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| raffael iglesias | |
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ELXO | november 29, 2003 - january 03, 2004
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Revolution in the age of graffiti: Art By Numbers |
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Revolution in the age of graffiti "ELXO" is the title ofRaffaelA. Iglesias's new show at Peak Gallery. It's also a signal to the world at large just who he is and where his thinking, politics and art are all coming from. The title becomes "El Show, because that's the way X is pronounced in Mexico and Central America, but not the rest of Latin America," the 32-year-old Toronto artist says. "It's rather neat being a young Latin American in Toronto - I'm originally from El Salvador - because we are sort of on the ground level of things. We're establishing a new hybrid culture, amalgamating all Latin American cultures where in reality we are all so different. "I recently met someone from Argentina and I realized that " our version of Spanish is differ- ent. We're even different ethnically. I'm half native and half Spanish. But someone from Argentina is more likely to be European. One of my pieces in the show is called Cafe con leche, coffee with creme. Ifs about being seen as being black on the outside but white inside." 1 Che: "Ifs basically a statement about turning things in on themselves. It deals with the romanticism people have (about the late guerrilla leader, Ernesto "Che" Guevara). Any Latin American living in Canada is here for a political reason. But you find they either lean totally to the left or totally to the right. Young Latin Americans living in Canada have such a romantic idea about Che. They don't know what the (Cuban) revolution was like. That's why I made the painting so glossy and shiny and so pretty to look at. It's about the romanticism." 2 Graffiti and hip-hop references: "I started out doing mural painting. And I've done a lot of work with youth at risk doing murals. I take my images from everywhere. Music is just as important. When we first came here in the late '70s „ my father was a university professor in El Salvador and we had to leave „ hip hop was just coming into existence. I still listen to it, but it was a lot more political then. Bands like Public Enemy don't exist now. But there's still the romance of the ghetto, although what hip hop is really all about is money. It's giving little kids a bad message, about wanting things. But the romance with hip hop continues." 3 Layers of colour: "I use three different types of acrylics and I'll use them in combination and as collage. Actually, I think there's a serious lack of colour in Toronto. ... I was told by one dealer I use too much colour. Three different galleries said they liked my work, but that it had too much colour. It took me a long time to find a dealer "
"ELXO" is at Peak Gallery, 23 |
Che (2003) by Raffael A. Iglesias
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RAFFAEL A.IGLESIAS A welcome flash of colour amid the grim days of early December, Raffael A. Igle-
sias" ELXO exhibit wittily captures the energy of Latin street culture.
Combining vestiges of text. poster art, stickers and Catholic iconography,
Iglesias attempts a glittering, expressionist rendering of the urban landscape;
in fact, walking through ELXO is akin to witnessing a series of firework
explosions. "Cafe Con Leche" includes in its painting-collage rockets, stars,
roses, a Coca-Cola ad, flaming hearts and, most prominently, a donkey. Iglesias
is foremost about fun, though the clashing hues and central image [pin the tail
on the donkey) suggest the culture of violence that necessarily attends such an
exhilarating, garish appreciation of city life. ELXO runs to Jan. 3. Tue-Sat 11am-6pm. Peak Gallery, 21 Morrow. 416-537-8108. www.peakgallery.com |
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