My Mirrors

Pepe Mar
December 5, 2006 - January 31, 2007

David Castillo Gallery is proud to present the solo exhibition of Pepe Mar, My Mirrors.  Mar has created an installation incorporating many of the elements & themes recognized as part of his self-standing three-dimensional collage figures.  While the three-dimensional figures still take center stage for the artist, the installation offers several innovations on the sensibilities of consumer cultural criticism, using not only new media but also new modes of installing collage, altering viewer perceptions of his work till now.

 

As ever, the artist’s work gives a visual reference to a profound artifice in our culture. His work incorporates camp & violence at the same time, in an effort to continuously explore the mutations of color & form in his almost human & simultaneously monstrous creations.  As self-portraits each piece reflects important elements of the artist’s work & life: idle shopping & constant construction.  Using the entire project space, Mar has created a land of escapism, a cut-up critique.  The excitement here will be both to experience the new works now familiar to us but also to experience his use of the space to create another dimension altogether.

 

Expressing a hybrid of emotions, Mar’s artwork is equally informed by fashion as it is by the aggressive elements of scavenging.  The tragic vigorousness of his work reveals both a playful aspect & a chilling reminder of all that is left behind in our daily life that makes up his work.

 

Pepe Mar was born in Mexico and lives & works in Miami, Florida.  He received his BFA from California College of Arts (CCA), San Francisco, in 2001.  His work has been exhibited at venues throughout Miami including Locust Projects, the Moore Space, and Art Basel Miami Beach, and recently his solo show in New York at Freight + Volume Gallery.  Upcoming exhibitions include a group show at Braunstein/Quay Gallery in San Francisco in March 2007, CCA at 100: Alumni Looking Forward.  Mar’s artwork has appeared in the New York Times, Artnews, Art in America, Art + Auction, ArtNexus, the Artnewspaper, and Artnet.

Pepe Mar