Last Thursday evening, Monterrey, Mexico-based artist, Rene Almanza unveiled a series of 50 20″x18″ graphite/watercolor paintings at Fifty24SF. The show is entitled Stranger, the definition which the artist states as “a foreigner, a resident alien, one in the house of another as a guest, visitor, or intruder, a person or thing that is unknown or with whom one is unacquainted, one who does not belong to or is kept from the activities of a group, one not privy or party to an act, contract, or title, one that interferes without right.” The title seemed suitable for the work displayed, in which the artist played the role as a disconnected observer with themes spanning from voyeurism, observing a sinister futuristic world, to portraits of people around the gallery during his visit to San Francisco.

Check out photos (taken by Scott Sison and rhinomilk) from opening night as well as subjects of a few of his portraits…


Gallery Director, Amanda Kampf reenacting her portrait sitting...