Shizu Saldamando

Sandra and Tammy, Hollywood Forever

Based in Los Angeles, Shizu Saldamando was born in San Francisco, CA to parents of Japanese-American and Mexican-American heritage. Saldamando’s practice is based in autobiography wherein all her sitters are friends or people from events she attends. She depicts important figures of Los Angeles’ Latinx, activist, queer, and punk communities.

This work is a portrait of an evening Saldamando spent with two friends. The painting speaks to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century picnic scenes of artists like Edouard Manet and George Seurat. Saldamando’s scene prioritizes the relationship of the two women. Their comfort with one another takes precedence over the desire to be looked at by others. The small tufts of grass and visible woodgrain create a sparse landscape. The figures are simultaneously rooted on this suggested ground and suspended in the space of a fond memory.