Park Place Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Jonathan Torres

No Lucky 7 2012 Mixed Media: encaustic, acrylic, lace and oil on canvas 58" x 54"

Park Place Gallery is pleased to present "Happy Sad", a solo exhibition by Jonathan Torres. Torres is a Puerto Rican artist from San Juan who now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. This body of paintings and drawings explores otherworldliness and his reality of living in the diaspora.

Torres states, “Many of my paintings depict distorted faces; the figures undergo or have completed metamorphosis – they are a recognizable character, yet transformed to a new persona. With this, I reflect on my own identity as a Puerto Rican and someone who left the island, but also on living in a rough city like New York. In both places, beauty and happiness exist, but the absurdity and the anxiety are present, both personally and politically. In my works I want the viewer to be absorbed into this world intertwining anxiety and beauty.”

Fucking the Paradise (detail) 2013 , Diptych mixed media 114" x 58"

Torres' depictions of bizarre paradises are created by emphasizing a materialistic ritual of paint and process. Even though depicting something recognizable, neo abstract expressionism allows for a physicality and catharsis through the process. Torres uses memories and trauma from personal experiences to comment on the collective chaotic socio-political environment.

Mother Appetite II, 2019, Mixed media 26 x 32 inches

Torres was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1983, received his BFA in 2009 from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas, San Juan, and his MFA from Brooklyn College in 2012 under the mentorship of Vito Acconci. Currently Torres is a resident at Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program (NY, 2022 -23). Nominee of the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, Torres was selected for the Biennale Mercosul (Brazil 2016), won the Charles G. Shaw Award (NY, 2012) and the Arcos Dorados Award (Argentina, 2011). Torres has been exhibiting in solo and group shows between New York and Puerto Rico for over ten years. His work has been featured in Flash Art, Beautiful/Decay, and Art Observed, among other publications. His work belongs to important collections such as the Museum of Fine Art, Boston and Museo Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico.

The exhibition will be until February 28, 2023. Information: https://parkplace.gallery/