In this new summer exhibition, artist Adrian Arias imagines a post-apocalyptic and synthetic world only mere decades from now. In the year 2086, civilization has changed tremendously. An enormous island-continent made of plastic has arrived to the coast of California. The land form contains an entity called “The Lost Library,” a series of altered books, totems, and strange manufactured packages that represent customs and a mythology acquired during the time when plastic was born, grew, and expanded across the planet to the point of changing the world both socially and culturally. This exhibition contains altered books, “sustenance” packages, totems, and large photographs that evoke a world of secrets and allegories. The opening reception features a performance by La Tania.

 

In 2010, Arias was an artist-in-residence at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, where "Beautiful Trash" was first conceived conceptually with a series of objects and ephemeral art pieces. He used found objects to recycle its content and purpose, creating boxes, book objects, clothes, doors, drawings, and photographs as a result. The finished project at Galeria de la Raza also coincides with a book release BT: The Lost Library , about the futuristic vision in art and society.