Luise Ross Gallery Hosts Jose Rivera Exhibit

Luise Ross Gallery will present the work of self-taught artist, Jose Rivera, in his first solo exhibition which includes sculpture, mixed media collages and works on paper.

Constructed with materials Rivera has on hand, such as the innards of a discarded TV, postal envelopes, playing cards, or domino pieces, the detritus of our homes find new life and new meaning in his obsessive and labyrinthine creations. An acoustic guitar completely covered in broken pieces of crayon is transformed into a colorful, and lyrical three dimensional mosaic. Within his collages, visual poetry is created using words cut out of advertisements, scratch-off lottery tickets, subway maps, and candy bar wrappers.

Jose Rivera’s fluid, yet intricate and intuitively composed work is permeated with a sense of horror vacui. Within his extensive body of works on paper, figures, architectural elements, and unfathomable machinery, emerge slowly from seemingly abstract compositions. Consciously or not, Rivera inserts himself into his drawings, creating self-portraits within these obsessive constructions of his mind. Despite the presence of recognizable forms that can be glimpsed, the work defies categorization and ultimately, like a Rorschach test, is open to a variety of interpretations.

Title: Jose Rivera

Dates: 5 January – 4 February 2012

Reception: Thursday 5 January 5 – 7 PM

http://www.luiserossgallery.com/