We are thrilled to invite you to join us this Friday, November 18th, for the opening of "Fresh Snow on Concrete", a solo show of new paintings and installation work from Mario Gonzalez Jr. This exhibition marks the artist's long awaited follow-up to his critically lauded 2013 Maxwell Colette Gallery show "Sidewalk Scholar".
The artist reception on Friday runs from 6-9pm and is open to the public. The show continues through December 31st.
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, his artistic practice 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. 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.
