Christopher Suarez

Christopher Suarez’s ceramic cars and buildings show the urban landscape as a reflection of his upbringing in Southern California. For several years he has made ceramic replicas of small brick-and-mortar businesses that pay homage to his hometown of Long Beach, California, where he continues to live and work. The artist inscribes his works with details carefully copied from local architectural forms. These rectangular structures point to the influence of the generations of Mexican immigrants who, like his father and maternal grandfather, have settled in Long Beach over the past century. Suarez’s miniatures also call attention to the businesses themselves—family-owned donut shops, carnicerías, bodegas, and restaurants—as evidence of the efforts of their owners to establish foundations in the country to which they immigrated.

Christopher Suarez (b. 1994, Long Beach, California) received a BFA from California State University, Long Beach, in 2020. His work has been exhibited at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (2023); Elizabeth Holden Gallery, Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, North Carolina (2022); Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles (2022); and 639 S. La Brea, Los Angeles (2021). He was an artist-in-residence at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (2022), and Township10.