Myth of Origin
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles
California State University Northridge (CSUN)
2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles
California State University Northridge (CSUN)
2025
Exhibition open August 25–November 6, 2025
Opening reception: Thursday, September 11 from 5:00- 7:30pm
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles explores the city’s multifaceted neighborhoods, landscapes, and cultural histories through the work of seven Los Angeles-based artists. Each artist has built deep personal connections to the neighborhoods and corridors they chronicle. Their works challenge the Western colonial idea of mapping, a system dominated by occupying or state-sanctioned agencies. These artists seize the power to document and share the history of this city through the lens of their own, everyday experiences living here. They demonstrate that “mapping” can take many forms – moving beyond a flat, static representation to a multi-dimensional record of the city.
The artists and their works in the exhibition reflect the diversity of Los Angeles. Their works range from the representational to abstract, from the two to three dimensional, and are created with a variety of materials. They depict numerous neighborhoods and geographical features throughout the region and capture traces of the many people who have traversed these places. They mark not only the city’s surfaces, but survey the many forms of layers that lie underneath it – such as histories of migration, governmental policies, and environmental change. Contrary to colonial mapping which requires distilling a site to a flat system of symbols, the exhibition artists’ works are acts of accumulation. They not only dig through the physical changes that have occurred in Los Angeles over time, but also unearth the cultural and psychological shifts that have also built some of the many communities that are here today.
Artists: Fía Benitez, Aaron Douglas Estrada, Vincent Enrique Hernandez, Erick Medel, Debra Scacco, Pamela Smith Hudson, Marisela Norte.
This exhibition was curated by Holly Jerger, CSUN Art Galleries Director. The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication and Louise Lewis. Additional support provided by the Instructionally Related Activities Committee and Arts Council for CSUN.
Discovering a distant relative’s grave in Calvary Cemetery (East Los Angeles) sparked this new series of paintings by Fía Benitez. Titled Myth of Origin, this body of work investigates how the colonial past continues to shape the present—through land ownership, resource extraction, and intergenerational memory. Benitez mined public and personal archives, gathering family photos and images of historical maps, documents, and objects from museum collections which she translated into oil paintings. Together, the paintings function as a conceptual timeline of her paternal family’s trajectory from Europe to the United States to Tabasco, Mexico, and her own eventual move to Los Angeles.
View press release.
Press
Fía Benitez considers place and painting in Myth of Origin at CSUN Art Galleries, 4N Blog, 2025
CalArtians Featured in CSUN Exhibition ‘The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles’, 24700, 2025
CSUN Art Exhibits to Focus on Los Angeles, Place and People, CSUN Newsroom, 2025
CSUN Art Exhibits to Focus on Los Angeles, Place and People, San Fernando Sun, 2025
CSUN Art Exhibits to Focus on Los Angeles, Place, People, SCV News, 2025
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Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
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Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
![]()
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
![]()
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
![]()
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
![]()
Double-headed snake, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Ceramic vessel of double-headed snake from Colima, Mexico (200 BCE-500 CE), retrieved from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection
24 x 40 x 1.75 in.
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Mask, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Stone mask from Teotihuacan, Mexico (500-800 CE), retrieved from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection
30 x 24 x 1.75 in.
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A literary pursuit, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Confidential letter written on January 18, 1803 from Thomas Jefferson to Congress requesting $2,500 to fund the Lewis and Clark expedition aiding the United States’ western expansion (1803)
30 x 24 x 1.75 in.
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Louisiana Purchase, 2025
Oil on canvas; Louisiana Purchase, 1803. Florida Purchase, 1819., McConnell's historical maps of the United States (Chicago, Ill.: McConnell Map Co, 1919), retrieved from the Library of Congress
18 x 24 x 1 in.
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La Esperanza, 2025
Oil on canvas; Finca La Esperanza/El Porvenir in Chiltepec, Tabasco, Mexico, land parcel map (c. 1960-70s) retrieved from real estate listing
22 x 28 x 1.5 in.
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Beloved brother, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Family grave in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, CA, iPhone photograph captured on site (2025)
24 x 30 x 1.75 in.
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1950, 2025
Oil on canvas; New York Military Academy, Firthcliffe, New York (1950), digital scan of print photograph from family archives
30 x 24 x 1.75 in.
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Terra 123, 2025
Oil on canvas; Pemex’s Terra 123 oil well fire in Nacajuca, Tabasco, Mexico on October 27, 2013, retrieved from Milenio News Group (2014)
24 x 30 x 1.75 in.
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Century 21, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Finca La Esperanza/El Porvenir in Tabasco, Mexico, aerial photograph retrieved from real estate listing (2024)
24 x 30 x 1.75 in.
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Paisaje Tabasco 1, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Las Palmeras beach in Frontera, Tabasco, Mexico, digital photograph from family archives (2024)
16 x 20 x 1 in.
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Paisaje Tabasco 2, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Las Palmeras ranch in Frontera, Tabasco, Mexico, digital photograph from family archives (2024)
16 x 20 x 1 in.
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Paisaje Tabasco 3, 2025
Oil on wood panel; Las Palmeras ranch in Frontera, Tabasco, Mexico, digital photograph from family archives (2024)
16 x 20 x 1 in.
![]()
El Nopal, 2025
Oil on wood panel; View of livestock pen in El Nopal ranch, Centla, Tabasco, Mexico (c. 1960-80), digital scan of print photograph from family archives
6.5 x 12 x 1.75 in.
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Exhibition postcard
Opening reception: Thursday, September 11 from 5:00- 7:30pm
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles explores the city’s multifaceted neighborhoods, landscapes, and cultural histories through the work of seven Los Angeles-based artists. Each artist has built deep personal connections to the neighborhoods and corridors they chronicle. Their works challenge the Western colonial idea of mapping, a system dominated by occupying or state-sanctioned agencies. These artists seize the power to document and share the history of this city through the lens of their own, everyday experiences living here. They demonstrate that “mapping” can take many forms – moving beyond a flat, static representation to a multi-dimensional record of the city.
The artists and their works in the exhibition reflect the diversity of Los Angeles. Their works range from the representational to abstract, from the two to three dimensional, and are created with a variety of materials. They depict numerous neighborhoods and geographical features throughout the region and capture traces of the many people who have traversed these places. They mark not only the city’s surfaces, but survey the many forms of layers that lie underneath it – such as histories of migration, governmental policies, and environmental change. Contrary to colonial mapping which requires distilling a site to a flat system of symbols, the exhibition artists’ works are acts of accumulation. They not only dig through the physical changes that have occurred in Los Angeles over time, but also unearth the cultural and psychological shifts that have also built some of the many communities that are here today.
Artists: Fía Benitez, Aaron Douglas Estrada, Vincent Enrique Hernandez, Erick Medel, Debra Scacco, Pamela Smith Hudson, Marisela Norte.
This exhibition was curated by Holly Jerger, CSUN Art Galleries Director. The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication and Louise Lewis. Additional support provided by the Instructionally Related Activities Committee and Arts Council for CSUN.
Discovering a distant relative’s grave in Calvary Cemetery (East Los Angeles) sparked this new series of paintings by Fía Benitez. Titled Myth of Origin, this body of work investigates how the colonial past continues to shape the present—through land ownership, resource extraction, and intergenerational memory. Benitez mined public and personal archives, gathering family photos and images of historical maps, documents, and objects from museum collections which she translated into oil paintings. Together, the paintings function as a conceptual timeline of her paternal family’s trajectory from Europe to the United States to Tabasco, Mexico, and her own eventual move to Los Angeles.
View press release.
Press
Fía Benitez considers place and painting in Myth of Origin at CSUN Art Galleries, 4N Blog, 2025
CalArtians Featured in CSUN Exhibition ‘The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles’, 24700, 2025
CSUN Art Exhibits to Focus on Los Angeles, Place and People, CSUN Newsroom, 2025
CSUN Art Exhibits to Focus on Los Angeles, Place and People, San Fernando Sun, 2025
CSUN Art Exhibits to Focus on Los Angeles, Place, People, SCV News, 2025
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
Myth of Origin (installation view), 2025
The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
Double-headed snake, 2025Oil on wood panel; Ceramic vessel of double-headed snake from Colima, Mexico (200 BCE-500 CE), retrieved from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection
24 x 40 x 1.75 in.
Mask, 2025Oil on wood panel; Stone mask from Teotihuacan, Mexico (500-800 CE), retrieved from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection
30 x 24 x 1.75 in.
A literary pursuit, 2025Oil on wood panel; Confidential letter written on January 18, 1803 from Thomas Jefferson to Congress requesting $2,500 to fund the Lewis and Clark expedition aiding the United States’ western expansion (1803)
30 x 24 x 1.75 in.
Louisiana Purchase, 2025Oil on canvas; Louisiana Purchase, 1803. Florida Purchase, 1819., McConnell's historical maps of the United States (Chicago, Ill.: McConnell Map Co, 1919), retrieved from the Library of Congress
18 x 24 x 1 in.
La Esperanza, 2025Oil on canvas; Finca La Esperanza/El Porvenir in Chiltepec, Tabasco, Mexico, land parcel map (c. 1960-70s) retrieved from real estate listing
22 x 28 x 1.5 in.
Beloved brother, 2025Oil on wood panel; Family grave in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, CA, iPhone photograph captured on site (2025)
24 x 30 x 1.75 in.
1950, 2025Oil on canvas; New York Military Academy, Firthcliffe, New York (1950), digital scan of print photograph from family archives
30 x 24 x 1.75 in.
Terra 123, 2025Oil on canvas; Pemex’s Terra 123 oil well fire in Nacajuca, Tabasco, Mexico on October 27, 2013, retrieved from Milenio News Group (2014)
24 x 30 x 1.75 in.
Century 21, 2025Oil on wood panel; Finca La Esperanza/El Porvenir in Tabasco, Mexico, aerial photograph retrieved from real estate listing (2024)
24 x 30 x 1.75 in.
Paisaje Tabasco 1, 2025Oil on wood panel; Las Palmeras beach in Frontera, Tabasco, Mexico, digital photograph from family archives (2024)
16 x 20 x 1 in.
Paisaje Tabasco 2, 2025Oil on wood panel; Las Palmeras ranch in Frontera, Tabasco, Mexico, digital photograph from family archives (2024)
16 x 20 x 1 in.
Paisaje Tabasco 3, 2025Oil on wood panel; Las Palmeras ranch in Frontera, Tabasco, Mexico, digital photograph from family archives (2024)
16 x 20 x 1 in.
El Nopal, 2025Oil on wood panel; View of livestock pen in El Nopal ranch, Centla, Tabasco, Mexico (c. 1960-80), digital scan of print photograph from family archives
6.5 x 12 x 1.75 in.
Exhibition postcard