It is a true honor & great pleasure to announce my first solo exhibition happening at Crewest gallery in Los Angeles, CA. Opening reception Aug. 4, 2012 8 pm! Crewest has been at the forefront of showcasing works by graffiti writers, & has been ahead of the game in establishing this type of platform for graffiti art.
MYTHOGRAFF is the collection of myths. Werc's first solo show in Los Angeles, MYTHOGRAFF presents a continous exploration of myth culture, consumerism, rituals, archetypal language and design. Werc has been spraying for 20 years and has grown in a journey with the medium by exploring, and deconstructing the spray paint to reinvent his own practice. Traditionally in spray-painting it is all about "can control," by creating artwork that is precise, defined, and clean. This is evident in Werc's "Axis Mundi" series, where he pushes the boundaries of the medium by creating photo-realistic portraits. Through his exploration of refined definition, Werc explores the opposite spectrum of control. In the "Ojo de Dios" series Werc frees himself & the medium with a loose and unrefined spraying technique, where he allows the spraypaint to speak its natural language. Created with minimal immediate spray-paint strokes, the pieces are raw perceptual renditions refined by the eye of the viewer, not the medium.
The show will also feature Werc's classic style of multimedia collage, where he playfully re-appropriates commonly consumed logos to create new associations. In all of Werc's pieces there is a sense of magical realism, a hybrid existence of reality where there is a balance between the material world co-existing with the elements of the ethereal.
Werc
Werc was born in Ciudad Juarez, Ch. MX., and grew up in El Paso TX. Werc paints, collages and designs based on inspirations that come from urban & border culture, broad issues of labor, logos, symbols, and the nostalgic humor among immigrant cultures. He is specifically inspired by the creative informal economies of street vendors, and the archetypal language of design. In his paintings, he explores aspects of duality and the politics of identity, hunting and gathering documentation & found objects that later become part of his creations.
Werc's murals can be seen around southern California, and throughout the United States and Mexico. His studio-based works have been exhibited in numerous galleries, the Snite Museum, Museum of Monterrey, and are part of the Cheech Marin Chicano Art Collection.
