Mario Moore Enshrined: Presence + Preservation opens in one month at @caaminla from March 23 - October 2, 2022 I’m excited to debut two new portraits by Moore of Expo Park staff Adria, and Maria, who have been working with our museum and institutions at Expo Park for several years. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to present Moore’s mastery to the West coast, and equally grateful for the ways in which he allows us to celebrate figures who contribute to institutional spaces through labors that are often invisiblized. Mario Moore, born and based in Detroit, is a figurative painter whose subjects stand tall, gazing confidently at the viewer. They convey a dignified presence without regalia, a type of depiction that places Moore’s portraiture within a lineage of artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Barkley L. Hendricks, and one of Moore’s earliest influences, the seventeenth-century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. Mario Moore Enshrined: Presence + Preservation, Moore’s first solo exhibition in California, brings together work from early in his career as well as his most recent series, The Work of Several Lifetimes (2019), created with the support of Princeton University’s esteemed Hodder Fellowship. Together, these works represent the artist’s desire to make visible the dedicated work of marginalized groups in this country. For many years, Moore has foregrounded the contributions of essential and frontline workers in his paintings, an effort that has become even more poignant during this time of global pandemic, as their labors have enabled and ensured the well-being of us all. This exhibition brings to light Moore’s commitment to celebrating his subjects—both their labor and leisure. His paintings encourage us to question who is deserving of portraiture and, thus, preservation. Mario Moore Enshrined: Presence + Preservation is curated by Taylor Renee Aldridge, visual arts curator. I Continue to Dream, 2020 Oil on linen 42 x 62 in. Private Collection What Happens to a Dream Deferred?, 2020 Oil on linen A Student’s Dream, 2017 Oil on canvas Portrait of Adria (2022) Portrait of Maria (2022)