Found: The $4.99 thrift store painting that turned out to be a Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia original
By Carolina A. Miranda
September 3, 2015
Sean Riley, in his office at the Recording Academy, with Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia’s painting “Luchadora” hanging just over his shoulder. Riley paid $4.99 for the piece at a thrift shop in Reseda. (Brian Clasby / Sean Riley)
In late July, artist Javier Ramirez went to a thrift store in Reseda and spotted a somewhat surreal painting. The image of a little girl wearing what appeared to be a wrestling mask appealed to him so much he snapped a picture of it with his phone. But he didn’t buy the painting, even though it was priced at just $4.99.
What Ramirez didn’t know was that “Luchadora,” as the piece is called, is from the “Segundas” series of paintings created as part of a conceptual art project by Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia.
The Los Angeles artist’s work has appeared in galleries and museums all over California and beyond, but for the “Segundas” series, Hurtado makes art pieces inspired by thrift-store paintings — then he turns around and donates the paintings right back to random thrift stores to be sold for whatever the floor manager thinks it might draw. (Hurtado sells photographs of the paintings through his downtown gallery CB1, but never the paintings themselves.)
After I wrote about Hurtado’s thrift store series, Ramirez recognized the painting he’d seen in the Reseda thrift shop as one of the “Segundas” pieces.
He returned to the thrift store, this time with the intention of buying the painting, but it had been already sold. He nonetheless sent Hurtado the photo he’d snapped via Instagram.