Einar and Jamex de la Torre | Midday Devil

Collaborating brothers Einar and Jamex’ practice involves blown glass sculpture, photomural installations using lenticular printing, and an expanding body of large-scale installation art. Their multilayered pieces reflect their bicultural perspective on the complexity and humor that we are presented with in our lives. Deeply referential in content, their lenticulars combine influences from religious iconography, art history and global politics, while paying homage to Mexican vernacular arts and pre-Columbian art.

Midday Devil references the “noon-day demon,” believed by Christian monastics to be active at the hottest point of the day. This personification of the sin of sloth inclines one to restlessness, discouragement, and neglect of one’s duties when they are at their most vulnerable. In this context, the de la Torre brothers challenge the prevailing doctrine that nonstop labor provides salvation and quantitative value to the worker, acknowledging that often those who do the most physically taxing labor are also those granted the least rights and respect.  They consider the virtues of idleness and leisure, particularly relevant now as more work turns towards automation and artificial intelligence.

 

Einar and Jamex live and work between the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, México, and San Diego, CA. They have won The USA Artists Fellowship award, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, and The San Diego Art Prize. Among countless solo museum exhibitions and major, public art projects they have also participated in 4 biennales. This year, they completed several encompassing installations, including a career retrospective at the The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum.