Physiciansoftenencounterpatientsduring timesofdistress. Moments when their bodies have been broken down by infection, disease, or unintentional injury. Sometimes simpleprescriptionsofmedication, exercise, ordietary changes can alleviate their maladies, but sometimes an illness can take anunexpected course, one that cannot be easily accounted foror controlled.This isparticularly true forneurological diseases,whosephysical symptomsmaymanifest in tandemwith the more abstract workings of the mind. Abstract may not be the first adjective we think of when considering the highly detailed work of Salomon Huerta (1965). Born in Tijuana, Mexico, and raised in the Boyle HeightsneighborhoodofeastLosAngeles,Huertagarneredhis artistic influence from the large-scale murals that decorated public spaces in his community. Thesewere painted by a previous generation of Chicano artists and featured civil rights leaders, inspiring scenes fromMexican history, and religious imagery. The realistic and figure-centric scenes would go on to informHuerta’sworkwhenheenrolled in theArtCenterCollege of Design in Pasadena, California, in 1989. Here he studied commercial illustration, but also began toproduce fine art meant for galleries. His first exhibitedworkswere small, intimate portraits of family members and neighbors. The receptionof his art, however,was often framed in termsof his identity as aChicanoor Latino artist. These categorical labelswere useful marketing terms for selling art, but limiting for artists who wanted to broaden their style, subject matter, and audience. Huerta attempted to blur these labels when he continued his education at UCLA, completing hismaster of fine arts degree in 1998. Citedasa technicallygiftedpainter,Huerta first gained recognition in theartworld forhismoreambiguouswork that featured the realistically rendered backs of men’s heads, posed against flat backgrounds.Thecanvases first beganas commentaryaboutracialprofiling, theproportionsmimickingmugshots that featured minorities. In 1990s Los Angeles it was a topical subject, considering the contentious relationship between the police force andminorities. The issue would come to national attention with the acquittal of police officers for the videotapedbeatingofRodneyKingand the subsequent riots. Focusing on the backs of heads allowedHuerta to remove all signifiers of identity, except race. Gender, age, clothes, accessories, tattoos, gait, and stance: all are hidden from view. He took the palette for his background colors (pinks, oranges, lime greens) frompopcultureandfashionadvertisements.YetHuerta found that this systematicconcealmentof traitsmadehis subjects less political. Instead, they became figures that resisted direct narratives and allowed the conjecture of viewers to run free. In Cabeza (Back of Head), a smooth, taught neck expands toacranial globebalanced resolutelybetween twoorbital ears. The carefully articulated buzz cut intersects with the light to create a subtle sunburst pattern. A scar is incised in the bottom left quadrant. The background is nondescript, but contrastswith the pale head to cut a stark outline. As viewers,we are tempted to assign quick labels such as young, male, white, and perhaps even more divisive terms like jarhead or skinhead. However, there is no complementary evidence to support these assertions. If the mind is allowed to wander more, we might conceive of some other allusions; a facedown cadaver, an alabaster linga, a Buddhist stupa, a domineering periscope steering a fleet or targeting an enemy, a blanched O’Keeffe skull cast against the blue New Mexico sky, an asceticmonk. In ourminds,we are far from the streets of Los Angeles, and our directions of thought can traverse all types of paths. Here, abstraction is not a style but a process that occurs within a viewer’s mind when he or she experiences Huerta’s work. This process is not unlike a clinical examination inwhich physicians can begin a diagnosis by observing phenotypic symptoms. It requires close observation and the agility to change direction if one hypothesis is proven wrong. The assessments of an image and of a patient aremeans to the same end: to reveal complexities that gobeyond thevisual. Andyet, unlike Huerta’s work, physicians direct their observations toward thegoal of a specificdiagnosis, andpatients arenot immutable or static objects. Particularly, in neurological terms, reliance on the visual can be problematic. Many disorders have no consistent outward symptoms, especially at their beginning stages. Headaches, dementia, sleep disorders are not conditions that can be “seen.” Other diseases rely on patients’ accounts of tactile symptoms like pain, tingling, numbness, tremors, or dizziness. These manifestations can be subtle, and oftenmore invasive testing may be needed to make a diagnosis. If we return to Cabeza (Back of Head), with a neurologist’s point of view, the ideaof concealmentpersists. Frustratingly, any type ofmovement is cut off from view, no twitches of theeye,or tremorsof the limbs.Anypainedexpressionshave been hidden by the simple gesture of turning away. Here we are presented with a mystery, a cranium that should somehow allude to the nervous system’s primary organ, but gives us simply a shape with no outward symbols of distress. It resembles a human stop sign, a protective shieldmeant to keep usout, or retain themysterybeyond its borders.Here, abstraction is not a process, but a literal fact preventing us from the freedom of conjecture allowed by art.