Alecks Cruz : Redemption

For Immediate Release

Alecks Cruz : Redemption
January 11 - March 1, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 11, from 6pm - 10pm.

Chicago, IL [December 16, 2013] Maxwell Colette Gallery is pleased to present Redemption, new sculptures from the Chicago-based artist Alecks Cruz. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.

Alecks Cruz is, at his core, a lettersmith. He explores the composition of individual letters and the unique beauty that each character has to offer. For his large-scale letterform sculptures, Cruz utilizes discarded cardboard shipping boxes as his materials. He focuses on the structural form of individual graffiti style letters, creating a framework for finer detail; embellishment with marquetry-style geometric panels fashioned from sections of the box’s printing. The three dimensional sculptures are meant to be viewed from all angles, and range in height up to three feet tall. Redemption will feature the debut of six new sculptures. With regard to the title of this body of work, Cruz states “just as graffiti art was forged out of penury into an eloquent art, I chose to redeem abandoned materials.” The fusion of classic style lettering and repurposed materials creates works that, in this case, are not merely crafty updates of throw-back visuals.

These pieces, fashioned out of redeemed cardboard, are Cruz’s personal reaction to the co-opting of graffiti by external forces. Through the act of slicing the cardboard's printed branding and commercial typography, destroying it, and ultimately reconfiguring it into a graffiti based form, Cruz is able to exact a measure of revenge for the distasteful marketing that threatens to reduce graffiti to cliche. 

About the Artist: Alecks Cruz was born in Chicago, IL in 1984 and currently lives in Berwyn, IL. Alecks works within the realm of graffiti art, creating pieces that are unbound by a single dimension. Although he started with a spray can as most graffiti artists do, Alecks now focuses on creating three-dimensional graffiti letters that extend outside the traditional application of the art but retain the stylistic essence of the art form. Alecks is a self-taught artist and graphic designer who was the winner of the Chicago Cut & Paste Characterized competition in 2013 and Chicago's 2011 Fringe Festival design contest.

Opening November 9th: Sidewalk Scholar

For Immediate Release

Mario Gonzalez Jr. : Sidewalk Scholar
November 09 - December 31, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 09, from 6pm - 10pm

Chicago, IL [October 01, 2013]- Maxwell Colette Gallery is pleased to present Sidewalk Scholar, a solo exhibition of new work from Mario Gonzalez Jr. The show will present large-scale mixed media paintings on wood along from the noted Chicago painter. The exhibit is slated to run from November 09 - December 31, 2013 with an opening reception on Saturday, November 09 from 6 - 10pm.

Gonzalez’s paintings have been described as abstract, but they are far more interested in realities than abstractions. A comparison may be drawn with the loose spontaneity of Asian calligraphy as these works are conceived in the mind’s eye and executed with the swiftness of thought. But the true inspiration for the bold, sinuous forms that inhabit Gonzalez’s paintings are street glyphs, painted with rollers by gang members in the sixties and seventies. These primal markings were intended as signposts for an urban sub-culture but they ended up inspiring the international graffiti culture that would follow. For Gonzalez, who grew up in a world emblazoned with these markings, Sidewalk Scholar is an opportunity to re-contextualize these cryptic runes from the past, and to redirect their energies. Gonzalez’s paintings are shot through with a powerful sense of place, presenting stunned memories of archaic street symbols, objectified and distilled down to their true visual essence.

About the Artist: Mario Gonzalez Jr.’s artistic vision comes from the fusion of fine art training at SAIC plus twenty years of graffiti practiced on global streets. In 2013 Gonzalez has seen his work exhibited in a number of museums including MIIT in Turino, Italy, The National Mexican Museum in Chicago and The Chicago Cultural Center. Sidewalk Scholar is the first solo exhibition for Mario Gonzalez Jr. at Maxwell Colette Gallery. Further information may be found on his website: www.mariogonzalezjr.com. 

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