Curated by Stephanie Frondoso and helmed by 30 artists, Art House is an exhibit that reflects the intimate and complex nature of homes through paintings and installations designed to represent a regular house: mimicking common areas like living rooms and private spaces like bedrooms.
One of Art House’s more intriguing presentations is Chalk Zaldivar’s “acrylic on jesus” paintings, which imitate a traditional family altar. His work is comprised of a crucifix and a Santo Niño figure painted over with black acrylic and placed alongside a bible and a rosary.
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“Back then, it was automatic to have a space for your altar in every house,” Zaldivar says. “We had an altar before in our house, but no one was going to church. I guess a lot of families are like that.”
“I don’t know if it’s just virtue signaling or just people complying with what other people are doing. So this is me like, ‘Hey, I have an altar in my house.’”
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The choice to work on an altar for this exhibit stems from its meaningful yet intriguing nature, and a desire to work on images that are seemingly taboo. “I don’t work on other religions only because I didn’t experience it,” he says. “I was baptized Catholic and spent my elementary and high school days in a Catholic school.”
A lot of the elements present in his paintings are ultimately rooted in artistic choices. “Black acrylic doesn’t mean a thing,” Zaldivar explains. “Mostly when I paint figures of people, I usually use black so colors would pop out more.”
“I also considered painting over a Jesus photo but it seems like it wasn’t as strong as these two (the crucifix and the Santo Niño) figures,” he says. “Space was also a consideration since I was working with a lot of other artists, too. I didn’t want the altar to take so much space.”
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“At the end of the day, it’s just wood. A painting is a canvas,” he notes. “For me, we shouldn’t take these things seriously. This is why I mock some masterpieces from time to time.”
Art House will be on view at Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery from Feb. 6 to 29.
Header photo courtesy of Chalk Zaldivar
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Writer: ANGELA PATRICIA SUACILLO
