Artist Rachid Bouhamidi and arts writer Matthew Stromberg (Hyperallergic, LA Times), discuss the artist's current solo exhibition, Nuestro Pueblo: LA Landscapes by Rachid Bouhamidi. Somewhere between the dream of a sun drenched paradise topped with 40 foot palm trees and the dystopian nightmare of a veritable “asphalt province”, rife with congested roads and the stench of income inequality, Bouhamidi offers a personal account of the myriad places and people he encounters on his daily Metro LA commute between West Hollywood and North East Los Angeles. Nuestro Pueblo takes its name from Simon Rodia's chosen title for the Watts Towers. Bouhamidi's "Nuestro Pueblo., a homage to its namesake along with shout outs to Charles Mingus, Noah Purifoy, and Eric Dolphy, all seminal artists associated with Watts, is a centerpiece of the exhibition with its patterning derived from the interior of the towers. From plein air scenes highlighting the uneasy ecological balance between native and invasive flora set against the unnatural edifices of the city in places like Elysian Park and the sidewalks of Northeast LA to paintings interpreting the busy urban life of MacArthur park and Boyle Heights into a condensing of views weaving geometric patterns in to a form of hybrid realism, these 25 works constitute a painted ode to the artist’s hometown. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of social historian, urban theorist and activist, Mike Davis.