The de la Torre brothers live and work in San Diego, California, and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Their blown glass and found object installations live in a space that blends genres and cultural domains. Their sculpture and installation address what is left of tradition in the postmodern era. Catholic subject matter and iconography are intertwined with references to Mexico's ancient cultures and mass-media symbols. The de la Torres invite viewers to reconsider their preconceptions about “authentic” Mexican art and culture. Among the images that recur in their work are Aztec calendars, bleeding hearts and cacti. Border culture -- in both Mexico and the United States -- is presented and satirized. The artists’ attitude toward Catholicism and its popular expressions is both respectful and irreverent.

“We prefer ambiguity to moralizing,” say the de la Torres. “We just put the images out there. We're not interested in the work as an end that we've figured out, a statement that's done, and you either get it or don't get it. We're a lot more interested in making a stacking of images, like the layering of an onion. We're definitely not interested in conclusions.”

Einar and James learned glassblowing at California State University, Long Beach, in the early 1980s and have been using it ever since in their individual work and in the collaborative work they have made since the early 1990s. Glass turns up in their work as flame, liquid and flesh. It's an especially appropriate medium for them because of its fluidity and its ability, being both strong and fragile, to reconcile opposites.

The de la Torres will bring work made since 1997 to Salina, as well as create two new works on site with support from Salina glassblower James Moody at his studio Tempermental Art. During this two-week artists’ residency, Sept. 30-Oct. 12, viewers will have a chance to meet the artists and observe the fabrication and installation of the exhibition. A group of high school students, Young Artists in Action, will work with the glassblowers during their residency.

The opening party and artists’ comments will be Saturday, Oct. 12, at 8 p.m.

De la Torre glass work was exhibited in May and June 2001 at Grand Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, and they are included in the Ultra Baroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art show currently at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (click on Visual Arts/Upcoming Exhibitions/Ultra Baroque).

The exhibition and programs at the Salina Art Center are supported in part by a grant from Horizons, a program of the Salina Arts and Humanities Commission.

Read the Salina Journal article on the de la Torre brothers.