Enrique Chagoya
During November and December, George Adams Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Enrique Chagoya. Titled The Illegal Alien's Guide to Greater America, the exhibition explores the current controversy surrounding US borders, immigration and the status of the "illegal alien." The exhibition features six paintings and three large-scale drawings mounted on canvas, along with two new "codex" works on paper. This is the artist's fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.
In both his paintings and works on paper, Chagoya's rich hybrids of politics, history and pop culture are based on the tradition of editorial cartoons. With a biting blend of critique and humor, Chagoya proposes alternate histories or what he describes as "reverse anthropologies." For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesus and Mohammed appear as a triumvirate of ballerinas in the drawing Untitled (Burden of Freedom), while the painting Yesterday is Never Again, Today is Still Forever, with Thumper--as a rifle wielding soldier--and Bambi--as a janitor--comments on the current administration's modus operandi.
Two of the paintings feature a large curling wave, one rendered in black, the other red. In the black painting, a 1940's car converted into a boat rides the crest of the wave, a reference to Cuban immigration, while in the red painting, a muscleman with a John Wayne head stands defiantly beneath the breaking wave, a metaphor for a new brand of machismo man against nature.
Also included in the show and part of his on-going series of "codex" works based on Pre-Columbian books, Chagoya has produced two new "codices". Each book contains 14 pages, the largest to date. In The Illegal Alien's School of Art and Architecture, the palimpsest of painted, drawn, and collaged images wends a layered narrative of the history of art and architecture, including Superman being subdued by Assyrian warriors.
Born in Mexico City in 1953, Enrique Chagoya has lived in the United States since 1978. He currently resides in San Francisco, CA and is Associate Professor of Art and Art History at Stanford University. Chagoya received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984 and his MFA from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987. His work has been widely exhibited and is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, LA County Museum, and the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., among others. Currently, the Des Moines Art Center is organizing a retrospective, curated by Patricia Hickson, scheduled to open in the fall of 2007.
Checklist
Clockwise from Reception Desk:
1. Arcadian State, 2006
Arcrylic and water-based oil on canvas
60 x 80 inches
ECp 28
2. Liberty Club #1, 2006
Acrylic and water-based oil on canvas
60 x 80 inches
ECp 26
3. Liberty Club #2, 2006
Acrylic and water-based oil on canvas
60 x 80 inches
ECp 27
4. Untitled (The Burden of Freedom), 2006
Charcoal and pastel on paper mounted on canvas
60 x 60 inches
ECp 22
5. Untitled (Illegal Alien), 2006
Charcoal and pastel on paper mounted on canvas
60 x 60 inches
ECp 21
6. Untitled (Humpty Dumpty & Buddha), 2004-5
Charcoal and pastel on paper mounted on canvas
60 x 60 inches
ECp 29
7. Ayer es Nunca Jamais, Hoy es Siempre Todavia, 2006
Translation: Yesterday is Never Again, Today is Still Forever
Acrylic and water-based oil on canvas
60 x 80 inches
ECp 25
Front Window:
Untitled (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), 2004
Charcoal and pastel on paper mounted on canvas
60 x 60 inches
ECp 17
Drawing Gallery
Clockwise from South Wall:
8. Those Specks of Dust, 2006
printmaking ink on paper
47 3/4 x 34 1/2 inches
ECr 34
9. Illegal Alien's Guide to Philosophical Thinking, 2006
water-based oil, ink, transfers on amate
11 1/2 x 106 3/4 inches
ECd 55
10. Liberty, 2006
printmaking ink on paper
34 1/2 x 47 3/4 inches
ECr 35
11. Illegal Alien's School of Art and Architecture, 2006
water-based oil, ink, transfers on amate
11 3/4 x 112 inches
ECd 54