The Crocker Art Museum Acquires Ozzie Juarez’s “Soledad”

Ozzie Juarez, Soledad (Solitude), Acrylic and airbrush on metal gate, 78 x 60 x 1 1/8 inches, 2025. Photos: Yubo Dong

Charlie James Gallery is proud to announce the acquisition of Ozzie Juarez's Soledad by the Crocker Art Museum.

Special thanks to Scott Shields, Francesca Wilmott, and the entire Crocker Art Museum team for their support of Ozzie and this piece. Tremendous appreciation for the support of Simon Chiu in helping to make this possible. 

Ozzie Juarez (b. 1991, Compton, CA) is a multidisciplinary artist who uses the realms of painting and sculpture to honor and revitalize ancient and recent cultural artifacts, languages, and histories. Inspired by the techniques, collaborations, ambitions, and ephemeral qualities of unsanctioned public art, Juarez incorporates excerpts of paintings he observes across the LA landscape into his own work. His ongoing interest in the construction of shared experiences and identities can be equally attributed to time spent as a scenic painter specializing in physical simulation at Disneyland. The omnipresence of American cartoon culture—with its roots in racial stereotypes and its exoticization of global cultures—weaves itself effortlessly into Juarez’s motifs.

Juarez earned his BFA from the University of California Berkeley. In 2020 he founded TLALOC Studios, an artist-run community gallery and studio building in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. TLALOC evolves with its members, providing a space that encourages and promotes the possibility of a sustainable life as an artist.