Overpass

In 1974, Carlos David Almaraz came blazing onto the Los Angeles art scene along with his fellow Chicano artists Gilbert Lujan, Frank Romero, and Robert Delarocha in an exciting show of their work entitled "Los Four" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Almaraz became the most reknown of his peers and left the group to avoid the constriction of being labeled a Chicano artist.

The flaming car crash is perhaps the most enduring image in the oeuvre of Carlos Almaraz. In this firey snapshot, he captures both the car culture of Los Angeles, and the fugitive and fragile quality of life. In the present example, the burning, careening car is equal parts beauty and disaster. Carlos himself died tragically early at the age of 45 at the height of his career and family life.