ALFONSO GONZALEZ JR.: THIS WAS HERE

Jeffrey Deitch, New York, is pleased to present This Was Here, Alfonso Gonzalez’s first solo exhibition in New York.

November 16, 2024 - January 18, 2025

Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. drove through every Los Angeles neighborhood during his boyhood, assisting his father, a professional sign painter. As a graffiti writer starting at age twelve, and later as a sign painter himself, he deepened his immersion into the Los Angeles cityscape. Gonzalez’s paintings of the streets and signage of contemporary Los Angeles express his profound feeling for the neighborhoods of the city and its people. His compositions generally do not include figures, but always evoke a human presence. The carcasses of cars in many of his paintings embody the lives of the people who abandoned them.

Gonzalez documents the changing cityscape of Los Angeles and how people influence its transformation. His paintings of signage for hair and nail salons, accident lawyers and insurance brokers animate the exhibition with faces, hairstyles, and extravagant nail designs. Gonzalez thinks of his exhibition as a giant still life: an arrangement of the various elements of the real Los Angeles. While cities become increasingly homogenous, Gonzalez embraces the imagery unique to the working-class neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The paintings are composed from a combination of the artist’s photographs and his impressions and memories. They are realistic but also dreamlike. They exist in a liminal state between reality and imagination.

By enduring long hours and challenging weather conditions, Gonzalez not only mastered the technical skills that became the cornerstone of his artistic practice but also developed a rigorous discipline and meticulous work ethic. While traveling across the country as a sign painter, he also educated himself in art history, visiting museums and galleries.

This exhibition examines urban environments using a mix of photo documentation and imaginative, collaged compositions. It offers a reflection on these spaces that is both humorously observant and thoughtfully critical.