MOLAA’S INAUGURAL LIVE ART AUCTION

LOT #8RUBÉN ORTIZ-TORRES (Mexico, b. 1964)Aztec Butt from the series The Past is not What it Used to Be /Trasero azteca, de la serie El pasado no es como solía ser, 2009Sepia-tone silver gelatin print on warm toned paper16 x 20 in. (40.64 x 50.8 cm)Gift of the artistEstimated price: $2,000-$3,000Rubén Ortiz-Torres is an artist, curator and author, who since the eighties, has been developing a complexbody of work informed by culture(s) and globalization. Working in a diverse array of mediums such as painting,photography, video, mixed-media, collage, and everyday objects including baseball caps and trucks, Ortiz-Torres challenges the way that we view and understand “high” and “low” art and popular culture.Aztec Butt, 2009, belongs to the series The Past is not What it Used to Be, which is a series of photographstaken in different parts of the world, where Ortiz-Torres documented the “false truth” of the “truly false” inmonuments that seem to be displaced or misplaced contextually. Aztec Butt is seemingly an “Aztec” ruinin a retirement home in Himeji, Japan. The artist printed the photograph in a sepia tone to add to the feelof mysticism and timelessness of a photograph of a ruin. However, this is a unique print due to the fact thatOrtiz-Torres has printed another three photographs of the same image utilizing different papers and tonalities.Ortiz-Torres obtained a BA in visual arts from the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, UNAM, Mexico City,in 1986. In 1992, he received his MFA from the California Institute of Art in Valencia, CA. Selected exhibitionsinclude Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, 2011; Changing theFocus, MOLAA, Long Beach, 2010; El Pasado no es lo que era, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, 2009;Phantom Sightings, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, 2008;Hi-n-Lo, LA>