Artist José M. Loza’s latest exhibition exists as an artistic timeline of a tumultuous 2020.
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, 2020 forced the nation to acknowledge a plethora of social justice issues affecting the country. “Things Unseen”—at Flatline Gallery through Sept. 19— includes a collection of works that touch on police divestment, immigration and worker’s rights.
Some of the art pieces were done in response to protests over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, while others were done during quarantine—all an exploration of the meaning of marginalization.
The inspiration for the work came from seeing the local community “activate itself” within the past year, Loza said.
Meeting activists from local organizations who have been advocating for years also served as inspiration, especially “how their work overlaps [with] a lot of the motivation of the activists [that] were active last year,” Loza said.
In “Hazard Pay,” Loza explores the closures of two North Long Beach Kroger stores in response to a city ordinance requiring “hero pay,” a $4 hourly pay boost for grocery workers.
The yellow poster calls for hazard pay, created using screen printing, which Loza referred to as a “democratic medium.”
It depicts a masked grocery worker in red ink with a speech bubble that says “We went from being ESSENTIAL to SACRIFICIAL. All for the bottom line.” Another worker says “Closing is Retaliation Against Workers Fighting for Hazard Pay!” An executive appears below them maskless with the words “Meanwhile, We had a Record Profit YEAR!”
Another theme explored is the use of force by police departments against protesters.
One of the pieces, “Pain Compliance device,” is an instructable on how to create a paper rubber bullet. Rubber bullets were launched at protesters during the 2020 protests.
Loza was inspired to create the piece after seeing the bruises left by a rubber bullet on a friend.
“You don’t really have an early concept [of rubber bullets] unless you’re directly impacted by it,” Loza said, noting that he wanted to create something tangible so people could get an idea of their size and feel.
Jose Loza poses for a portrait holding a sponge-tipped bullet used by riot police in Long Beach during the summer of 2020 on Sept. 1, 2021. He received the bullet from a friend at the protests, and it is a part of his piece “Pain Compliance device” on display at Flatline Gallery in North Long Beach. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
A piece that Jose Loza made last year titled “Pain Compliance device” is on display at Flatline Gallery in North Long Beach on Sept. 1, 2021. He was inspired to make this piece after the police reaction to the protests during the summer of 2020 in Long Beach. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
The words “Targeting Specific Agitators” appear inside a yellow star police badge on the art piece, the text coming from the manufacturer’s promotional copy. The materials needed appear on a side panel—scissors, glue and a grenade launcher.
A cloud of pink, orange and purple watercolors resembling a bruise hover over the rubber bullet cut-out. Five completed paper-cut outs float under the manual and an actual rubber bullet sits on a pedestal below. The activity sheet is available on Loza’s website.
Loza explores accessibility to art materials in this exhibition. His newer works of art were created on different forms of advertising mail.
“Essentially it’s material that we all have access to,” Loza said. “I was looking at it to see, well firstly, accessibility, how inexpensive it is, but also as a challenge to kind of try and create something dynamic with just everyday materials.”
Those mixed-media pieces tackle immigration camps, which were widely photographed during the Trump Administration.
“Untitled,” created on top of an El Super market promotional ad, is encrusted with diamond-shaped stamps in red, orange, pink, blue and green following the colors of the ad. The stamps create a chain link fence from which three swallows emerge.
“There’s a lot of photographs taken of people just looking through these chain-link fences,” Loza said of his inspiration. “What caught my attention was how those diamond-shaped spaces in between the fences, almost held and captured people’s stares and their hands, and it just connected with me.”
Loza opted not to use people’s images in order to not capitalize on their suffering and instead used the birds for this piece and detailed expressions in other charcoal drawings.
“Those birds, [they’re] able to move in and out of those small spaces,” Loza said. “To me, it’s like a metaphor for the transference of these emotions and this connection of our humanity.”
Those pieces were created at Flatline Gallery during Loza’s summer residency, the gallery’s director Elizabeth Munzon said.
Munzon expressed the importance of this exhibition taking place in North Long Beach, an underserved area whose residents face some of the issues depicted.
“It’s important because of all the events that happened in the past year and a half,” Munzon said. “Also for the community to see an artist like Jose Loza working throughout all of these events and creating this type of artwork to share with the community.”
To keep up with Jose Loza’s work visit his website here and follow him on Instagram @jmloza_art. Book an appointment to see “Things Unseen” at Flatline Gallery, Wednesday through Friday. Flatline is open weekends from noon to 6 p.m.
