Souther Salazar Unveils 'Alejandro and the Idea Machine' for the Subliminal Projects Crowd at Pattern Recognition

See more of Ivan Fernandez's photos in "'Pattern Recognition' Opens at Subliminal Projects Gallery."

Saturday night, Subliminal Projects Gallery in Echo Park hosted a packed-to-the-walls opening reception for its latest group exhibit, Pattern Recognition, featuring the work of artists Seonna Hong, Nikki McClure, Richard Colman, Dalek and Souther Salazar. The show's theme follows the diverse patterns found in each artist's work such as the crossroad where humanity and nature meet in Hong's paintings, Dalek's colorful geometric designs and McClure's detailed paper cuts. Salazar's "Alejandro and the Idea Machine" was the hit of the night. The life-size, mixed media marvel was a favorite of young and old alike and was under a constant barrage of camera flashes.

Ivan Fernandez

"When I was a little kid," he explained, "I used to go with my parents afterhours to help out with their janitorial business where they would clean industrial buildings. I'd go to this one high tech industrial place and dig out all the wires, circuit boards and pieces of machines, took them home and made fake machines out of them."

Salazar spent most of the year working on "Alejandro" with some help from his fiance. The installation incorporates a variety of objects, including plastic grocery tabs, guitar picks and a dozen light bulbs reincarnated as hot air balloons.

"People look at my work and think it's fun to look at but it's not always fun to create it," he admitted. "I could be stuck on a piece and struggling on it for days but when I get past it and figure out what that piece needed to be, it's a really good feeling. I'm willing to go through it again because I know that I'll be so happy with the end result."

Ivan Fernandez

Ivan Fernandez