Craig Krull Gallery is pleased to present Roberto Chavez’s Portraits, a selection of intimate paintings made across the late artist’s career. Chavez was a gutsy chronicler of the human condition, looking to others as reflections of himself, of life at large. Born in Los Angeles to parents who came to California after the Mexican Revolution, Chavez was captivated by family and community from a young age. Portraits includes paintings in a variety of scales and styles: there are vibrant self-portraits showing a personal evolution across the years; moody images of Chavez’s wife and children, rendered with careful attention to color and shadow; and larger portraits combining Chavez’s expressionist figuration with symbolic, abstract elements. The exhibition highlights Chavez’s emphasis on connection—on attention to the individual as a way of honoring universal human experience—and embodies the artist’s highest goal: to “make paintings that came alive.”
