Mario Ayala (b. 1991, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
In his paintings in acrylic using an airbrush, Ayala works with and through vernacular modes of cultural expression, materials, and imagery, reconfiguring them to present a distinctly visual lexicon in which elements contradict one another narratively and spatially. Ayala pays particular attention to spaces and mediums associated with the representation of brownness and Latinx identity. The techniques and symbology seen in the signage and advertising of Los Angeles’s landscape, and the applied arts employed in auto customization and Lowrider / tattoo subcultures appear, recontextualized, in Ayala’s canvases as he investigates the practical and social roles they play culturally, politically, and historically.
Mario Ayala graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014 where he received the Yale Norfolk fellowship in 2012. Ayala’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in solo exhibitions with Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY; Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, CA; Stems Gallery, Brussels, BE; Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, SW; Club Pro, Los Angeles, CA and SADE, Los Angeles, CA. Recent group exhibitions include Barbati Gallery, Venice, IT; Altman Siegel, San Francisco, CA; Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, IL; Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY , Miami, FL & Los Angeles, CA; HVW8 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Galeria Javier Lopez & Fer Frances, Madrid, ES; Stems Gallery, Brussels, BE & Paris, FR; Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, SW; Marlborough Gallery, Los Angeles, CA ; Massimo De Carlo, London, UK among others.
Ayala’s work is included in public collections of the Hammer Museum, Aïshti Foundation, Arsenal Contemporary and KRC Collection.