Willowbrook Library celebrates abstract art in this unique collection with the Los Angeles County Art Commission’s Civic Art Program. Each piece selected for the library develops a language through design, pigment and form to be translated and responded to by the viewer. Interpreted like the written texts in the library, these works offer themselves as artifacts without representational imagery that hold culturally specific and personal narratives, as well as common stories of human understanding. Through studied, layered and often humorous approaches, the five artists featured here represent the ideals of contemporary narrative art that speaks to and for the diversity of Los Angeles County. Joe Sims participated in Watts Towers Art Center and Charles White’s community arts program at Otis College of Art and Design, connecting him to LA art icons such as David Hammonds and Betye Saar. In turn, at the California African American Museum Sims has exhibited with emerging artists Duane Paul and Rosalyn Myles, who have collaborative relationships with Miguel Osuna and Ana Rodriguez. These artists work together exploring the rich connections between gestures, memory and the intersectionality that represents the best of Los Angeles. Both Paul and Osuna, immigrants to the US (Jamaica and Mexico respectively), represent a growing population trend in South Los Angeles. Rodriguez was born and raised in East LA and her work focuses on cultural norms of the Chicano community that have been foundational in developing Southern California identity and aesthetics. Myles grew up in near the Willowbrook area in the Athens neighborhood; her art documents the evolution and revolution of black experiences, particularly those of black women in Southern California. Whether illuminating the tension in the seductive melody of Billie Holiday’s lament in Strange Fruit located in the Adult Reading Area, deconstructing the architectural line through a gestural movement at the library’s rear entrance, or celebrating the literal sweetness of cultural life in paintings behind the customer service desk, these works give viewers a doorway to ideas, conversations and possibilities that demonstrate the mission of the County of Los Angeles’ Civic Arts Program, in that the health and sustainability of a community lies in its creative curiosity. www.lacountyart.org

Ana Rodriguez is a Los Angeles multidisciplinary artist from South East Los Angeles. She is a painter, sculptor and art educator, serving South East LA youth. Rodriguez grew up in the small community of Maywood, California, which is adjacent to the industrial cities of Commerce and Vernon and their numerous chemical plants, refineries, public waste areas and foundries. The monochromatic industrial landscape and the variety of smells that were ever-present were a constant source of fascination. There was tar, sulfur, the sweet bakery scents from the Sarah Lee Bakery, the tangy odors from Mojave Spices, the pungent scent of roasted beans from Gavina Coffee, and the repulsive odors from the fat rendering factories that breakdown animal carcasses. Rodriguez recalls being highly aware of the contrast between the putrid, foul smell of dead animals and the sweet scents from bakeries and cake shops. She also cites imagery from the Tales of the Arabian Nights as an important source of inspiration. Descriptions of beautiful landscapes, sultans’ palaces, and genies are important source material as are Islamic patterns and Arabesque motifs, some of which the artist recalls from her childhood, in the form of kitchen cabinet liners, linoleum flooring or wallpaper. The mix of sources is reflected in Rodriguez’s paintings which combine brightly colored geometric patterns with swirling gestures in brown and grey. Ana Rodriguez earned a BFA from California State University, Long Beach (2007) and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design (2009). Her work was included in Wet Paint: 10 Young LA Painters, Steve Turner Contemporary (2009). To learn more, please visit: 2021 Abstract Paintings - Ana Rodriguez (anamrodriguez.com)