Javier Carrillo

Javier Carrillo is a Chicano artist from Michoacán, Mexico, who immigrated to the US when he was seven. He plays with scale and religious and personal iconography to explore the complex layers of cultural identity. His paintings often depict close friends, family members, and his own life experiences. Many images take the form of the playing cards used in a Mexican game of chance akin to Bingo, La Lotería—Carrillo grew up with the game, and each of his painted cards shares a story based on struggles encountered when crossing the border. Other works showcase the lives of working people in his community, including his own father, a taco vendor.  Carrillo’s color reduction prints of small pick-up trucks carrying heavy cargo remind one of the over-burdening loads heaped onto donkeys or burros, and the application of gold leaf references the devotional qualities of religious paintings. For the people driving, these trucks are worth more than gold.

A former student of Dan McCleary’s Art Division in Los Angeles, Javier Carrillo now serves as the school’s Exhibitions and Operations Manager, and teaches fundamentals and advanced printmaking. He has exhibited in museums and galleries including the Bakersfield Museum of Art and The Mexican Consulate General of Los Angeles, among others. His work is part of the private collection of Stewart and Lynda Resnick, the USC Fisher Museum of Art, Georgia College & State University, and more.