North Park Festival of the Arts
Georgina Trevino with her art - Alex Zaragoza
Zepf Alt Gallery, located Downtown, is not easy to find. In fact, once you realize that you’re standing right in front of where it should be, you have to be guided in by owner Andrew Estrada, as I was on Thursday night to see the installation of Georgina Treviño’s work, which will be showing at Blizzard Love Triangle, opening on Saturday, Feb. 2, from 6 to 11 p.m. Luckily, for the opening, there will be a lit up sign that will lead attendees down a sort of rabbit hole to the basement gallery space.
The exhibition features pieces by Treviño as well as Nihura Montiel and Neidy Godinez. The trio of up-and-coming Latina artists have come together to exhibit paintings and sculptures worth the search for Saturday-night Downtown parking.
During my visit, Treviño was working on a large installation of tags that she called a composite of “things that inspire me or are on my mind.” That included images of cosmic nebulas, numbers, flora, origami cranes and various words and phrases, like “I Am” and “penis.”
“This one is more personal,” says the artist, who was born in San Diego but grew up in Tijuana and currently studies painting and metalsmithing at San Diego State. She couldn’t seem to summon words beyond that as she grazed a few tags, each one seeming to bring up a memory.
Treviño began as a graphic design student but soon realized it wasn't her thing. So she switched focus and has been painting and designing jewelry ever since. Her two creative mediums often blend together in the work she produces.
Treviño draws inspiration from architecture, color theories, geometric shapes, gems and plants. Those things are all apparent in her large-scale paintings, which incorporate natural and man-made elements in geometrical juxtapositions that are brightly colored, feminine and beautiful.
“I collect stones and am fascinated by facets, colors, reflections and transparencies,” she explains. “I like building a lush kind of thing. Even in my older paintings you can see that. I use a lot of bright colors. I don’t think I ever use black.”
Her entire series is a kaleidoscope of corals, turquoise, golds and greens, lending to its sense of nature.
Treviño will be showing six pieces, while Godinez will show four large sculptures that use black rubber tubing and corrugated plastic piping and Montiel will be showing a cage-like sculpture.
Alex Zaragoza writes about art and culture. Email her at alexz@sdcitybeat.com.
Alex Zaragoza writes about art and culture. Email her at alexz@sdcitybeat.com.
