If you have more than a passing interest in abstract graffiti, then White Walls and Shooting Gallery’s August double-header would have peaked your interest. Transcend members Mr Jago (seen above) from Bristol in the UK and local boy Poesia (seen below) opened a pair of solo exhibitions respectively entitled New Co-ordinates and Reflexive. Jago’s organic compositions have an ethereal flow, and whilst Poesia’s angular geometric biased work visually couldn’t be more different, both contain a similar dynamism within their work, forged from their pursuit of abstraction of the work styles that typified their earlier careers as artists and graffiti writers.
Jago’s principal focus for the exhibition is the abstraction of the robot figures regularly represented in his earlier work. Like intriguing gestural glimpses into the solar system, he explodes these figurative elements into particles as if looking at one of his earlier canvases through the hubble telescope. Poesia’s background as a graffiti artist comes to the fore for the works in Reflexive. Taking and reinventing classicist and old masters paintings as principal elements and focal points for his work in this show, he uses angular forms inspired by and abstracted from his historical outdoor use of the alphabet to compliment the figurative work that he pays homage to and slices-up in equal measure.
Both exhibitions run until Saturday September 6th, so if you find yourself in the Bay Area this weekend, try and catch these two must-see shows.
Photo credit: Brock Brake, Bryant Sina, Derek Macario and Dora Tsui.
