Wk B2 – SOA Artist – Christian Nunez

Artist: Christian Nunez

Exhibition: Mi Gente

Media: Oil on Canvas, 14″x16″ & 18″x20″

Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Marilyn Werby Gallery

Website: N/A

Instagram: @chrissnnunez

Christian Nunez is an undergraduate student at CSULB. The program he is studying is drawing and painting. He is in his final semester and will be moving to Japan after graduation as an English Teacher. He has been studying Japanese for 4 years. He will continue painting and drawing.

His pieces of work are two paintings of an elderly man and woman. They are Oil on Canvas, 14″x16″ and 18″x20″. The portrait of the woman is her facing straight with a suave smile.  Her hair is pulled back, with a blue top, and a black scarf. The background is yellow which can represent life. She appears to be very old, about 80. The portrait of the man is more serious. However, the background is not only yellow but includes a traditional Mexican fabric in the back. The wall also has a pattern. The man is wearing a sombrero with a white top.

The purpose of this project was to show culture. The paintings are of Christian Nunez’s grandparents. He chose them to show his culture because that is how a typical elderly Mexican is portrayed. His family is from Jalisco, Mexico. He chose his grandparents because he has not seen them in a long time and wanted a form to bond with them. He likes painting elderly people because there is more depth and detail, as in all the wrinkles and fine lines. The grandma’s art piece took more work because he did a grid and drew with pencil first before painting. The grandpa’s painting was straight to paint.

This exhibit spoke to me because I am Mexican. I had also seen his artwork the previous week in the gallery called Afterlife. His paintings were relatable in the sense that we celebrate Dia de Los Muertos and we listen to Mariachi. One of his paintings from last week featured a man laying on the bed, perhaps overdosed, and the bottle was Jack Daniels. I asked him why he chose whisky and not a typical Mexican drink like Tequila. He said he thought that whisky was the adapted drink to second generation families.