Einar & Jamex de la Torre: La Obra

La Obra is the first of two catalogs representing Einar and Jamex de la Torre's exhibition, Fall of Empire, which was held at Cal State Fullerton's Main Art Gallery in the spring of 2005. La Obra focuses on the artwork from the exhibition, along with essays by Cal State Fullerton Glass Program Director and exhibition curator John Leighton, and Cal State Fullerton Main Art Gallery Director Mike McGee. Fall of Empire was an exhibition in two parts: a sampling of the artists' artworks from the past ten years, and a site specific installation that provides a humorous and, at times, critical comment on the declined and declining empires – both historical and contemporary. To describe their own work, the de la Torre brothers have said, ""As Mexican-American bicultural artists, we are on the one hand influenced by the morbid humor of Mexican folk art, the absurd pageantry of Catholicism, and machismo; on the other hand, we are equally fascinated by the American culture of excess: its pornographic materialism, its blow-up doll aesthetic, and most of all, its lingering Puritanism.