October 16, 2025
Alfonso Gonzalez Jr.
No Parking
Matthew Brown Gallery
September 19 - October 29, 2025

Alfonso Gonzalez Jr.
In Los Angeles, it is commonplace to walk by a parked vehicle and wonder how long it has been there or why it is not ticketed even though there is a visible no parking sign right beside it. The car or truck could be ancient and dilapidated, or shiny and new, or even hidden under a blanket. Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. examines the personalities of these vehicles in No Parking, while painting them in situ with a sign painter's skill and capturing them in their surroundings. Ten paintings are butted together and span two walls to create a long L-shaped mural. Gonzalez Jr. leaves a white border at the bottom of each work on which he sprays black or red lines with drips that cascade down the surface. This undulating line ties the paintings together, making them in essence one work, while simultaneously linking them back to the street.
Many of the pieces are titled with Latin American names or places, but only Azteca Pet Shop (2023) duplicates what is depicted in the image. In this work, Gonzalez Jr. crops in on a street where a van painted with a green-yellow-orange-red-green gradient is parked. The van is pictured in front of a tan building filled with a mural depicting a red, yellow and blue parrot perched on a light green tree branch. The van is also decorated with a red and green bird, as well as two stylized dogs and topped with brightly colored structures that resemble bird-houses. This painting is positioned between Tocco (2025), an image of a burned-out Porsche abandoned at the beach suggesting a relic of the Palisades fire and Flores (2022-2025), a light brown pick-up truck scrawled with graffiti whose bed is filled with plywood and other construction materials. This truck is pictured at sunset, the sky cast with a purple-orange glow. It is parked in front of a one-hour parking sign on a nondescript street lined with palm trees and a church as a cross pierces the sky along the right edge of the work.
Although no people are depicted, the cars and trucks, as well as their locations exude different personalities. The backgrounds are filled with murals and signage. The vehicles, although now abandoned, are adorned with stickers or loaded down with personal belongings.
As the vehicle paintings fill the back gallery, the front spaces also contain works with a no parking theme. In Towed Away (2025), Gonzalez Jr. presents a found and altered no parking sign that proclaims unauthorized vehicles will be towed at owners expense and pictures a white tow truck hauling away a fancy car. He also presents inventive parking barriers. These geometric piles, though covered in dirt that partially obscure the words and symbols for 'no parking' become intriguing minimalist forms and sculptures.
There is both humor and empathy in Gonzalez Jr.'s installation. He is an astute observer and skilled painter who has captured an aspect of Los Angeles that is visible to all, often overlooked, and cast aside.
Click here for Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. on its own page.