April 2 - April 25

opening April 4, 2pm-6pm

Raffael Iglesias

"Some Assembly Required"

Iglesias' new paintings are exploration of cultural transformation through the personal, by using the transforming robot as a metaphor for transformation and change. It is a collection of images, mixed aesthetics and culled information, reacting to living in an urban multicultural environment and its changing landscape.

My new paintings are exploration of cultural transformation through the personal. I use the subject of the robot as the primary metaphor and signifier for this change. The transforming robot is a metaphor for the personal transformation that has occurred within my own history and cultural journey. This process of transformation is embodied within the pop culture image of the transforming Japanese Anime robot.
It is a reaction of the place and time I find myself in now: an urban multicultural environment and its changing ethnic landscape, simultaneously going through a personal metamorphosis. Through the personal, I exemplify one out of the larger diaspora of immigrants that are experiencing a cultural shift, whereby original cultures evolve, transform and adapt independently within their new environment.
Each individual painting, comprised of a group of paintings, contains its own narrative. This idea was inspired by comic books and their use of storyboard panels that illustrate a moment.
Collecting images, mixing aesthetics and culling information as aesthetic influences intersect along with culture jamming of retro and current popular culture. This incarnation has many similar attributes to pop art and its references, like cartoons, movies and TV.

Like all children, I watched cartoons. I would spend endless hours a day being entertained by these colourfully rendered images. What I was especially drawn to was the genre of Japanese Anime, particularly for its sophisticated rendering and style, which made it stand out from other regular Saturday morning cartoons. It made a strong visual impact with its dynamic palette and use of large geometric shapes. But where it made the biggest impression was in its complex plots, story lines and themes of war
By choosing the robot I also had a tangible character for any narrative I suggested within the painting. A single character can express emotion and engage the viewer and develop relationships like I did with the characters from Anime. By choosing to use a symbol as subject, this direct focal point carries the narrative, like a protagonist in a novel.