A Subjective Review of Juan Luna-Avin’s Long Hair and Double-Sided Pareidolia

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” - Dr. Cesar A. Cruz

On the Surface

For those of you who may have walked by the Visual Arts Building recently, you may have noticed bold splashes of color from the windows of the building’s gallery. The gallery’s current exhibit is a visual portfolio of some of Juan Luna-Avin’s work (that’s available for sale!) titled Long Hair and Double-Sided Pareidolia. It is a free entry exposition and will continue to be on display until May 2, 2025. 

There is a wide variety of mediums in the exhibit: 3D displays and paintings galore. It is noted that Luna-Avin also used ‘junk materials’ like recycled paper and random cutouts from different forms of media. Most of the works are abstract portraits, but there are also wide collages of multiple features: various symbols, scribbles and doodles, side profiles, full faces with missing torsos, and miscellaneous body parts.

Poking Deeper

Truly, how can you not stand and stare inside the gallery when there are so many vibrant colors jumping out at you? However, these bright colors are not depicting the brightest era of recent history. I noticed that these works were initially started when COVID-19 was surfacing. I kept this in mind while I looked over each work. 

The works almost feel loud in their boldness: the seas of faces amidst doodles and scribbles. However, there is something interesting about this maximalist style. When it is put against a white backdrop, it feels quite whimsical and bright. When it is put against a darker background, the tone shifts to something sadder.   

The pandemic was a terrifying time for many: a time of great loss, of great grieving, and of great fear. These paintings are quite an accurate emotional depiction of this time period. Some of the facial profiles have tears, but most have blank faces. The most visible emotion throughout the subjects seems to be that of fear or even anguish. 

My favorite work has to be the side profile that has a torso attached separately on the right side of a 3D diorama. The torso, being made up of broken porcelain pieces attempting to be displayed together, leads down to a pair of unassuming shoes. COVID-19 broke the spirits of many Americans, and I think this depiction alone represents the entirety of what the pandemic felt like: people forced to break up their routines, self-isolating in panic as they watched more and more of their loved ones testing positive for COVID-19, and return to the world shortly after (never feeling the same again). There is much more to be said about the impact that COVID-19 had on the world, but Luna-Avin’s work is a testament to the disorder that emerged from such a tragedy, and the disorder that continues to the present day about five years later since the metaphorical ‘doomsday’ of COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Another favorite work of mine is towards the bottom of a wide collage of individual portraits/pieces of paper. It contains four quadrants, with each quadrant reminicist of x-ray results. These black and white side profiles reminded me deeply of the wide medical paranoia people were starting to experience. The great splotches of black caught my eye against the colorful palette of the exhibit. 

Final Thoughts 

At first glance, the abstract style made me reminisce on Pablo Picasso’s art. However, the comparison does Luna-Avin almost a disservice. There is something very beautiful about the art that is so interestingly fragmented, because it will not fit in any genre. It then becomes its own genre. Think of the commentary in a museum where people might reflect, “That painting looks like a Picasso!” I feel this differentiation is something that Luna-Avin does wonderfully. The beautifully chaotic style is distinguishable and memorable. I have visited the gallery a few times so far, and find that I am still discovering new hidden faces and people in each painting that I did not notice before. This is the kind of art that sticks with someone, the art that still allows you to discover more after the first glance. Maybe one day, we’ll get to a point where we’ll start hearing, “That painting looks like a Luna-Avin!”