LOS ANGELES, CA.-The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is showcasing the work of two dynamic artists who are gaining increasing international recognition in a new special exhibition. Contemporary Projects 9: Gajin Fujita and Pablo Vargas Lugo, organized by LACMA, includes approximately 20 works (many exhibited for the first time) in a wide range of media by these young artists. The exhibition will be on view at LACMA through February 12, 2006.

Gajin Fujita (b. 1972, Los Angeles) and Pablo Vargas Lugo (b. 1968, Mexico City), address notions of cultural and stylistic appropriation in the 21st century. By borrowing forms from Asian art as well as contemporary Latino graffiti, these artists exemplify, in radically different ways, how artistic traditions are both maintained and altered as they move across stylistic and national borders in two of the largest and most sprawling urban centers in the world.

In Fujita's vibrant paintings and drawings, the mixture of Japanese anime, figures derived from traditional Asian woodblock prints, and graffiti results in surprising and evocative works that embody the contradictions of culture and class inherent in urban Los Angeles. A member of the widely esteemed West Coast graffiti crew K2S (Kill to Succeed) in the 1980s Fujita did numerous "bombings" and murals in downtown Los Angeles; his paintings incorporate "taggings" by friends from his graffiti crew. Carp Boy (2004), for example, depicts an exotic fish derived from Japanese anime. During Boys Day in Japan (May 5th), every family strings koi (an ornamental carp) flags on a bamboo stick to represent the number of males in the household and symbolize their courage. Here the carp is placed between a chrysanthemum -- the national flower of Japan -- and the word "boy" with a star. The striped block letters, an integral part of the work, recall American sports team insignias and advertisements. The American referent is underscored by the city of Los Angeles that lurks in the distance. A selection of Fujita's works on paper, many which are preparatory drawings for larger-scale paintings, are being exhibited for the first time at LACMA.

Vargas Lugo is also deeply concerned with notions of style and the city. However, he sidesteps any reference to daily life in Mexico City, as he is more interested in how the passing of time affects our experience of urban geography. In his installations, drawings, videos, and sculptures, Vargas Lugo creates images that are deeply poetic and cannot be precisely placed, subverting the viewer's expectations of his cultural codes. The installation Uprooted Sidewalk, two sculptures that the artist created expressly for the exhibition, represent pyramids made of cracked cement with yellow borders that recall any sidewalk of Mexico City. Installed as corner pieces, the shapes of the pyramids recall icons of the great civilizations of Egypt and Mexico, but their cracks also allude to the inevitable passing of time. The exhibition also includes several of the artist’s trademark cut paper drawings. Skin, Birds, and Stones, for example, are two large-scale works that depict red and pink swirls that look indistinctly like streams of water, blood, and air. Though the works at first glance look Asian, as the artist has stated, "It could almost be said that my drawings speak with an accent. They would really like to be Asian, but they cannot be so even if they try." As with most of the artist's drawings, their degree of craftsmanship, and their painstaking beauty, can serve to disguise their representational quality, an effect that the artist deliberately tries to attain.

Placing these artists in proximity calls attention to the cultural disjuncture that characterizes their work. They are not brought together to emphasize the similarity of their visual strategies, but because of the different ways in which they manipulate various visual traditions and cultural codes. In both instances, the cultural and formal overlaps result in highly alluring, often mischievous works.