Solo Exhibitions

Phylogeny Contemporary

2718 Elliott Avenue  Seattle, WA 98121

phylogenycontemporary@gmail.com

phylogenycontemporary.com

206.485.7498

Mauricio Vergara Solo Exhibition

Phylogeny Contemporary

April 20 – May 28, 2017

Gallery Hours: Thursday  and Saturday 11-7

Opening Reception Thursday April 20^th 5PM– 8PM

When I began my career in 2006 as a Gallerist in Saint Petersburg Florida, I would pick artist for very different reasons than I do today. I was a bit blind and led by a few university connections I had made. I was swayed by local artist and later a few impressive curriculum vitae. That was not a horrible method of curating. It was not particularly focused. It was not clear what my voice would be exactly with what I exhibited and when.

I believe that level of higher vision started with one artist's installation. He was a professor and a well-received painter in Florida museums. Some of my best art installation lessons came from this one-on-one art hanging work with artists in my gallery in Florida. He was sure for my voice and most specifically my reason an international art fair would select me I must be regional. His opinion was about showing the best of my area and being only known for that. Also, he dropped a new concept in my life about intention. He had stated something to the effect- there must be a reason why these artists are showing together. It seemed like something I might have thought about before. I cannot remember being as hyper-aware of that theory after every day of my life. The last lesson learned from that artist was about showing work exhibited before my exhibition without taking that into consideration. The art critic from the local newspaper pointed out while he was indeed impressive, this was all work she's seen previously and was underwhelmed by the three new items he had made.

Now, I ask to exhibit new not previously exhibited art in each and every show since that day. Older work, I now select it because of its splendor, not because of availability.  I no longer give over my curatorial work to an artist is leading me down the path they want for moving older art, or hiding the fact they are no longer producing the quality of art they one did. Also a solo I found in my original space became a place great artist did not have their best work just to fill the amount of wall space.

However, not all artists have even attempted to over control an exhibition and have been delightful.  As I grew in my personal vision and branched out way beyond regional to international artist, I cultivated an incredible stable of artist.  I still meet artists that are phenomenally talented, but we just cannot work together smoothly. I have learned to let go for different reasons and to cultivate other relationships.

As I put together the initial schedule for Phylogeny Contemporary, I had several artists in my recent shows I would love to have in a focused solo exhibition.  Timing their solo shows were a matter of asking scheduling. One artist ahead reached out to me, and I adored her work and was impressed by her CV.  I met one artist through a colleague in LA I had met in my first SCOPE NY 2010. She was the booth across from me. We bonded over odd public programming next to the flies it had brought to our booths.  I have cherished her friendship, advice, and ear since that fair. I am incredibly lucky to have met these industry veterans throughout my Art Fair travels.  This one woman, in particular, has become a dear friend and a trusted ally in an industry that can be cold and superficial at times. We have a collaborative exhibition together next spring.  It is timed for our selected artist to prepare. We have two shared artist I met her a few years ago, and I have two new local artists I feel would especially like to hang well together. These women have projects first that require attention. I am willing to wait one year to plan it; I feel that strongly about the members of this project.

Solo projects ahead: Mauricio Vergara, Joana Fischer June 2017, Michael Maritza July 2017, Suzy O'Mullane August 2017, Capucine Bourcart November 2017. Group Exhibitions September 2017 Suprematism, Constructivism and Futurism. April 2017 Special guest co-curator Alix Sloan of Sloan Fine Art.

Mauricio Vergara reached out to me while I was a nomadic Art Fair only exhibiting gallery. I liked his work, but it was in .jpg format this is not always a good predictor of art. Once his art arrived for our first exhibition together - Aqua Art Miami Beach - I became fully committed to his art. His subject matter is somewhat rural, but with figures missing themselves leaving only clothing and shadows a new allegory begins.

I have responded art fair guests in both Miami and New York to the comparison to René Magritte.  While a comparison to a Surrealist master is complimentary, most uninformed viewers are unaware of the many and significant differences. I am unsure most are interested to know how they are similar and where they diverge.

I have done some research -thanks to the Seattle Art Museum's excellent library resources- beyond my education in art history and attendance regularly in museums. Magritte's images are pop culture icons.

 For example  René Magritte's The Son of Man, oil paint, 1964.

 René Magritte obscured faces in his art. The figures, however, were fully present. The Son of Man, created in 1964 at age 66 is a painting created well into his career. Magritte began his art education in 1910.   René Magritte's mother drowned herself in the Sambre River when he was fourteen, 1912.  askArt.com wrote in their biography, René awoke one night, found his mother missing and led his two younger brothers to search the town for her. The three brothers found her having jumped from a bridge drowning herself in the Sambre River with her gown over her face. This pivotal life experience presents itself in his art.  It is not his only theme, nor his only art inspirations. I am fascinated with his use repeating formal objects and particular design element use in his composition. I learned, in fact, Magritte worked in a wallpaper factory as a designer and public relations in a fashion house.  Golconda aka Raining Men used a rhombic grid to layer his identical and recognizable Men in Bowler hat carrying a closed umbrella. The effect creates a universe, unlike the world we inhabit. I recognize a wallpaper grid pattern. 

René Magritte, Golconda, oil on canvas, 1954.

I digress into my passion for modern art, art history, and surrealism in particular. Where I find the strongest argument for comparison between Mauricio Vergara and René Magritte's use of surrealism and his reminder an object isn't exactly what it appears. Ceci n’est pas une pipe?

René Magritte, The Treachery of Images, oil paint on canvas, 1928-1929

Viewers navigate Mauricio’s stories organically.  Mauricio Vergara’s interpretations are very different than Magritte's vast body of art.

Mauricio paints a blue-skied puffy clouded yellow-hued pasture for his figures often accompanied by a dog, or a pig and a variety of other animals domesticated or regularly found on a farm.  Occasionally present amongst his characters are often a white or red home. Vergara's a Surrealist while remaining bucolic warm in coloration and tone. His use of surrealism is not alarming or intentionally irritable creating societal commentary.  He is not reflecting a highly traumatic family loss at a pivotal time for a young man discovering his place in the world.

Mauricio  Vergara is an introspective painter. Vergara's quiet pastoral vignettes are captivating. They invite you to stay a while and investigate the surroundings. It feels like home, but not your home, and then one is perhaps thinking about home. What is home? TED talks introduced me to the speaker Pico Iyer and his talk "where is home?" The concept of home again returns to Magritte and his challenge to your interpretation of the formal object and meaning.

 In his most recent painting, Vergara introduces a crane. The crane, in Japanese, Chinese and Korean culture all represents good fortune and longevity. The connection between heaven and earth manifests when this water creature takes flight inhabiting both the heavens and the earth. 

Mauricio Vergara, Aquí No, oil on canvas 38X39”, 2017.

Mauricio's cites a  Rioplatanese poet as an influence in his biography.  In summary, it means who you once were  does not determine your precise future ahead.  The picture is not complete because the life is in transition.

 Mauricio Vergara is my inaugural exhibition new permanent home for Phylogeny Contemporary felt quite personally relevant. I am new in town. I  have been contemplating

Mauricio Vergara Mauricio Vergara was born in Rio IV, Córdoba, Argentina, in 1971.He is a self-taught painter. He has been painting since the early 90’s. He is currently living in Pamplona (Spain) A Rioplatense poet ponders: Where is my life that which it could have been, and it never was? As he does, I ask myself, who I am? Where is my life? Where is the person who I once was? Where are those who are not anymore? Where will I be? Who will I be? Time changes us, but there is something that always remains. We leave what we were; we look at the past, and we don ́t recognize ourselves. But, we are them, changed by our deaths and our lost illusions that will keep us changing. Mauricio’s characters without face and body want to be an invitation to the spectator to make these questions theirs and to encourage them to participate in finishing the paintings.

Mauricio Vergara, Necedad, oil on canvas,  38"x 39", 2017