By Brian Villalba
The art exhibit of Macha Suzuki embraces failure as a primary ingredient of success. In the artist’s walkthrough of “This is the End,” Saturday, Suzuki led attendees through the inspiration and artistic process of his entire collection at the Vincent Price Art Museum.
Macha’s work displayed at the VPAM is thoughtful and complex as he combines seemingly disparate parts into a single work to tell a story.
Macha includes failure as a necessary ingredient in success. Failure is implied in the titles of his work, such as “Nice try,” and “Permission to Fail.”
“Every time you fail, you are that much closer to success,” said Suzuki.
“Nice try,” is an archery target where all the arrows are as far away from the center of the target as possible without being off the target entirely.
“All that failure is perhaps more beautiful than if the arrow was in the bull’s-eye,” said Suzuki about “Nice Try.”
Suzuki includes humor to lighten his work. Some of the messages on their surface seem to have a negative sentiment, but the story told is done in lighter color and context.
“It reflects my personality to be light hearted with a serious message,” said Suzuki.
“Death and Rebirth,” expresses the beauty of how things have a beginning and an end.
From a flock of birds flying to children conspiring to exclude adults, Suzuki uses personal experiences as the inspiration for his work.
“His (Suzuki) work has a sense of humor but it is also haunting,” said Grace Kook-Anderson, the Curator of Contemporary art at the Laguna Art Museum.
“This is the End,” has been on display since Feb 8 and will be at the VPAM until April 25.