The outside wall of the painting classroom of the old Fine Arts Building has been transformed into a conceptual art piece that represents the refugee crisis happening in Syria.
The artist responsible for the transformation is Cynthia Lujan an artist part of the Los Angeles based art collective called fa4, which is being a featured exhibit at FAR Bazaar.
“I wanted to highlight the refugee crisis that’s going on in Syria right now. I’m sourcing imagery for this mural off the internet, instagram and different digital platforms. I wanted to do it in this format [so it looks] like it’s on your phone, with the square composition. The imagery is of people crossing the sea,” she said.
In her process for selecting the photos she mainly looked at the composition and whether or not they are close enough to the camera to see their faces.
She said, “Something like my personal style of painting is more rough it’s not as precise in certain areas so not all of it is going to be very tight in terms of like total realism.”
To create the aesthetic for this piece she is using spray paint , latex paint, oil sticks, acrylic paint and permanent markers.
She is not the only artist from fa4 who will be featured in the exhibit, rather the entire collective will be participating.
According to their website, “Fa4 collective is a group of artists who follow their creative calling as individuals and work together to establish a network of support, education, and personal growth. Part of our intent as a collective is to deconstruct each other’s artistic processes, provide constructive criticism, and keep one another accountable on our artistic journeys. Fa4 collective is to serve as a forum of professionals that strives to elevate our experience as artists and participants in a greater community. We aim to encourage creative engagement by working inside and outside of art institutions through exhibitions,educational workshops, and cultural events.”
Lujan, and the collective, with their work are bring together not only community but attention to issues taking place on a global.
