How do we live when crises compound? Yesterday like today / Ayer cómo hoy is a poignant solo exhibition by Elmer Guevara that collapses time and space into dramatic paintings of unrest and upheaval. Layered with raging fires and warm California light, each work captures a tension between danger and mundanity, peering into the ways people cope amid chaos.

Guevara was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, the neighborhood where his parents settled after fleeing civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s. When the police officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted in 1992, people took to the streets, and riots spurred looting and arson. These tumultuous and violent events backdropped much of Guevara’s childhood, and in this body of work, they converge into scenes of destruction and quietude.

“Couple Hours after 3:15pm” references the time the officers’ acquittal was announced and depicts a man seated in front of a vintage, white Volkswagen Beetle while a fire rips through the neighborhood. With a pointed finger and relaxed pose, the figure mimics the theatrical subject of Domenico Fetti’s “Portrait of a Man with a Sheet of Music” (1620), a vanitas piece that speaks to the vacuousness of material possessions. Guevara’s re-interpretation includes his signature newsprint, this issue featuring King’s harrowing experience front and center.

As the artist reflects on the relationship between personal story and collective trauma, he incorporates many of his family members in the series. His mother, for example, appears at her kitchen table with a bottle of Coca-Cola and a newspaper spread out in front of her as she points to the main story of rioters taking over the city. Like others in his paintings, she is both deeply aware of the turmoil that surrounds her and calm in disposition, exemplifying the all-too-relatable need to soldier on amid anxiety and heartbreak.

Yesterday like today / Ayer cómo hoy is on view through December 6 at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles. Find more from Guevara on his website and Instagram.