Featuring Anthony Garcia Sr., Juan Fuentes, Markham Maes, Anthony Maes, Diego Flores Arroyo, Victor Escobedo, UC Sepia, and Karma Leigh
At the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder
Opening Reception: September 10th from 5:30-7:30 pm
Exhibition runs from September 10 through October 31, 2021
¡Oye! More Than Street Art: De La Gente brings together a diverse group of Colorado-based street artists reflecting inspiration, influence, life, and expression through personal culture. Street art has long been associated with free expression in public spaces with the use of graffiti, murals, and art installations. This exhibit gives artists the opportunity to use the diverse expression, and sometimes intimate insight into their personal culture. The timing of this exhibition was inspired by Streetwise Boulder’s annual “ARTivism” mural festival, September 5-12, 2021.
The eight featured artists bring their own personal journey to represent a different viewpoint of Colorado. Using methods outside of traditional street art, the gallery brings forward glimpses of life, feminism, mysticism, activism, beauty, collaboration, and struggle from the streets to the Dairy.
The MacMillan Family Lobby features two bright paintings (Acrylic & Spray Paint on Canvas) by Anthony Garcia, Sr.’s contrasted with Juan Fuentes digital photo prints. Anthony Garcia Sr. was born andraisedinDenverintheGlobevillecommunity. Startingoffasagraffitiwriter,hisknowledgeofthe Denver art scene and his go-getter attitude molded him into a force to be reckoned with early on. Juan Fuentes is a documentary photographer born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and based in Dever. His work captures everyday life from a lower class point of view and tells stories of contemporary America, highlighting the Chicano and immigrant experience.
Exhibiting in the Hand Rudy Gallery are a variety of works by six diverse artists ranging from acrylic on canvas to digital photographs to 4 color serigraph to enamel and resin.
“Queen of My Tribe” and “All Flavors” by Markham Maes aka “Shitty Kitten”, is an artist who has been an integral member of Dever’s Contemporary art scene for over 20 years. His style is a mashup of figurative character illustration and Latinx-driven subject matter that can be seen as street murals and on fine art gallery walls throughout Colorado and the world!
Anthony Maes’s digital photos aim to be a moment captured in time that is representative of the people and their environment. Anthony has said he “can only hope for his art to ignite a spark in the mind of viewers to create or dissolve the story behind each piece.”
Diego Florez Arroyo’s unique 4 color serigraphs reflect the spectrum of what it means to be Chicanx.
Victor Escobedo’s 8”x8” acrylic, enamel, and resin pieces are timeless, connecting to the ancient through innovative approaches. Through a unique style of characters, reimagined ancient iconography, dynamic, textured backgrounds, and striking color palettes, Victor explores mysticism, intuition, and Shamanistic practices as inspiration for contemporary transformation.
Female artist UC Sepia is best known for her grafti style depicting fun, free-spirited and seductive girl characters called Ozjuahzians that live in a made-up fantasy world. UC Sepia creates characters that are unique and represent the many different personalities in society while possessing human/animalistic qualities. The characters draw energy from bizarre power animals such as okras, phisazians and widaudi's. The world in which they all live is called Capsule Ozj. UC Sepia loves storytelling through her art and is inspired by her personal struggles and achievements to create her work.
The final piece in this gallery is “Dreams at Midnight” a 24”x24” acrylic on canvas by Karma Leigh, a Chicana from Colorado who was blessed to grow up between two worlds, the urban life of the city and the natural wonders of the Rockies. Both have inspired her work as an artist and educator. Karma is a self-taught painter, muralist, curator, and creator of jewelry and tangible goods.