A beautiful, high-end print shop called Electric Works opened on Eighth Street between Mission and Howard a couple of years ago, and along with digital photography and printmaking, the huge space features an art gallery (click here for their website).
Last Thursday evening they hosted the opening of a new show by local artist Enrique Chagoya, and it was one of the most enjoyable art openings I have ever attended.
Earlier this year, writing about an exhibit by Chagoya called "Borderlandia" at the Palm Springs Art Museum (click here), I wrote: "He's my new favorite artist that I'd never heard of before."
This exhibit, which will be at Electric Works for the next two months, confirmed my belief that Chagoya is one of the greatest artists in the world right now, working in a huge variety of mediums from painting to prints to fold-out books.
The artist, who lives in San Francisco and teaches at Stanford, was in attendance at the opening (above) and he was a funny, genial host.
His work is an unstable mash-up of Catholic iconography, pop cultural references, and pre-Columbian Mexican art...
...that magically comes together in beautiful ways.
He also displays a wicked sense of humor...
...taking on art world figures and Andy Warhol in one fell swoop...
...with Cannibull's "Museum Director's Tripe" and "Critic's Tongue" soup.
4 comments:
good post,
i love enrique's work, saw a show about him on spark and he's a non-pretentious dude as well! a rare thing these days
The gallery was not open today, but I've been looking forward to this show.
Have you been to 1 AM gallery at 6th and Howard? I enjoyed the current show there.
Great post - as always. I had to miss the opening because I was getting ready for our open studios but I went to see the show today. I've like Chagoya for years and I'm putting together a review for my blog as well in which you will be quoted in the most favorable terms.
The soup cans are souper...
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