This month GDCA is proud to feature the paintings of Oscar
Sanabria - a recent addition to the DTLA art scene. A gift-
ed painter and filmmaker, Sanabria is a multi media artist
in every sense of the word. We asked him to describe his
journey…from Guatemala to DTLA.
As a child in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, Oscar was mes-
merized by the horizon. At night, its line was drawn like an
indelible division between ocean and sky. The immensity of
stars in the night sky formed a vision that would never leave
him. Sanabria has Mayan blood in him, which he feels is the
source of his connection with stars and the universe. The
Mayan people were stargazers, famous for their science and
early calendars. In a more literal sense, Sanabria inherited
his talent for drawing from his mother. She gifted him his
first art supplies at age 6, and set him on his artistic journey.
Another pivotal experience was seeing the movie ‘Star
Wars’ as a boy in Guatemala. Beyond the impact of it’s set-
ting, Space, the medium of film planted a seed, which would
continue to germinate until it could come to fruition in adult-
hood. At age 9, Sanabria moved to Los Angeles. He won an
art contest in 6th grade and was encouraged to take graphic
design classes at the Freemont Occupational Center. The
work he produced there won him a graphics and advertising
scholarship to Pasadena Art Center.
One fateful night, on a walk in the basement, he stumbled
upon the Fine Arts department, and had an epiphany: His
artistic purpose was to express himself…his emotions, his
ideals and his view of the world. No longer could his art be
in service of an idea outside of himself…rather he needed to
be in service of his art, to express his ultimate truth. He left
the Art Center and continued a self-guided study of Fine Art,
visiting museums and copying the masters.
When studying the masters, Oscar would look at a paint-
ing for hours on end. Not as a means of analysis, but as a
means of absorption. He needed to permeate the painting
until he could “grasp its essence”. The next level of compre-
hension depended on studying paintings in context of their
series. As an artist he is committed to this rule: “Only by
creating a series can you truly have larger dialogue with the
metaphor you are trying to explore.” All of his work is rooted
in deep philosophical contemplation: “Meaning has to exist
on every level for the work to be authentic.”
At a certain point, despite several successful exhibits a year,
Sanabria felt stuck. He felt the need for a tectonic shift in his
work, and decided to go back to school. After applying to
San Francisco Art Institute, Oscar was awarded consecutive
scholarships. Here he was introduced to the work of con-
temporary video and installation artists. Adding film classes
into the mix, his work began to blossom again, especially by
incorporating video into his paintings. Finally Sanabria was
able to manifest his early creative vision of becoming a multi
media artist. Several of his recent found object/assemblage
pieces include video elements, such as a lock on an old
wooden door, which reveals a moving image of our expand-
ing universe when you peer through the keyhole.