Pancho Jimenez at the Triton Museum of Art

I grew up in Santa Clara, California. It's not an art town. I've said that before, and I mean it. We're a city based on technology, and not artistic technologies. 

That's not to say there isn't an art museum. Two of them, in fact, with the one that I have the most direct experience with being the Triton Museum of Art. Before today, I'd not been there in about a decade, but alas, I made my way. There were three exhibitions, one was OK, the other was photography and currently, that's just mot my thing, but the third opened my eyes. Opened them wide.

Francisco "Pancho" Jimenez is a prof at Santa Clara University, and he's also one of us who grew up in Santa Clara. I am pretty sure we went to the same elementary school, as his brother was in my class in 4th and 6th grades. I had no idea anyone in Santa Clara was doing incredible, mind-blowing art, but Jimenez is, and the exhibition of ceramics I experienced during my lunch hour was just about the only proof I would ever need that such happened. 

​The works are other worldly, pieces that seem to staddle the line between Pop Art and Post-Modernism; as if Louise Nevelson and Paul Manship had come together under the influence of RIchard Hamilton. The pieces are, in a way, ceramic collages, comprised of dozens of impressions of objects like dolls' heads and other everyday items, many acquired through eBay and Craigslist. I had a good time identifying those that I owned and would be giving to my twins. 

The details are incredible, but when you step back, and look at them as they are in their entirety, you see there is so much more at work. Five heads, green in color, call to mind one of my favorite sections of the British Museum, where the art of the people of Central America lives; statuary by Olmec, Aztec, and other cultures stands in one of the most lovely exhibits you'll find in London.  The five heads are amazing, the use of the object impressions precise, daring. It's in this selection of sculptures that I found myself diving deeper and deeper, looking into the depths of whatever I have managed to synthesize from years of art museum touring. 

​Two other pieces that hit me hard for much the same reason were two pieces that appeared to wear beards. These instantly struck me as having a Mesopotamian or Sumerian feel to them. THe long beards that seems to play the role of identifier for the subject. Up close, these works could serve as an object lesson in the decontextualization of found objects, and the invasion of low culture artifacts into the fine arts museum, but there is something else going on as well. The beard's connotations today are of wisdom (as contrasted to the Hipster beard, which I'll talk about in a minute) and here, that wisdom is comprised of many many faces, as if he's saying true knowledge and wisdom is the ability to synthesize imagery. That's perhaps taking it a step too far, but it's what hit me. 

ANother piece that hit me was a head form that had what could be seen as a wrap-around vision, which actually gave off the imression that these pieces, these impressions, are made on the viewer at all times, are pressed into our vision, and comprise how we view the world. I also happen to know that Jimenez is roughly the same age as me, and must be aware that the first thing I thought of when I saw this was Jordi from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm sure for younger viewers, the first idea will be Daft Punk. Six of one...

There are five busts at the front that use the same technique to illustrate hairstyles. Aside from clothing, hair is the most easily identifiable source of personal identification for those who choose not to directly interact. Here, from a distance, these pieces appear to be hairstyle demonstration works, but once you move closer, making it easier to engage, you can see what they are made of, and thus that they are not of 'here' in a sense. These are phenomenal pieces that alone would make an exhibition proud. 

There is more to this exhibit, which I'll cover in a future piece, but if you're in the Bay Area, you MUST go to this exhibit before it closes on October 30th ! It would be an absolute shame to miss this exhibition.