Rhombus Space Presents: "Thought Bubbles" w/ Enrique Chagoya, Don Fritz, Archie Rand, and Petra Gupta Valentová.

      

   “July” from The Months series by Archie Rand 2011. Acrylic, enamel, chalk, charcoal, appliqué on fabric, 26 x 70”

Rhombus Space is pleased to present Thought Bubbles, an exhibition featuring artwork by Enrique Chagoya, Don Fritz, Archie Rand, and Petra Gupta Valentová.

Curated by Katerina Lanfranco

Exhibition Dates: March 28 – April 27, 2014.  Reception: Friday, April 4, 6-9 PM.

Thought Bubbles, the upcoming show at Rhombus Space, is an artistic dialogue between 4 visual artists who use graphic conventions and formal devices from comics and cartoons in their art. The work in Thought Bubbles makes explicit the artist’s subjective and critical thought processes, as well as narrative constructions through forms that externalize the interior, to produce multiple perspectives. Enrique Chagoya is both artist and cultural historian; he makes pictorial records of recent and historical events using humor and appropriated political, historical, and pop culture icons turned into visual narratives creating a “reverse anthropology' of American and Western culture. Don Fritz’s work explores cultural and gender identities, as well Pan-Pacific fantasies of sexuality and power, using childhood imagery and toys of 1950s, along with Japanese, Mexican and U.S. cultural signifiers. Archie Rand combines secular and sacred symbolism in his work; filtering cross-cultural knowledge with a personal perspective that results in paintings composed of interwoven formal and narrative layers. Petra Gupta Valentová’s work examines questions of identity, memory, and childhood experiences by combining traditional craft styles from India with post-Modern Western art to create contemporary graphic stories. Together, Enrique Chagoya, Don Fritz, Archie Rand, and Petra Gupta Valentová borrow from the form and concept of the pop culture tradition of comic and cartoon arts in order to highlight social commentary in their artwork and to challenge fine art conventions by bridging the gap between high art and popular culture through their creative process.

Enrique Chagoya. Hand of Power. 
Color lithograph, woodcut on paper, ed. 30 25 x 37 inches.

Enrique Chagoya was born in Mexico City and studied economics at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico before moving to the U.S. to earn his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a Professor of Art at Stanford University. Chagoya’s work is shown internationally and is in several collections including: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, De Young Museum, LA County Museum of Art, National Museum of American Art, Des Moines Art Center, New York Public Library, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Don Fritz. Ground Zero. Mixed media on paper, 36 x 24 inches

Don Fritz received his BFA from the University of California, Santa Cruz and his MFA from the University of California, Davis. Fritz is currently an Associate Professor at Santa Clara University in California, and was a featured instructor at the Anderson Ranch Art Center and the Split Rock Arts Program. He is the recipient of a 2013 Artist Laureate Award given by the Silicon Valley Arts Council, and an awardee of a Japanese Cultural Exchange travel grant, and two Pollock Krasner Artist’s Grants. Fritz exhibits internationally with work in collections including: Otaru Museum in Hokkaido Japan, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Microsoft Corporation in Washington.

Archie Rand. (March) from "The Months". Mixed media on fabric, 26 x 70 inches

Archie Rand was born in Brooklyn, New York. Rand is currently the Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College. He is the recipient of several awards including the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Rand has had more than one hundred solo shows and is exhibited internationally. His work is in many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Baltimore Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Petra Gupta Valentová. Untitled (Hot Summer) from the "Stories from India" series. 

Wood block printing on silk, 44 x 198 Inches

Petra Gupta Valentová was born in Pardubice, Czech Republic. She lives and works in New York City and conducts artistic research in Finland, India and Czech Republic. Petra graduated from the master’s degree program at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czech Republic and earned her MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York. Valentová was the recipient of a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship for Sculpture. Jitro Publishing House published her book “Searching for a Sámi”. She exhibits her work internationally in the U.S., Israel, Czech Republic, India and upcoming in Brazil. Valentová’s work is in permanent collections including: Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation, Kemi Museum in Finland, and Czech National Gallery.