The Milestone
A solo exhibition journey part 1
Assuming facts along with academic ignorance can be very costly, I personally have lost many years due to this two reasons. I hardly finished high school, (called Bachillerato in Mexico) and never got into higher education. Ever since, I always assumed that only people with degree were able to make it into art exhibitions, and for whatever reason I myself don’t even know, I never bother to really research the matter. I always wanted to do art, Illustration actually, but I didn’t even know a few years back what was Illustration or Graphic Design, nor that making art for exhibitions is more of networking than credentials.
In 2016 I got to see an art exhibition at the Japanese Museum in Los Angeles (JANM), by pure chance actually, as I was visiting Little Tokyo with my wife and kids. There I saw something that changed the course of my mind. A notebook by the curators of the exhibition where people was invited to draw something and have the chance to be taken into account for their gallery shows. Of course I draw something, and of course I didn’t got invited. But it taught me that there could be a possibility somewhere out there.
Wasn’t until 2019 that with an open call I got invited for the first time to a group exhibition, and ever since, I’ve been trying to find more opportunities with open calls, with the hope that one day I get them offered instead of me seeking for them. One place that has opened the doors to me is Stranger Factory gallery, and from all the places I participated in the USA, this is the one where my artwork has found the most audience. Thus when I was offered the opportunity to have a solo exhibition this year, I finally felt like reaching my first milestone.
I’ve been “dreaming” about a solo exhibition since my first participation on a group show five years ago! I’ve been planing it in my head, the name, the theme, the renderings, by the time I got the offer I had everything set in my mind. Is not a huge amount of artwork nor a big (in size) exhibition by any means, is a rather small and humbled one, but very meaningful, it contains a year of my thoughts, my skills, my improvements.
It has been a very difficult year actually, artwork sales have decline substantially, which has also happened to many fellow artist. But regardless I kept my head motivated and I keep thinking in all the people who has helped me get here, from family, artist, galleries, mentors, collectors and artwork fans, thinking in their support allows me to keep inspired in doing my best with my pens and brushes.
I’m super grateful to Stranger Factory for the opportunity, for putting their trust in my artwork which is a huge deal, this is a real business after all, time and work has been expended in order to make this exhibitions possible, thus I can’t express enough how much this means to me.
A big thank you to Kathie Olivas (aka Circus Posterus) and Brandt Peters for having me at the gallery and to Emily Martin for all the support.
More on my exhibition on the next part of the post.
Thank you for reading!