LOS ANGELES ARTIST: MARGARET GARCIA

Born in East Los Angeles in, 1951.

“I define Chicano art by creating it,” Garcia states. “My work is personal and also embraces the cultural common ground of my community and the history of Los Angeles.”

The Los Angeles native began her career as a muralist, involved in the murals that swept through the 1984 Olympics.  Identified as one of 24 artists who have had an impact on LA Art, Garcia’s work consists of oil paintings saturated with a wildly expressive palette. Flat compositional space is firmly rooted in the tradition of Mexican folk art. Her paintings are in the collections of LACMA, the Laguna Art Museum, and the personal collection of Cheech Marin.

Recent exhibitions include Chicano Dreams, Bordeaux, France; Musee D’Aquitaine and Transforming Feminism, South Bay Contemporary. Her work is on the walls of the Universal City Metro station as part of a historic tribute to the History of California and the signing of the Capitulation of Cahuenga, making California a territory of the United States.

Her greatest sense of accomplishment is from knowing that she has facilitated an artist in becoming what they want to be; a working, thriving, and recognized artist.