Press Release
Monumental Pencil Drawing
To Be Featured In March Exhibition
At ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries
One of the world’s largest pencil and charcoal drawings,
a monumental 36-by-eight-foot mural, will be featured in “Maniera
Obscura / In a Dark Manner: 1998-2005,” an exhibition
opening from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Mar. 4th, with a reception
for the artist at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, 169
Madeira Ave., Coral Gables , Florida.
The event is the first major show in the United States of
Hugo Crosthwaite, a 34-year-old artist from Tijuana. Mexico.
All of the works in the exhibition
are done in pencil or pencil and charcoal. “I love the immediacy and tactility
of drawing, the breaking of the white surface with images
from my own personal narrative,” Crosthwaite says.
Combining classical imagery with abstract elements, he considers
each work “to be a vision of mine in which history,
mythology and abstraction collide.”
“Crosthwaite is an anachronism: a contemporary artist
who produces monumental work using a 19th century technique,” said
veteran art dealer Virginia Miller. “He is an extraordinary
young artist, one with an exceptionally powerful vision.”
According to Crosthwaite, artists who have inspired his
work include Francisco Goya, Eugene Delacroix, Theodore Gericault
and Arnold Bocklin.
Crosthwaite’s prior solo exhibitions in Mexico and
the United States include “Tablas de una Novena” at
Tijuana’s Cultural Center (CECUT) in 2000; “Urbe
Tenebrosa” at Tijuana’s State Gallery in 2001, “On
the Border of Surrealism” at Daniel Saxon Gallery,
Los Angeles in 2002, and “Caprichos” at Trópico
de Nopal, Los Angeles, in 2004.
The artist’s works have also been included in a number
of collective exhibitions throughout the United States and
Mexico. In 2004 his work was included in the “XII Bienal
Rufino Tamayo” at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo
in Mexico City, and “Mujeres de Juárez: Art
Against Crime,” an exhibition of works at the Hispanic
Museum of Nevada in Las Vegas by artists protesting the violence
against women in Juarez, Mexico.
In 2003 Crosthwaite was commissioned
by the City of Los Angeles to participate in the mural
project, “The Wall–Las
Memorias,” a monument created to educate the Latino
Community about cultural denial and HIV/AIDS, and an effort
to eternally honor loved ones who have died of AIDS. Next
year he will participate in a group exhibition at the San
Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.
“Human suffering and violence permeate my work,” the
artist notes. “I explore the complexities of human
expression, everything from alienation to acceptance and
even celebration.”
In the October issue of NY Arts magazine,
critic Victor Alejandro Sorell noted that “Hugo Crosthwaite harkens
back to the complex and dense compositions of Hieronymus
Bosch and muralist José Clemente Orozco.”
In her review of a recent exhibition,
arts writer Holly Myers noted that “rendered in pencil and charcoal on
wood, the works teem with bodies that are stretching, writhing,
rising and falling, suspended amid black clouds and fragments
of landscape. They’re dark, deep, heartfelt works that
tower over the rest of the show like a daunting spiritual
conscience.”
Based upon her 38 years’ of experience dealing in
contemporary fine art, Virginia Miller believes the young
artist is on the threshold of greatness. “Hugo Crosthwaite’s
unique, cutting-edge interpretations of human expressions
and myths are superb art. If his career continues on its
present course, within a very few years he will be a very
important artist,” she said.
Located in downtown Coral Gables,
ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries is Greater Miami’s longest-established fine
art gallery. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through
Friday and by appointment. The Crosthwaite exhibition will
be on display through May 30th and his works also are featured
on the gallery’s web site, www.virginiamiller.com.
For more information, call 305-444-4493.
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