Tag: debut solo

‘Scorch and Drop’ – Debut U.S. solo show from Alex Face | August 14 – September 4 at Thinkspace

Alex Face – ’Scorch and Drop’
August 14 – September 4, 2021
Opening Night August 14th | Saturday, 6PM- 9PM

Thinkspace Projects presents Alex Face’s debut U.S. solo show, ‘Scorch and Drop’, following successful solo exhibitions in Bangkok, Thailand and Venice, Italy. This brand new collection of work Face’s newest work incorporates the character Alex Face has become known for, exploring new situations and elements, introducing the variety within his work to a new audience. 

His signature subject, a quizzical smoking baby that shares a moniker with the artist himself, can be seen contemplating the future. With a worried look spread across its face, this baby turns an eye to the world around it, an extension of Alex Face’s identity as an artist with a social conscience.

The character was inspired by the birth of the artist’s daughter, “The first time I saw her she looked angry or worried, I thought, are you not happy to be my daughter? Are you not happy to be in the world?”

Ultimately, this moment became the catalyst for the character he is widely known for. The baby, with its third eye to represent another dimension beyond what we can plainly see, takes on new situations and future possibilities in this new collection of work.

‘Scorch and Drop’ opens August 14, 2021 with a reception from 6 PM to 9 PM. On view until September 4, 2021 at Thinkspace Projects.

About Alex Face
Patcharapol Tangruen, also known as Alex Face, is a well-known and influential graffiti artist in Thailand. Alex studied architecture at Bangkok’s King Mongkut Institute of Technology. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the Department of Fine & Applied Arts. An interest in architecture led Alex Face to explore and wander the streets and alleys of Bangkok for abandoned buildings, buildings that he eventually used as a canvas to develop his street art and express himself. He then created Alex Face, a character with an aged, disillusioned child’s face wearing animal costumes. Through his graffiti, Alex Face especially attempts to create a link with the urban population, the underprivileged of Bangkok and the provinces.

Artist Statement
แผดเผา ลุกโชน มอดดับ

Fire burning on the wings of hope
fragile petals on our heads,
glowing and blazing
we’re at the peak of our blissful life,
moving the thinnest part of our own body,
fluttering, aware of power and weakness
we scorch and drop,
as fire slowly burns our body and soul
we try our best
and most things appeared as they should
we’re on fire!!!
growing exponentially, moving freely
expressing our vision, angriness, kindness,
love and hate
we are shining and moving with power
until everything turns dark,
and another kind of creature
children of ours
will appear with their new light of day
yeah, we scorch and drop as we should

Thinkspace Presents KIKYZ1313 “The Progeny of Chaos”

KIKYZ1313

Thinkspace is pleased to present The Progeny of Chaos, a solo exhibition of work by KIKYZ1313 in the gallery’s project room. Laura Lucía Ferrer Zamudio was born in Querétaro, Mexico, and creates beautifully intricate ink, graphite, and watercolor works on paper. From beneath the initially alluring, and understated, first impression of the works, emerge unexpected oppositions and abject tensions. Studies in the afflicted wretchedness of humanity, her work is neither despondent nor obviously gory, but rather presents an aestheticized nightmare of sublime abhorrence; ambiguously gorgeous despite its agonizing discomfort.

With an obsessive attention to detail and figurative rendering, KIKYZ1313’s works are realistically executed and recall traditional techniques of late 19th-centurybook illustration and engraving. Her palettes are muted and tempered, understated with delicate washes of ink and watercolor, and her compositions are balanced and paced, posturing as romantic and idyllic scenes of placid children and animals. Seemingly innocent at first glance, the works gradually unfurl, revealing unexpected mutations, abject subversions, and a diseased world of horrors.

KIKYZ1313

Filled with children’s bodies in various states of decay, decomposition and malformation, her works challenge the viewers’ initial expectations of the imagery, while tapping into the basic human fear of the body’s disobedience – especially the dread of its dissolute boundaries. The children remain dreamily calm and picturesque despite their compromised states of disfigurement, trauma and accost. KIKYZ1313 intentionally creates these tensions, encouraging the viewer to approach the content critically and analytically, questioning the validity of their initial impressions. A sort of moral chaos presents itself, when faced with images of children in unexpected states of disturbance. Exquisite and repulsive, the conflict of viewing is inexpressibly complex.

KIKYZ1313 received a BFA from the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, and had her first solo exhibition at the Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro. She has completed an artist residency at the Nordic Watercolor Museum in Skärhamn, Sweden.

Join us on Saturday, April 2nd from 6 – 9pm for the opening reception of “Progeny of Chaos” showing new works by KIKYZ1313. The exhibition will be on view through April 23rd.