REGINALD ARMSTONG

Los Angeles-based artist Reginald Armstrong.

The works presented in Going Postal center on two paintings Reginald Armstrong made during the pandemic. They continue to draw on his theme of street-working people, where he juxtaposes bullet-proof vests and guns on his subjects. Each of these works digs into the idea of empowering the workers we see on the daily basis that are often underappreciated.

“The 2 postal service workers’ paintings for the exhibition allow the viewers to live in my world in where the normal USPS worker was the focus and in power. During the pandemic and 2020 elections, there was talk about voter fraud and suspicion that Trump was going to control ballets by suppressing our mail. I had never once considered the thought that our mail and the money funding the USPS was at risk. With that in thought, I felt it was important to make images that reflected the times and the importance of having our rights and freedoms protected. The images served as a time in history like no other; masked, armed, and vested USPS workers, and variations of colors for the postal service symbol creates the narrative of a more politicized scenario in which the viewer is left to consider if this is about choosing a side or merely about freedoms imposed on all of us”.

Reginald W. Armstrong is a Los Angeles-based artist born 1984 in West Berlin of Panamanian descent and raised in El Paso, Texas along the US-Mexico border. Armstrong received his BFA in fine art from the University of Texas, El Paso in 2012, with a focus in painting and sculpture. He has exhibited widely in the Western United States with exhibitions in Texas and California. In addition to his art practice, he has curated numerous exhibitions of artwork by his contemporaries. His work has been featured in The El Paso Times and Vanity Fair