Wednesday, May 13, 1998
Bret Leal brings to gallery images of common man explored in
exhibit
ART: Exhibit pays homage to father, explores issues of identity,
memory, icons
By Jammie Salagubang
Daily Bruin Contributor
Dressed in T-shirt and shorts, fifth-year art student Bret Leal
looks like an average guy. His art exhibit, "Bret Leal’s Expression
Session," on display in Kerckhoff Hall this week, also presents
this look.
"I think there’s something interesting going on with bringing in
these images of the common man into a gallery setting," Leal says.
"I was really trying to get in touch with three things with these
new works: cultural identity, fragmented memories and pop icons. A
lot of it has to do with my family and my dad’s racing career."
Leal’s work incorporates his father’s influence in one of Leal’s
favorite works, "Multi-Million Dollar Ego," a five-panel piece on
paper that deals with aspects of his father’s professional car
racing career.
"To someone watching (racing) through ESPN or something, it’s
just a sport; but because I have this close interpersonal
connection with my dad and racing, it has influenced my art," Leal
says. "It’s an homage to my father, but at the same time, racing is
so much bigger than my family. My dad was kind of like a
blue-collar hero, he meant something to people outside our little
nuclear family, so it’s kind of an homage to that as well."
Some of Leal’s other works are on display in Northern Lights. He
also had a showing at the home of Nuri Yossefi, a former UCLA
student who plans to open a gallery, Cancibar, in February of
1999.
"His work about his dad is very happy, and it shows a lot about
his father, it captures a lot of paternal feeling," Yossefi
comments. "It centers a lot around family."
Actually, some of the works in the Kerckhoff exhibit are from
Leal’s series "Meet the Family," which focuses on his relationship
with his brother.
"It’s kind of therapeutic for me to try to figure out how I want
to deal with images of my own family and show them in a public
place," Leal reflects. "They have this very personal aspect and I
really like that aspect of it."
Much of Leal’s work also focuses on his cultural identity,
especially the "surf culture" he came to know while growing up in
the Newport Beach area. One of his works contains imagery from Dr.
Zarg’s Sex Wax, a brand of surfboard wax.
"I was trying to build on simple ideas like cultural identity
and looking at my identity as a white male in the art world," Leal
says. "That turned into (looking at) the surf culture of Southern
California and also consumer goods that I’ve used and have been
advertised to have."
Since much of Leal’s inspiration centers around his personal
memories, it makes sense that a second component in this exhibit he
explains as "fragmented memories."
"Fragmentation of memories is just me analyzing myself, my own
habits, what I do to have a good time, what I remember as
influential moments of my life," Leal relates. "I was interested in
capturing moments of happiness."
Leal also says that most of his work has been photo-realistic
until recently. The pieces in the Kerckhoff exhibit display works
that he tried with a new direction in mind.
"I was trying to be more spontaneous and have more simple ideas
as opposed to creating a contrived concept in these rigorous
perimeters," Leal remarks.
Leal’s artistic influences include a variety of people, notably
Andy Warhol, UCLA guest speaker Jim Shaw and Thad Strodes, who Leal
says was the first person who inspired him to make his dad’s racing
career a potential icon.
Yossefi describes Leal’s work as very "down to earth" with "a
lot of feeling behind them."
But understanding those feelings is not quite as simple.
"I don’t know if I really want (the audience) to understand (my
work). "I don’t want them to just fall in love with it right away,"
Leal says. " I want people to bring their own opinions and stories
and influences to it so we can have a good conversation."
ART: "Bret Leal’s Expression Session" is on display in Kerckhoff
Hall through May 23. Reception May 15 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
PATIL ARMENIAN
Fifth-year art student Bret Leal’s work is now on display at the
Kerckhoff art gallery.