Tuesday, July 21, 2009

"Surveillance & Spirituality"

"Surveillance & Spirituality":
New works by
Gabriel Villa

Project Wall Space: Cole Pierce

Gabriel Villa’s work is multifaceted and has evolved conceptually since moving to Chicago and has adopted new imagery, themes, and formal strategies and intensified from the use of newfound images.

For the past nine years Villa has lived and worked in Chicago producing an idiosyncratic body of work that builds upon previous work but whose diversity and powerful imagery are direct results of his adopted home. Each of Villa’s images represents either his ongoing transformation into a new, unknown identity, a dual symbol of psychological oppression and a personal memory, a lingering catholic symbol or an icon of the Chihuahua desert.

Thematically, Villa is socially conscious, mostly expressed as empathy for those marginalized for their economic or racial reasons. Surely his work operates between figuration and abstraction, leaving more questions unanswered than answered, but his increasingly powerful combination of signs symbols with his figures and abstraction opens many avenues to interpretation, positive or negative, simple or complex.

His most recent public art work was erased by the city of Chicago by the request of Bridgeport alderman Jim Balcer. This sparked issues of censorship because the mural was commissioned. For more info: http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=34234

For this show he will recreate some of the work that was lost plus show more of his new work.

Opening Friday August 7 from 6pm-10pm
August 7- September 5, 2009

ANTENA
1765 S. Laflin St.
Chicago IL 60608
www.antenapilsen.com
antenapilsen (at) gmail.com
Hours: by appointment
only

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