November 3 – December 29, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 3, 2011 from 6 – 9 pm

Graffiti Nature / The Nature of Graffiti explores the spectrum of influence “street art” has had on contemporary art through the work of two ground-breaking artists, Cisco Merel and the collaborative team W.

Merel’s canvases combine the compositional awareness of a classical painter and the graphic qualities of a street artist in order to convey a post-modern Utopia, moments of beauty and color infused into a world of chaos and concrete. Merel has a deep and abiding respect for nature and the environment that infuses all of his work. The results are delightfully manic compositions comprised of dense tree branches colorfully painted in his signature tubular style or vibrant birds flying upon dense graffiti wings.

W represents two artists, Paz Ulloa and Vinicio Jimenez, working together as a team. Passing their creations between each artist, both add a small part that contributes to whole therefore continuously reinventing the meaning of the piece until it is deemed finished. Process gives way to a constructed comic book-anime universe, fluid and rapidly moving, seen through a youthful gaze.