OPENING RECEPTION FOR THE ARTISTS: SAT. SEPT. 28, 2013
"My work first starts from documenting the removals through photographs I capture in the streets. I then become 3 different characters, the construction worker who creates the wall, the vandal who defaces the property and the city employee who removes the graffiti. My work consists of multiple layers which are a reenactment of what is happening in our surroundings and all have a story and memory behind it. I try to give the viewer the opportunity to visualize and understand a movement that previously went untold and unnoticed by the general public."
"I am using a general, non specific cartoon character...meaning it sort of looks like Goofy, Mickey Mouse or Ren and Stimpy. I use certain components of those identifiable images and make them into abstractions, or a somewhat still-life of what those shapes can do. I use certain qualities of the curves, exaggerated eyes and big mouths to emphasize the duality of those compositions. There is a battle between the graphic figuration that is very familiar to us and what is familiar in painting."
"It starts with an inspiration, it can be virtually anything. I usually conceive a group of pieces as if it was a cast from a theater play; every character has a specific role in the story. For instance, this time I have been obsessed with the classic images of the circus and the 1930’s Tod Browning’s film “Freaks”. A heartbreaking story of the human dramas within a traveling circus. So my new group is taking a lot from this story, and from the circus world. I begin with a theme, a starting point; then it evolves by itself, opening new windows to other reflections and sources of inspirations. "
Mariana Monteagudo - Rag Family (2013)
Kiki Valdes - Ibex (2013)
Jel Martinez - Play the City (2011)
MAS (MIAMI ART SPACE) is a contemporary and innovative art space located in the heart of the Wynwood Art District and just west of Miami’s Design District. Developed to be a mixed use venue, MAS’s ample interior and exterior spaces welcome events of all sizes and types, and is only limited by one’s imagination. Inside you’ll find large bright spaces with soaring ceilings and cool contemporary touches. Outside enjoy over 7,000 sq. ft. of private/walled courtyards surrounded by lush bamboo gardens.
Jel Martinez examines the buff, where different methods in which graffiti and tags are covered over imbue his paintings with everyday visual realities from the street. Working on wood panels in his studio he instinctively replicates what happens over the history of a public wall. The result is a figureless expressionism that communicates through a multilayered use of texture, color, and shape that both obscures and highlights his use of surfaces.
Mariana Monteagudo’s dolls evoke images of childhood innocence and horror films, while channeling her obsessive vision through an intelligent use of color and meticulous detail. The illusionist landscape created by her dolls is one in which color moves us from one doll to another. In doing so, the viewer absorbs abstracted images of dolls, with colorful familiar bodies, topped by expressive and invitingly disturbing heads.
Kiki Valdes uses cartoon imagery as both a visual lure and guide, taking the viewer deeper into abstraction and communicating through overlapping colors and a transformative array of forms that reconcile recognizable popular imagery with post contemporary painting.
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