Beyond the Fast Lane: Ricardo Rodriguez-Long's Contemplative Art at DeMar Gallery

Santa Monica’s Hidden Gem Showcases Work by Surrealist Painter

In a city that moves at breakneck speed, Ricardo Rodriguez-Long’s paintings at DeMar Art Gallery offer something increasingly rare: an invitation to pause, reflect, and discover what lies beneath the surface of our accelerated lives.

Surrealist painting by Ricardo Rodriguez-Long displayed at DeMar Art Gallery in Santa Monica

“I believe we need to stop, to slow down a bit,” says Rodriguez-Long, whose work is currently featured in a multi-artist exhibition at the intimate Santa Monica gallery through December 28. “We are living in a very high-speed world, and we are forgetting some important lessons about ourselves and our well being.”

It’s a philosophy that might surprise those familiar with Rodriguez-Long‘s public persona as host of the Garage Latino Show. For over four decades, he’s been immersed in the automotive industry—a world defined by horsepower, velocity, and constant forward motion. Yet his artistic practice reveals a quieter, more contemplative side of a man who has spent his career chronicling speed.

The paintings on display at DeMar Gallery showcase Rodriguez-Long’s signature surrealist style: fragmented humanoid figures navigating dreamlike architectural spaces rendered in saturated, almost Mediterranean color palettes. In works like “Eye on the Wall,” a colorful geometric figure moves through layers of perspective—from dark interior spaces toward luminous horizons—while a golden eye symbol watches from the shadows. The piece suggests consciousness itself as a journey through thresholds, always observed, always seeking light.

“My work is meant to provoke your emotions, and hopefully take you into a path of discovery,” Rodriguez-Long explains. It’s visual poetry that activates what he calls “the unconscious minds of his audience”—abstract explorations of human mysteries within surreal environments.

The artist’s background reads like a Renaissance man’s resume. After studying at prestigious institutions including Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and Otis-Parsons in Los Angeles, Rodriguez-Long began exhibiting in 1980. Forum Magazine selected him as upcoming “Future Talent” in 1982, and later that year he became the first Hispanic artist to have a solo photography show at LAPC. His work has appeared in publications across Japan, Spain, Australia, and the United States.

But it’s his unique position straddling two worlds—the mechanical precision of automotive journalism and the intuitive freedom of surrealist painting—that makes his artistic voice so distinctive. Where his professional life demands facts, specifications, and objective analysis, his paintings invite subjective interpretation and emotional response.

The exhibition at DeMar Art Gallery (11321 Iowa Ave, Suite 3, Santa Monica) runs through December 28, offering Los Angeles collectors a chance to acquire work from an artist whose dual careers have given him a unique perspective on speed, stillness, and the space between. For those seeking art that challenges rather than decorates, Rodriguez-Long’s contemplative canvases offer exactly what our overscheduled city needs: permission to stop, look, and discover.