Shizu Saldamando
Shizu Saldamando’s work depicts American social spaces through portraiture. Her work celebrates peers, friends, and loved ones through paintings and drawings that honor the brief moments of connection that occur throughout daily life. Shizu was born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission District and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from UCLA School of Arts and Architecture and her M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts.
Solo exhibitions include LA Intersections, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA; Shizu Saldamando, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ; To Return, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; When You Sleep: A Survey of Shizu Saldamando, Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, CA; All Tomorrow’s Parties, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA. Selected group exhibitions include: Phantom Sightings at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Trans-Pacific Borderlands, part of the Getty Pacific Standard Time initiative at the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA; We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles, an official collateral exhibition of the Venice Biennale; Drawing the Line at Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA and The High Art of Riding Low at the Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
Saldamando’s work resides in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, Princeton University Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California,The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, National Museum of Mexican Art, Fidelity Collection, Cleveland Clinic Collection, and numerous other public and private collections. Saldamando lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by Charlie James Gallery.
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Selected Works

El Ozzie
Oil paint, glitter, spray paint, decals, mirrors, metal leaf on wood panel
72 x 48 inches
2024

Karla at Elysian Park
Oil paint, washi paper, glitter, decals, on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2024

Jay Lynn in Weho
Oil, glitter, pins, decals, washi paper, gold leaf on wood panel
48 x 36 inches
2024

Mario in Studio
oil paint, gold leaf, washi paper, glitter tape, on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2024

Lupe with Mexico cap
Oil, washi, decals, glitter tape on wood panel
48 x 60 inches
2024

Jaime with Peyote
Colored pencil, washi paper, prism paper, on paper
40 x 32 inches
2024

Portrait of Artist Cayla Willie
Oil, metal leaf, glitter, vintage glass glitter, washi paper, on wood panel
36 x 48 inches
2023

Angel in Virgin de Guadalupe Shorts
Oil, glitter, washi paper on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2023

Portrait of Artist Young Joon Kwak
oil paint, glitter, washi paper, plastic decals
36 x 48 inches
2023

Pony Lee at Friendsgiving
Oil paint, metal leaf, washi paper on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2023

Mario at Elysian Park
Colored pencil and collage on paper
43 x 36 inches
2023

Prisca in GISM Shirt
Oil paint, metal leaf, glitter on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2023

Portrait of Artist Yreina D. Cervantez
Oil paint, washi paper, vintage glass glitter, on wood panel
72 x 48 inches
2023

Audrey with Kites
Oil and washi paper on wood panel
24 x 48 inches
2023

Young at Commonwealth
Oil, washi paper, and gold leaf on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2023

Raul in Pomona
Colored pencil and collage on paper
43 x 36 inches
2023

Emilia with Leaves
Oil, metal leaf, vintage glass glitter, washi paper on wood panel
72 x 48 inches
2022

Marcus, The Wooden People
Oil, glitter, on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2022

Waylon at Bowie Night
Oil, glitter on wood panel
60 x 48 inches
2022

Mina with Palms
Oil, metal leaf, glitter, washi paper on wood panel
48 x 96 inches
2022

Maria Maea
Oil and collage on wood panel
48 x 36 inches
2020

La Ever, Chica Malcriada
Colored pencil, glitter, spray paint on paper
30 x 22 inches
2018