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VICTOR GASTELUM: SELECTED WORKS; SMART ART PRESS BOOKS AND MULTIPLES STORE; NEW MAIN SPACE ENVIRONMENT
Images | Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Laurie Steelink 310.264.4678
TRACK 16 PRESENTS: VICTOR GASTELUM: SELECTED WORKS; SMART ART PRESS BOOKS AND MULTIPLES STORE; NEW MAIN SPACE ENVIRONMENT
8 February 2010, Santa Monica—Track 16 Gallery will reopen it's doors to the public with three separate presentations: a solo exhibition of works by Victor Gastelum curated by Elizabeta Betinski, former director of OVERTONES gallery in Los Angeles.; the opening of it's Smart Art Press Books and Multiples store featuring a new mural by artist, Andrew Schoultz, contemporary art books, prints and editions from the 1960's to the present; and the official unveiling of the reconfigured Main Space, which includes a vintage Diner, the original Hollywood Brown Derby Neon sign, and the Vault Room. The store/gallery will open with a reception on Thursday, February 25 from 7-9 P.M. Regular store/gallery hours following the opening will be from Thursday through Saturday from noon to 6 P.M. The Gastelum exhibition will run through March 27, 2010.
Victor Gastelum is a native Southern Californian: growing up with Chicano roots in a culturally diverse community became a central issue in the choices Gastelum makes when creating his visual imagery. Gastelum's lowrider cars and Mexican wrestlers are among the images that have been born within the aesthetic traditions of Chicano visual history, but carry a very personal and unique mark of Gastelum's masterful command of the hybrid of spray pant and stencil cut from acetate film. His stencils are sprayed on aluminum, heavy drawing paper or heavy card stock holographic paper and due to the spray paint stencil technique no two prints are alike.
Gastelum began in the late 1980’s by drawing flyers for punk shows, designing album artwork for local bands, and soon after working as a designer for SST Records. At SST Gastelum met two artists who proved to be long-term influences in his life: the visual artist Raymond Pettibon, and musician Joey Burns, of the band Calexico. Gastelum’s relationship with Pettibon has lead to collaborative projects between the two artists, such as in the book of lithographs “Faster, Jim” published by Hamilton Press in Venice, California. The relationship with Joey Burns and the band Calexico resulted in Gastelum creating most of the band’s album covers, which have garnered new fans of his work worldwide.
This exhibition showcases the wide range of Gastelum’s visual influences as well as his exceptional skills in making art that leaves room for his audiences to imagine and create stories of their own.