Descripción de la Exposición
Castor Gallery presents Riot, an exhibition of paintings and charcoal drawings by Bilbao-based artist, Kepa Garraza. This show will be the artist's first solo exhibition with the gallery, featuring six oil paintings and six charcoal drawings on the ground level and lower level of the gallery. The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception from 7-9 pm on Thursday, May 12, 2016.
Kepa Garraza's debut New York exhibition presents a fictitious world of anarchistic protestors and vandalized artworks and institutions. Garraza focuses on the dramatized versions of social conflicts such as economic crisis, and the affect the economy has on the value of art.
Garraza's oil paintings depict the aftermath of rioters vandalizing some of the most recognizable works over the past couple of decades. The rioters have attacked prestigious institutions and artists in an attempt to destroy the contemporary art scene and art market. Garraza's drawings are dedicated to representing the activists in an intense chiaroscuro technique providing them anonymity and discretion. The artist creates a parallel reality through his art, drawing attention to the manipulation of imagery and information in media today. This viewer is forced to live in an uncertain world, full of relative truths. In each piece, the artist attempts to provoke the viewer into questioning what is truth and what is fiction, highlighting the media's influence over our perceptions of reality.
Garraza works solely in series, focusing on particular events in contemporary history that have been covered by the media extensively. The artist continues to comment on the dichotomy of true and false in his previous series including, IBDA (International Brigades for the Destruction of Art) and This Is The End Of The World As We Know It, in which he constructs a fatalistic vision of the future based on the reality we face today. Garraza's works enlightens the viewer to the hypocrisy of the media's representations of present-day events, while simultaneously predicting its outcome.