Rituals, recipes and the inescapable fly
February 21 - March 21, 2009
The young Mexican‐born artist is pleased to present his first solo show in Montreal at Galerie Trois‐Points, starting February 21 until March 21.
Erik Jerezano, who now lives and works in Toronto, is a visceral mark‐maker engaged in a daily exploration of full‐scale myth‐building. His figurative‐based practice combines anthropomorphism, fable and the grotesque in ways that offer abstract encounters with what he refers to as the visceral‐intuitive.
This prolific artist has long been engaged in creating free‐floating compositions that accumulate and interact both visually and narratively. By combining paint, chinese ink, charcoal and pencil, Jerezano has developed a system of diverse marks and lines that allow him to intuitively explore an increasingly complex, character‐driven world. His sense of composition is often chaotic, exploiting a crude‐meets‐elegant approach that is used to great advantage over hundreds of drawings, investing them with a kind of lush, animal energy.
In each new image, Jerezano’s odd‐bodied figures continue to take centre stage. These murky limb‐benders attend to unknown tasks, phantasmorically dancing their way through open spaces with little indication of background. Manimal shapes toss about body parts, step on and though one another, shed their skins or sprout horns; they are busy living out their lives.
Despite the surreal undertones of much of the work, there is something oddly natural captured in the mood of each moment. Through these drawings, we as viewers are witness to a fully developed internal system motivated by behavior, instinct, and, most importantly, a human‐like sense of ritual.
— MARK LALIBERTE, January 2009