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Carlos Torres has never wavered in his conquest for talented tattooers to be recognized with the same respect and professionalism as their fine art counterparts. After five successful annual art shows, he realized that in order to continue forging ahead, he first had to reflect back and pay homage to the innovative tattoogiants who laid the groundwork for which he and so many others cut their teeth on.
“Throughout the years, I've always added something different,” Torres says.” For year six, I just wanted to bring it back to [our] roots and where [we] started from — make the art show based around tattooing.”
Thus, “Caste Shadows” was born.
The newly-minted gallery series — named as a play on words that highlights both aspects of Torres’ aspirations — debuts this fall with the legendary Freddy Negrete as the first honored guest and collaborator. Hailed as a pioneer in the world of black and gray tattooing, Negrete first popularized his Chicano-style illustrations in the Southern California prisons before introducing it to the masses of East Los Angeles and beyond in the 1970s.
This first installment of Caste Shadows will be appropriately themed “Smile Now, Cry Later” after the iconic dual-mask imagery that Negrete brought to the forefront of his foundational artwork.
“I was actually going through a magazine and I saw a little ad for an acting workshop,” Negrete says. “There was a comedy [and] tragedy [mask] right there. I got those faces and redid them in my style, and wrote ‘Smile Now, Cry Later.’ We mailed it to prisons everywhere. Everybody wrote home [with it]. It got very popular.”
Participating artists were asked to ruminate on their own interpretations of duality, Chicano culture, and what it means to be a part of the tattoo community.
Watch the full interview with Carlos Torres and Freddy Negrete below.
Caste Shadows, presented by The Raven and The Wolves, opens to the public on Saturday, October 19, 2024.