Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. drove through every Los Angeles neighborhood during his boyhood, assisting his father, a professional sign painter. As a graffiti writer starting at age twelve, and later as a sign painter himself, he deepened his immersion into the Los Angeles cityscape. Gonzalez’s paintings of the streets and signage of contemporary Los Angeles express his profound feeling for the neighborhoods of the city and its people. His compositions generally do not include figures, but always evoke a human presence. The carcasses of cars in many of his paintings embody the lives of the people who abandoned them.

Gonzalez documents the changing cityscape of Los Angeles and how people influence its transformation. His paintings of signage for hair and nail salons, accident lawyers and insurance brokers animate the exhibition with faces, hairstyles, and extravagant nail designs. Gonzalez thinks of his exhibition as a giant still life: an arrangement of the various elements of the real Los Angeles. While cities become increasingly homogenous, Gonzalez embraces the imagery unique to the working-class neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The paintings are composed from a combination of the artist’s photographs and his impressions and memories. They are realistic but also dreamlike. They exist in a liminal state between reality and imagination.

Unlike most of the contemporary artists who are part of the art discourse, Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. did not attend art school. He learned his artistic skills the old-fashioned way, through hands-on apprenticeship and practical experience. Starting with his father, who now occasionally contributes lettering to his paintings, Gonzalez eventually found himself working alongside some of the most esteemed sign painters across the country. By enduring long hours and challenging weather conditions, Gonzalez not only mastered the technical skills that became the cornerstone of his artistic practice but also developed a rigorous discipline and meticulous work ethic. While traveling across the country as a sign painter, he also educated himself in art history, visiting museums and galleries.

The artist has written the following statement to describe this body of work:

"In This was here, I explore the relationship between communities and public spaces—how people, visually influence and transform the landscape and surface of a city, shaping its appearance today. I approach this work not as an outsider, but as a resident and active participant in the craft and subculture. My history informs my approach to investigating the mark-making and layers created by the community that shape a city’s appearance. The aim is to capture and document a moment in time, marked by unprecedented and drastic change.

This exhibition examines urban environments using a mix of photo documentation and imaginative, collaged compositions. It offers a reflection on these spaces that is both humorously observant and thoughtfully critical.

Particularly in Los Angeles, the omnipresence of vehicles and sprawling networks of highways significantly impact how people navigate the city. Billboards and advertisements dominate the landscape, becoming ingrained in the visual vernacular of daily life. Recently, advertisements for accident lawyers, car insurance brokers, and real estate agents have replaced the once-dominant ads for entertainment and luxury. I humorously critique the marketing strategies used by advertisers, particularly their reliance on stereotypes and sexualized imagery to target specific demographics. This body of work offers a critical commentary on life in 2024, addressing the intersection of commerce, culture, and identity within contemporary cities".

Born in East Los Angeles and raised in La Puente in the San Gabriel Valley, Gonzalez remains very engaged with his community, organizing backyard and pop-up exhibitions with his artists friends and most recently helping to curate the program for the John Doe Gallery in downtown Los Angeles.

Gonzalez’s work will be featured in Ordinary people: photo realism and the work of art since 1968 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, opening on November 23, 2024. This was here is the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York.