, and we basically took it out of our car, [and] built it in his living room — a ten-foot piece," Einar says. "Then he walked in and he goes, 'Yeah, yeah, I'll take it.' It was kind of funny"
Kaleidoscopic Collaboration
Einar and Jamex's artworks are a lesson in collaboration. They have been working together for decades and this dynamic lends itself to the complex, humorous and multilayered work they make. Their work incorporates details like motifs from Aztec culture, religious symbols and tiny plastic dolls. They've also folded in craft mediums, primarily using glass blowing and lenticular printing in their work. No matter the choice of mediums, the brothers work as a unit. Jamex describes their process as "a continuous dialogue that goes back and forth."
"We have so much in common in subject matter in aesthetics and use of material that it was natural in a way," Einar says. "We could see how the works would just get more layered and complex."
Einar says many people ask if they argue. They occasionally "do not see eye to eye," he explains, but a mutual understanding makes it easy for them to work together. This could also be attributed to cultural tradition, Einar points out, since he's noticed that Latinx culture prioritizes togetherness more than U.S. culture does. Someone once marveled at the idea of the brothers working together so consistently; the person told Einar they get together with their brother for the holidays and always fight.
You can't collaborate with a hand brake on.Einar de la Torre, artist
Of course, even for creators who aren't related, working with another person can pose a challenge. Jamex and Einar's process has a solid foundation built over the decades.
"You can't collaborate with a hand brake on, in other words," Einar says. "You can't say, "Okay, go ahead and attack this piece I started, but don't mess it up." And you have to be able to do that, because part of collaborating is a full release of the process with full trust."
Jamex remarks that after all, in art history, no one really created an artwork completely on their own. The brothers' work takes from their shared upbringing, infused with their individual artistic knowledge and views on the world.
"Another wonderful thing about collaborating is you're released from complete responsibility, which means that the piece itself gains its own life rather organically," Jamex says. "And as an artist, you worry less. I think it's a tremendous burden to be a lone creator in this world."
The complex nature of their pieces doesn't mean, however, that everything needs to be so serious. Humor plays a large role in their artworks. Not only does it grab the viewer's attention, it also serves as a way to couch the many truths that often don't make sense — the life questions that feel too big to face head on, like the uncertainty of 2020. The brothers'"¡2020!" is a seemingly tattooed baby figure on an elaborate bed, of sorts. The baby's head mimics the colors and composition of a luchador mask, or a sugar skull, though it also shows off a European, bucolic miniature scene in an oval. The baby holds a remote control in one hand, a nod to whether the new year will bring better times.
The Medium and the Message
While the brothers work in craft mediums, such as glass sculpture, "the idea is what's important" rather than the material, Einar says. "The medium will apply itself," he says. Still, glass blowing is hard work and the artists have contributed to that realm through teaching stints in New York, Japan, Rochester and Oaxaca, to name a few. For many years, Einar says, they didn't own a hot shop (a space equipped with everything you need to make glass objects) of their own.
Glass blowing requires extreme-temperature annealing ovens, torches, punties — the artists often traveled to universities and worked with students, giving them a limited window to experiment and make new work.
"I think that that forced us from the beginning to be very flexible in terms of ideas, in terms of what we want out of the medium," Einar says.
There's a joy in working with the medium, which Jamex and Einar strive to maintain — theirs is a fluid process, rather than the traditional glass-making approach that requires the maker to produce a very precise, recognizable object. Adding lenticular elements to the mix only made for more visual possibilities.
"The lenticular came to us around 15 years ago, and it was completely love at first sight because we were always saying we want to put as much as possible in a design without letting it get muddy," Jamex says. "So the layering aspect has always been very important for us. And in a lenticular print, you can put up to 20 layers, in theory."
Their retrospective at the Cheech will travel to the Corning Museum of Glass, Crocker Art Museum and the Art Museum of South Texas, and the duo looks forward to seeing the work gain a new life beyond Southern California, a region that's intrinsic to their upbringing and, naturally, their work. The decades of work on display speak to their continuing exploration of how mixed media can encapsulate a range of stories.
"It's interesting to be thought about in the craft world, in the art world and now … this is going to be the first Chicano museum," Einar says. "So it's really fun to see how all of these things bring new audiences with different expectations."
