Artwork Detail

José Antonio Aguirre designed this graphic paint scheme to unify the East Los Angeles Civic Center campus. Applied to the exteriors of the County City Hall, Sheriff’s Station, band shell, parking structure, and public restroom facilities, the colors and shapes create a cohesive space. Aguirre’s scheme derives from several sources, including: traditional sarape textiles from Teocaltiche, basket weavings from Michoacán and Guanajuato, and architecture from Mexico’s modernist period. The work of modernist architect Luis Barragán, and in particular his Torres de Satélite built in Mexico City in 1957, provided a jumping off point for Aguirre’s color choices. These varied influences combine in Aguirre’s designs to enliven the campus’ structures.

Bi-national artist José Antonio Aguirre earned a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a studio artist, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. As a public artist, he has executed nearly 30 works in California, Illinois, Texas and Mexico City. Throughout his art career, he has been active as an installation artist, visual arts educator and cultural journalist for Spanish publications in Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas and Mexico. In March 2010 José was awarded the prestigious J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Award to Mexico. Fulbright is the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange program in the world, supported for more than half a century by the American people through an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress and by the people of partner nations. José Antonio Aguirre resides in Pasadena, California.