The Santa Monica College (SMC) Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery presents “Never Too Late,”a survey exhibition of works created by artist and SMC alum Nehemiah Cisneros between 2016 and 2022 during his academic training in the arts at Santa Monica College, Kansas City Art Institute, and the University of California Los Angeles.
The exhibition is open to the public through April 22, with a free gallery reception on Saturday, March 16, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The SMC Pete & Susan Barrett Gallery is located at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street (at Santa Monica Boulevard), Santa Monica. Entry is through the Performing Arts Center’s courtyard.
Cisneros will also give an artist talk — “From SMC to Kansas City Art Institute to UCLA” — about his artistic process and influences, his education journey, and the important role SMC has played in his life. The talk will be held March 26, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Art 214 on the main SMC Campus at 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica.
“Never Too Late” features what Cisneros calls his “greatest hits” leading to his graduate degree at UCLA. His paintings — merging the graphic aesthetics of 1990s skateboard graphics with the theatrical scale of Baroque painting from the 1600s — bring to life magnified expressions of humanity through grotesquely exaggerated renderings of authority figures and icons.
Informed by experiences growing up in Mid City Los Angeles, Cisneros uses the imagery and history of cultural stereotypes to explore the socio/political relationship between authority and people of color. His juxtaposition of historical and fictional imagery examines how mainstream culture, criminality, and the judicial system affect and continue to fail marginalized communities. Through satire, Cisneros highlights the fetishized worldview news media consumers have become accustomed to seeing.
Cisneros earned his BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2021 and was awarded a New Opportunities Fellowship at UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, where he will complete his MFA in 2024.
More information is available by visiting smc.edu/barrett. All events are subject to change or cancellation without notice.
