From Nintendo to Bernie Sanders, this exhibition explores identity and memory

Through more than 70 paintings, Rodrigo Angel Jimenez-Ortega explores the intersections of identity, memory and culture, blending influences from his upbringing in San Diego and Tijuana and the 21st-century digital culture. 

He is currently presenting “It Is What It Is,” his first solo exhibition at the Eastern Projects Gallery in Los Angeles, recognized for showcasing Latino art and upcoming Latino artists. 

The new series of oil paintings features imagery from video games, cartoons and internet culture, including Nintendo, Super Mario and Dragon Ball Z.

Apart from the digital fantasy paintings, the exhibition also includes oil paintings depicting a lived reality of things like culture, police brutality, resistance and even advocates for progressive movements like Bernie Sanders. 

A lived reality 

One of the largest paintings in the exhibition is of a June 2025 incident involving a 77-year-old Mexican American army veteran named Arturo Obrego, who, during the “No Kings" protest against ICE raids in Downtown L.A., was hit with a wooden baton by LAPD officers. 

The violent incident was widely shared on social media and criticized for the use of excessive force on an elderly man.

“[Obrego] was standing up to the [officer]. It was a very powerful and strong image and I wanted to paint a tribute to this scene and this moment,” Jimenez-Ortega told CALÓ News. 

While Jimenez-Ortega does not consider himself solely a political artist, several paintings in the exhibition engage directly with the images and rhetoric of today’s political news landscape. 

“The way things have been this past year and even leading up to the presidential election, there are things you can no longer ignore or avoid,” he said. “I feel like there's no point in shying away from [political] art, even though I don't think it's a defining part of my art practice, but it would be inauthentic for it not to show up in my art when I feel like I see it and engage with it so much.”

Identity

Jimenez-Ortega's art is also influenced by his upbringing and living on both sides of the Mexico and U.S. border. 

“As a kid, I was in Tijuana every week, visiting my family, cousins and my grandma. That shaped a lot of the media that I engaged with,” he said. “I was in Mexico, and I would turn on the TV, and I would see cartoon characters that were different from those in the U.S.” 

This media, in the form of cartoons and video games, makes up a big part of his paintings today. 

His current exhibition shows Jimenez-Ortega's comfortable fluidity in moving between video games and cartoon game characters like Sonic or Black Ops, El Chavo del Ocho and the Three Caballeros, as well as other paintings focusing on contemporary and real-life topics or incidents.

“My paintings are the byproducts of my examinations and research into Mexican and American history, the cultures I operate within and my day-to-day life,” he said. 

For Jimenez-Ortega, who is one of the first people in his family to be born north of the U.S.- Mexico border, family, memories and nostalgia are also a big influence on his art. 

Through his painting, he has recreated many family photographs or moments in his childhood that are dear to him, such as playing in his grandmother’s house in Tijuana or dressing up as Power Rangers with his cousins. 

In one of his paintings titled “Primos,” he paints how he and his cousins bonded as kids and how they bond today. The painting, which is divided into two, shows a top half that draws inspiration from a childhood photo taken when he and his cousin attended SeaWorld, something that he said is a common activity when living in San Diego. In the bottom half, the painting features him and his cousins' avatars in Warzone, Call of Duty.

“At the top is how we used to spend time together as kids and the bottom shows one way that we spend time now, as adults,” he said. 

Representation

Jimenez-Ortega received his bachelor's degree from San Diego State University and his master’s degree from Pratt Institute. He has exhibited in San Diego, Tijuana, Mexico City and New York City. He has also been featured on Saatchi Art’s “Rising Stars” list and completed a residency at Casa LU in Mexico City. 

When it comes to art and curated spaces, Jimenez-Ortega said he is grateful and proud to be part of the growing Latino artists community in L.A. and in the U.S. 

“Visibility is important, not just of Mexican culture, but also Latino culture in general because there will be people who identify with it,” he said.  

He also touched on the fact that Latino artists are significantly underrepresented in U.S. art museums. More than showcasing his work in museums, Jimenez-Ortega told CALÓ  News he wants to continue creating art that is of today's generation.  

“Growing up, especially when I started to look at art more seriously, there wasn't anything like Mexican art or Mexican American art in museums. There were French or American paintings,” he said. “Even when there was, it was often of [artists] like Diego Rivera or Frida Kahlo, and that is great, but it's also very old and it feels very specific to a time that's not ours.”

“It Is What It Is” will be on view at Eastern Projects Gallery from January 17 to February 28, 2026.

“It's most important to be making work even when there are no opportunities because you don't really ever know who's paying attention to what you do,” Jimenez-Ortega said when asked if he had any recommendations for upcoming Latinos. “Most importantly, make art that's interesting to you, genuinely. Whatever interests you and anything important to you will also be important to someone else.”