Sayre Gomez

Sayre Gomez is renowned for his semi-fictionalized and photorealistic paintings, known as X-scapes. Employing a diverse array of techniques, including trompe l’oeil, airbrushing, stenciling, and those utilized in Hollywood set painting, his artistic inspiration draws from the urban landscape of Los Angeles.

Biography of Sayre Gomez

Sayre Gomez (born in Chicago in 1982) resides and creates art in Los Angeles. He earned an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gomez's artworks can be found in the permanent collections of various prestigious institutions, including the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., The Broad in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, ICA in Miami, National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Aïshti Foundation in Beirut, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Arsenal Contemporary in Montreal, Pérez Art Museum in Miami, Oketa Collection in Tokyo, Maki Collection in Tokyo, Rubell Museum in Miami, and mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien in Vienna.

Recent solo exhibitions by Gomez include "Enterprise" at Sifang Art Museum in Jiangsu, China (2022), and "Renaissance Collection" at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy (2022), among others.

Sayre Gomez's Art Style

In his works, Gomez masterfully combines diverse facets, simultaneously capturing the beauty of nature while also delving into themes related to the passage of time, urban deterioration, and commercial nostalgia. His art also reflects contemporary life, incorporating elements like graffiti and cell phone masts. Many of his paintings feature elements such as housing, road signs, billboards, and iconic landmarks that serve as the backdrop to lengthy car rides throughout the city.

Gomez synthesizes these observations into hyperrealistic images that challenge our capacity to distinguish between what is authentic and what is a product of simulation. Consequently, a cityscape that appears true to life could just as easily be an artificial construction. In this manner, he probes the increasingly fragile connection between our everyday physical surroundings and the digital culture that is relentlessly shaped by enhanced and manipulated images. The impeccable execution and luminosity in the artist's canvases, along with shifts between sharp and soft focus, can be seen as painterly reflections on the digital flattening and blurring of reality and culture through screen-based technology.

Throughout his oeuvre, the recurring metaphors such as openings and barriers, exemplified by windows, doors, gates, shutters, walls, and fences, suggest that Los Angeles represents a city of promise and freedom but also one fraught with shattered dreams and destitution. Gomez also explores these themes through various other mediums, including sculpture, installation, and video.