FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EXHIBITION: Julio Galán
The Mythologies of Memory
Recent Paintings
September 1 - October 9, 1999
For further information contact:
Chac-Mool Contemporary Fine Art
Director: Esthella Provas
8920 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles 90069
Phone: (310) 550-6792,
FAX (310) 550-6872
E-mail chacmool@earthlink.net
Chac-Mool Gallery announces an important exhibition of paintings by Julio Galán. Galán, who has had solo exhibitions in Paris, Amsterdam and New York as well as solo exhibitions at MARCO (Monterrey) and Museum of Modern Art (Mexico City), emerged as a major international figure at the “Magiciens de la Terre” show (Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1989) with his controversial painting, “China Poblana,” a self portrait in which he appeared dressed in Mexican national folk dress.
This interrogation of mythologies that function and contain contemporary society is transformed into a narrative that connects his paintings. In them, Galán is often the narrator, the witness who perceives and interprets the world around him often linking two seemingly separate realities, the wistful, neo-romantic past of memory, and the overt, audacious response of the contemporary moment. These two worlds imbue his paintings in images that lie in layers upon the canvas, invading each other’s space. And often, they become blotches of paint, a kind of unresolved energy creating a strange tension between these worlds.
Born in northern Mexico to a family of long-standing tradition, Galán studied architecture before turning to painting full time. The architectural balance of his composition is a direct reference to his training as are the references to a profound understanding of the Mexican baroque. This and his innate understanding of the phenomenological reality of the object as a thing-in-itself, fills his works with haunting references which elicit a visceral rather than a rational response in the viewer. These characteristics have marked him as one of the leading exponents of the current revolution in painting.
The Gallery is located at 8920 Melrose Avenue (at Almont Drive), West Hollywood. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., Saturdays 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and by appointment. For further information, photographs, and interviews, please call the Gallery at 310-550-6792.
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Return to Julio Galan