Yesterday’s Tomorrow – Zachary Benson Friedberg

Zachary Benson Friedberg hits the walls of La Luz de Jesus Gallery again this winter for the newest showcase of paintings titled “Yesterday’s Tomorrow”, featuring a collection of iconic mid-century buildings that have been demolished. Friedberg acknowledges the nostalgia for the disappearing architecture of Googie style diners across Southern California by mixing them with sci-fi elements to celebrate their optimistic vision of the future. As if to suggest, instead of being torn down for new, drab, and homogenous development, they had been transported to another dimension, servicing weary travelers until the next lightyear. In this newest body of work, Friedberg presents the mid-century modern buildings with a deliberate absence of aliens and humans, allowing the diners to imagine themselves as the figurative presence. This liminality is iconically and uniquely playful. By taking inspiration from artists like Hiroshi Nagai, Friedberg imagines alternate realities that evoke both nostalgia and futuristic idealism.