Rochele Gomez

Front Gallery

As Is is pleased to present Rochele Gomez: It's Just Not the Same Without You, an exhibition of recent artworks by this young Los Angeles artist.

"Rear lit" may be an apt metaphor for the five artworks by Rochele Gomez now on view as it describes both their particular manner of presentation as well as the wistful, retrospective attitude adopted by the artist as she addresses aspects of her own past. Each artwork consists of a single medium-sized color photographic transparency mounted in a white metal box and lit from the rear. And each photo depicts a different home the artist and her family occupied as they moved in and around Los Angeles from the years of her childhood and adolescence, to the present as an adult.

Animating what might otherwise be a dry, documentary account is the introduction of an oversized placard featuring the cartoon character Garfield, who functions as an unlikely "tour guide" adding pathos and providing the needed formal continuity from house to house and image to image.

"Real estate is the soul of Los Angeles," complained more than one jaundiced visitor to this city over the years. Gomez says much the same thing here, but with far greater understanding and affection.