Comic books inspire exhibition's pieces

9/29/10 9:23 AM

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Comic books inspire exhibition's pieces

By Elda Silva- Express-News Web Posted: 09/29/2010 12:00 CDT

Works by Colombian artists Gustavo Higuera and Juan Felipe Salcedo are digital prints of promos for their Web comic "Re-Evolution" about a post-apocalyptic world whose future rests largely in the small paws of Chehuahua. GUADALUPE GALLERY Patty Ortiz had come to see Xavier Garza's Lucha Libre portrait series - paintings of the masked Mexican wrestlers. "When I went to his studio, he was showing me all these beautiful pieces," says Ortiz, director of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. "At the end of the studio tour, he said, 'Well, I do have some drawings.' " Garza unrolled a 27-inch-by-153-inch ink drawing depicting an epic battle between Mil Mascaras - the legendary fighter known for his many masks - and a pair of foes in a series of panels.

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Comic books inspire exhibition's pieces

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"He rolled this out, and it was just amazing," Ortiz says. "And I said, 'I've gotta have this one.' He'd never shown it before." Garza is among the San Antonio artists Ortiz selected for Fantastic Fuerzas/Forces, an exhibit of work inspired by comic books and animation currently at Guadalupe Gallery. The exhibit ties in with the Guadalupe's upcoming production of King of Shadows by comic-book scribe Roberto Aguirre-Sacasas. Fantastic Fuerzas/Forces, which also features work by international artists, is the first curated by Ortiz for the Guadalupe since she became director last year. Previous shows have been curated by artists Ethel Shipton, David Zamora Casas, Cruz Ortiz and Anita Valencia. "I finally had time to do it because the first year was really me just getting to know the community - see who was out there," she says. "That's why I did the artists curating artists (series). I thought, 'Artists know who they respect and who they really think is doing great stuff.' " El Mil Mascaras is one of two works by Garza in the show. The other, a 32-inch-by-180-inch ink drawing titled Santo! Santo! Santo!, likewise tells a story entirely in graphic form. In the piece, the wrestler El Santo faces the Grim Reaper, returning from the brink of death to triumph. Garza's pieces, along with a series of ink drawings by Albert Alvarez and digital prints of images created by collaborators Gustavo Higuera and Juan Felipe Salcedo, are examples of "the traditional ways artists have used comic-book imagery," Ortiz says. Arranged in sequence, Alvarez's intricately detailed postcard-size drawings create a filmic narrative about a World War II bomber squadron. The San Antonio artist's piece includes a mini homage to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. The works by Colombian artists Higuera and Salcedo are digital prints of promos for their web comic ReEvolution about a post-apocalyptic world whose future rests largely in the small paws of Chehuahua, a canine superhero who sports a black beret. Paintings by David Almaguer and Angel Rodriguez-Daz represent "more of an artistic sensibility." Both of the San Antonio-based artists do portraits of themselves as luchadores. Almaguer takes his masked visage and transplants it onto the bodies of Superman (Man of Steel) and Han Solo (Han Cholo) in stenciled, layered pieces that allude to childhood fantasy and role play. RodriguezDaz, meanwhile, uses the mask as metaphor in In the Mirror of Your I ... Mil Mascaras, a large-scale canvas work in charcoal, pastel and oil. "(Rodriguez-Daz) likes to mention how Mil Mascaras always has this multitude of faces, but in a way he is one face, and really the multitude of personas is within him," Ortiz says. "It's within everyone." In Alebrije: "But the Key to Mastery Lies Not in Simple Brute Strength" Rodriguez-Daz takes on the facade of a fantastical Mexican folk-art creature. He looms in the frame like a giant, clutching Superman in his fist as he attempts to reason with the symbol of American might. With the familiar Superman logo arching across the top, the piece looks like a comic-book cover. Peruvian artist Jaime Higa Oshiro and Mexican photographer Dulce Pinzn also employ portraiture. In his
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trippy mixed-media works on cloth, Higa combines stenciled images of literary icons Truman Capote, Jorge Luis Borges and Csar Vallejo with animated characters. "What I loved about that is just what we traditionally consider high art and how popular culture is kind of overtaking it," Ortiz says. Pinzn's The Real Story of the Superheroes is a series of portraits of Mexican immigrants dressed in costumes as they go about their jobs. Plastic Man is a waiter, Superman is a pizza delivery man, Catwoman is a nanny, etc. In these works, "we start looking at how artists are using comic-book culture to speak about other things, and to really address other issues - political for the most part," Ortiz says. Nadin Ospina's Colombialand suite was created in response to a National Geographic cover story that proclaimed his homeland "Cocaine Country." In the serigraphs, stereotypical drug-world figures are depicted as Lego characters. Meanwhile, Denver-based artist Rafael Fajardo takes on issues including immigration in a series of digital video games that are, for all intents and purposes, unwinnable. In Crosser, the player must avoid Border Patrol and floating debris to make it across the river to the American shore. The prize that awaits those who do make it is a low-paying, dead-end job. Ortiz made it a point to include San Antonio artists in the show because "I love to mix international artists with local artists," she says. "We can be right there speaking about ideas that other artists are known for. It's nice to mix it up, to be having someone like Nadin Ospina and Dulce (Pinzn) with David (Almaguer) and (Higuera and Salcedo). And (Higuera and Salcedo) are completely comic-book artists. They're like, 'I can't even believe my artwork is in a gallery.' " lsilva@express-news.net

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