Did you know there's a saint of doorknobs? If you need to rescue a child accidentally locked in a bathroom, that might be useful information.
As artist Frank Gutierrez writes in his painting "El Santo Hureo de los Doorknobs" -- inspired by a family drama that occurred 10 years ago -- his prayers to the saint in charge of such catastrophes miraculously opened a door with dysfunctional hardware and delivered his granddaughter from terror. On the upper panel of the two-part picture, Gutierrez depicts a worried man and a slew of knobs on top of a tall cylindrical structure with a closed door at its base. On the lower panel, containing the text, three smaller figures also appear to be in great distress.
But the story has a happy ending, as do most of the messages in "Silent Testimonies: Contemporary Ex-Votos," an exhibition opening Saturday at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park. The exhibition, which seems particularly apt for the holidays, features paintings, collages, assemblages and photographs that tell stories -- in images and words -- about cures, kindnesses and wonders. Working in a variety of styles, the artists speak with earnestness, joy and humor.
Pola Lopez gives thanks for her recovery from a car accident in a bold painting depicting a pair of crutches hanging on a cross above a loopy, ribbon-like road. Cindy Suriyani surrounds an image of her face with a swirl of thick pink pigment and expresses gratitude for "living in interesting times." In a mixed-media assemblage, Joseph Sims hopes for a heavenly reunion with his family.
Amy Inouye and Stuart Rapeport take a tongue-in-cheek approach in the most offbeat piece. It's an hommage to Chicken Boy, a statue of a chicken-headed boy that used to sit on the roof of a Chicken Boy restaurant in downtown L.A. and now crowns a building in Highland Park. In the artwork, a rough silhouette of the popular mascot stands above a message that begins: "Chicken Boy loves us. He wants us all to get along."
The force behind all this creativity is Raoul De la Sota. A painter who teaches Mexican art history at Los Angeles City College, he's also on the board of directors at Avenue 50 Studio, a nonprofit community gallery devoted to promoting the work of a diverse range of artists.
"It all began when I was in Spain last year and saw large murals painted on the walls of the cathedral in Salamanca," De la Sota says. "The murals depict events, miracles that occurred. For example, when the cathedral was built in the 1400s, a large stone fell on a worker. Because everyone prayed to the Virgin of Solitude, he was saved. They had to paint that huge event.
