Carlos Almaraz’s Growing City pulses with the vibrant, restless energy of Los Angeles. An urban landscape shoots upward, both exhilarating and unstable; towering skyscrapers tilt and bend beneath a whirling night sky, neon colors clash in a whirlwind of movement and light. Below them, a sweeping bridge reaches across the composition as blurred figures dash through the ever-bustling city. The expressive, pastel-like lines and luminous hues give the scene a dreamlike intensity as the sky bursts in a confetti-style fusion of color, bringing the city to life as it shifts and changes before our eyes. Frantic, scribbled lines layered upon smudgy color blocks intensify the sense of motion within the work, emboldened by richly saturated highlights and detailing.
The cityscape appears to grow and sway, alluding to the rapid expansion and cultural complexity of Los Angeles during the late twentieth century. Frequently drawing inspiration from the city’s neighborhoods, Almaraz was fascinated with reimagining familiar streets and structures as vibrant, neo-expressionist environments evocative of Chicano culture. Beneath the spectacle of color and motion, Almaraz aims to capture not only the physical growth of the city but also the cultural and social forces that shape it, as well, hinting at deeper tensions from social pressures to shifting communities, and maintaining balance.
Originally trained as a painter of large murals and canvases, Almaraz collaborated later in life with master printmaker Richard Duardo to translate his vibrant visual language into the medium of serigraphy. In Growing City, the two were able successfully capture the texture and depth of his painterly style through more than thirty carefully hand-painted color separations, Duardo calling the process “a virtual extension of Almaraz’s hands.” The resulting thirteen limited edition prints radiate with the same vitality found in his canvases, expertly layered with meticulous detail to replicate original color and texture.